My usual response:
Stopping piracy is important IF the proper due process of law is followed. SOPA/PIPA bypass due process of law and give power to government bureaucrats to shutdown websites and seize domains without due process of law. We can see from copyright trolls like Righthaven (Google it) that just clicking a share button on an article or a YouTube video can get one in trouble these days. SOPA/PIPA could make criminals out of everyone on the internet and gives far to much extra-judicial power to government bureaucrats.
Could be vested interest. They may be budding film producers or musicians.
Unfortunately, many people see government as a good thing and if a government says it’s a good action, then it is.
You should be in trouble... you are stealing someone else’s work without compensation. Not that SOPA is 100% correct, but the idea that you can use another person’s copyrighted creation for free is ridiculous.
In the end, no theft will be stopped, just a change in how the internet functions with maybe 1/3 being unavailable to non techhies. With in 2 days of a sopa implementation software allowing access to the cut off parts will be available. Its just a dance of the dunces. Just like china thinking they could block connections, they did for the obedient, do you think we’ll be obedient?
IIRC, Reid said he would not let the bill come up for a vote.
http://projects.propublica.org/sopa/R000146
http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com/tag/sopa/
And then vested interests with folding money wanted guns and guys that kick down doors involved.
Pretty simple.
Now, it's a federal criminal matter.
/johnny
They want you to buy movies and music...not receive it as a gift from someone else. It even goes as far as preventing you from selling old movies and music at garage sales. I’m serious.
Don’t listen to the BS about you “stealing” music and movies. The supporters of this crackdown cite the number of $500 million a year, as if everyone who downloads a song would have shelled out $16.98 for the CD on which it appears. Many artists now give away sample tracks whether via MySpace or their own sites, and sell others on iTunes and Amazon, entirely bypassing the Big 4 multinational record companies. I have downloaded or captured a number of tracks in the past year, sent some of them to friends, AND purchased the albums of those musicians, which to my surprise have no identifications of any record companies - produced entirely by the musicians themselves. When I capture tracks from, say, musicfog.com, am I stealing? The fanatics will say yes, and report me to the FBI, but the paradigm is changing, and the big record companies are on the outs. As for the movie industry, if they produced films for adults, like say The Artist, instead of mountains of juvenile trash, nobody would be “stealing” their products.
Congress left to its own devices combined with constitutionally illiterate voters lead to more laws ... Just so they look like they are doing something. There are already laws on the books to protect IP. They just are not being enforced. SOPA however takes it to the next level. The next level always leads to the loss of individual rights. Most Americans do not have a fundamental understanding of the importance of property and the role it plays in capitalism ... In fact many think pure capitalism is bad.
Taking another’s property is stealing. Taking IP is stealing. The role of the federal government is limited to saying what IP is who's property. After that is established, stealing is stealing. There are already laws on the book to deal with stealing. I believe that has been the case since the time of Moses coming off the mount with two tablets, and I'm not talking about iPads.
Our country needs ZERO new laws. It needs fewer and only those that can be enforced.
Sofa/Pipa have nothing to do with policing copyrights, etc. as there are existing laws to do it. What Sofa/Pipa do is give the government unlimited, undefined and unchecked control over the internet. Let’s say that Eric the Bigot gets the word from the Food Stamp President makes the accusation that he thinks that there might possibly be a copyright violation on FreeRepublic so within hours FreeRepublic is shut down by Eric the Bigot. No warrants, no judges involved, no evidence required, no bother, etc. The current laws are adequate but require evidence, warrants, judges, etc. which is seen as a bother to these people. Under Sofa/Pipa, the Progressives could effectively shut down all opposition within hours.