Thoughts on SOPA, PIPA and the Megaupload takedown

[franzeska]

Jan 21, 2012 11:18:44 GMT -5 barkley said:

And then one day I found some vids (I believe they were set to Sarah MacLachlan)

Dying. Dying.

Yes, I am sure that they were. ;D

[rokikurama]

I found another interesting article on the Megaupload/SOPA/PIPA thing here:
www.salon.com/2012/01/21/two_lessons_from_the_megaupload_seizure/?source=newsletter

It's basically US-centric and rather leftish, but the writer makes a lot of good points about current law enforcement climates and how that relates to what happens practically, regardless of the laws on the books. Rather depressing.

[FitzPro]

I know I'm completely jumping in here totally late and after the discussion has died, but I just wanted to add my two cents. Personally, I don't feel more vulnerable. Large companies push on sites like youtube and vimeo to take down copyrighted material because the sites are massive, millions of people upload daily, and their "infringements" number the millions as well. Lawsuits would be time consuming, poor p.r., and expensive. Personally, I've made 100 videos. Not even worth a company's time. Also, I'm not a lawyer, but my assumption is that it's much easier to pressure large companies into submitting like WMG did with youtube, than it would actually be for them to win a copyright infringement case in court. That clauses even state that they lean on the side of "fair use". In my opinion these companies are all bark and no bite.

Plus, when the music industry decided to start suing their customer base in the early 'OO's over Napster, they saw a marked drop in sales.