I know there have been plenty of diaries about the SOPA/PROTECT IP act, but I just found out that my opponent in the Democratic primary is a co-sponsor, so I feel the need to comment.
This bill is the poster child for terrible ideas. Under this act, sites like Google, YouTube, and Twitter could all be shut down by the Department of Justice for linking to infringing content. It also allows DOJ to block any foreign websites it deems as committed to infringement, as well as forcing ISPs to shut down state side websites. It's too broad, it's draconian, and it would destroy the internet as we know it today.
In my view, we want more freedom, not less. The internet is valuable because of how free it is. We've already seen that begin to erode through the abuse of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and this bill is an order of magnitude worse. Instead of stopping piracy, this bill will create enormous burdens for companies and create ridiculous penalties for individuals who may or may not even be purposefully infringing.
This bill is the fever dream of movie studios, record labels, TV companies, and any one else whose formerly reliable gravy train is coming to a halt. These companies, instead of adapting to advances in technology and access, desperately cling to the old ways of doing business. They're horrified at the fact that an artist doesn't need a label for people to hear their music, film makers can put their films up on YouTube and Vimeo, that people can watch TV shows without a cable box. The middle men are starting to realize that progress is about to leave them out in the cold.
Part of what makes this bill so bad is that it isn't even your run of the mill corporatism. In that case, the taxpayers may be on the hook for a subsidy, or a bailout, or the industry might be getting some really cherry tax cuts or loosening of regulations. In this case, the U.S. Government is actively enabling the entertainment industry to harass ISPs, internet technology companies, and private individuals over any perceived infringement, and using the Department of Justice to do it. Your tax dollars would be paying for DOJ to block websites and force YouTube to do such an absurd amount of content monitoring as to make it impossible to run the website.
My primary opponent, Ben Ray Lujan, is a co-sponsor of this bill. This is a big deal to me, I've been online since I was ten years old. I've watched the internet develop into this amazing infrastructure for the free exchange of ideas, communication, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit. You can say good bye to all of that if this bloated whales carcass of a bill gets signed into law.
Piracy has existed in one form or another for as long as we've been writing things down. You're not going to stop it by being overbearing and threatening people. What these companies need to do is look at what Apple, Steam, and Kindle have been doing. Instead of trying to crack down, make it easier for people to use the technology available to get their copyrighted material legally. If people like what you're selling they'll be willing to pay for it, but you have to make it easy for them.
I'm an artist myself. I have a bachelors degree in Illustration, so I think I can offer some perspective on this. The argument a lot of these industries use to lobby Congress and the general public is that if you download a song, you're taking food out of that artist's mouth, or if you're downloading a movie, the film crew is going to go hungry. This is of course a complete fabrication. The overwhelming majority of recording artists see a very small percentage of album sales. They make almost all of their money touring, with merchandise being the most profitable venture for them.
This is, in my view, because record labels are a dinosaur of a bygone era. We've reached a point now where you don't need labels to get your music out to people. You can self publish through a website and instead of getting maybe less than a dollar an album, you keep all of it. There aren't any Greedheads digging into the money made off of your creative venture. Artists can now connect directly with their audience, and have a variety of means to make money from their work.
This is true for almost all creative industries now. As a freelance illustrator, the old wisdom was you physically shlep around your portfolio around to different Art Directors, and if you got lucky and scraped by enough you could get an agent to do it for you. Many of the most successful artists still use artist reps, but for the most part if you've got a strong web presence and some business savvy you can be just as successful on your own. There are even services now where you can pay a nominal fee and have access to the contact info of practically any Art Director in any field you can think of.
The world is changing, and if there is anything established, monied interests hate is change. They're making bank with the old ways, and they will do everything they can to keep it that way. In their mind, if it means suing 12 year olds for infringement, so be it. Copyright laws exist for a reason, you don't want someone lifting your work whole cloth and claiming it as their own, but there is a point where this stuff just becomes completely unreasonable. We've long ago crossed that line.
I don't know why Ben Ray Lujan co-sponsors this bill. I called his office, but the person who answered wasn't sure either. I'll update if they get back to me. Maybe he doesn't appreciate the full implications of it. What I do know is he's wrong, and is this bill wrong. It's horrible policy and the only people who would possibly benefit are the ones trying to stop change from happening in the first place. We need to embrace the future, not fear it.
Update: Open Congress has a list of all the co-sponsors
http://www.opencongress.org/...
If you want to specifically contact Rep. Lujan and let him know to stop supporting it, you can call his Washington office by phone at (202) 225-6190 or email at https://forms.house.gov/lujan/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm
Sean Closson
The Candidate Different
Democrat for U.S. Congress NM-03.
http://www.closson2012.com