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>>> STOP SOPA <<<

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Hypebot has chosen not to join the sites going black today to fight SOPA. But do not mistake this as support of the bill. SOPA must be stopped or it will cripple innovation and destroy the core of what makes the internet the most important invention since the printing press. Email your members of congress today and share your opposition to SOPA via Twitter by taking this simple action.

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18 Comments

  1. “it will cripple innovation and destroy the core of what makes the internet the most important invention since the printing press”
    The funny thing is, nobody can back up statements like the one above with language from the current version of the bill.
    It’s too late now, as SOPA as a brand is DOA. However this industry should have strongly supported a pro-copyright message that advocated fixing SOPA instead of killing it.
    The tech industry knows how to play the game. The music industry played it like amateur hour. We should have pushed a pro-copyright message until we got some compromise from the tech industry.

  2. We need to push for educating people on why they shouldn’t steal music, movies… etc. Its ridiculous that it has gone this far.

  3. Bruce, do you believe that someone who links to an infringer is an infringer? Or that I am responsible for the content every comment on the site?
    On the effort to kill the bill, Congress failed in its responsibility to come to all the industry – not just the likes of the RIAA and MPAA prior to drafting the legislation. It is imperative to send them that strong message.

  4. There’s a ton of misinformation out there about SOPA.
    I believe this is the current version of the bill – http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3261:
    Please show me the text (without taking anything out of context – not that you would, but I believe you would have to account for all the cascading clauses within the bill) that will obligate you to be responsible for someone (in a comment for example) linking to an infringer from this site.
    As I have said here and repeatedly on Twitter. This industry should have come out swinging with a strong pro-copyright message/strategy as an alternative to STOP.

  5. The problem is not what the bill says specifically, It is that the government uses anything to get involved on a larger scale, just like the TSA. At first they say it is for protection, etc. etc. etc. Is my viewpoint is paranoid? Give me a single example of the Fed’s stepping in to ANY industry and making things better, or profitable, or even sustainable?

  6. Let’s not pretend Google, Youtube etc. care about censorship, and the rights of the individual. They make money off of pirated content. They are capitalists in the truest sense of the word, as bad as Wall Street, as clever as Romney. Characterizing this as a “censorship” bill in the press and reframing the story away from copyright piracy was genius. Drawing parallels to Chinese censorship, while pushing the hyperbole and playing on the fears of Citizen Joe demonstrates the tremendous PR and Lobbying power of the tech giants. There is no self-regulation in this industry and very little has been done to address the issue constructively with content creators. I’ll tell you what, start your own record label and publishing company, spend decades building that company, invest millions of dollars in creating music in a cooperative partnership with artists, then watch it disintegrate because of unfettered piracy – then tell me you don’t support SOPA. I have observed sites such as Hypebot, Huffington Post, Nextmedia, etc. have done very little to present the viewpoint of the lawmakers and content providers behind this bill.

  7. You are right, Bruce.
    SOPA needs to pass in some form.
    The biggest problem is takedowns. It’s impossible for an artist to constantly send hundreds of them out everyday.

  8. I still don’t understand how would SOPA would work in a technical sense. Would there be a system that filters every upload/download?

  9. The internet is controlled at the IP level. As of right now the IP level allows everything other than a handful of sites that the gov’t has already pulled down (the us gov’t currently has the authority to pull down any US owned websites) such as child pornography sites and copyright infringing sites (google for a list of sites).
    If you block something at the IP level, no one will get access to it within the IPs jurisdiction.

  10. If only the content industry could black out its content for a day, show the world what a world would look like without new music, movies, photos, etc.

  11. So why are people worried about free speech? If you are not infringing on copyrights then what’s there to be worried about? If anything, I’m playing the devil’s advocate, trying to understand.

  12. Bruce W sounds right and reasonable. The fear-mongering underlying SOPA opposition should’ve been a bit tip-off, but most people seemed to swallow it hook line and sinker. Maurice is spot on too: it was brilliant of the anti-SOPA crowd to reposition this as being about censorship rather than piracy. What boggles my mind is how the anti-SOPA crowd seems so much to believe that they are on the side of The Little Guy. They are merely on the side of Google, which, last time I checked, is a large and powerful corporation. To me, Google seems to be playing the part of the aliens in “To Serve Mankind” (Twilight Zone reference; look it up, tomorrow). My advice is to stay off the spaceship.

  13. As Bruce W asserts, the opposition to SOPA cannot support their position by pointing to actual language in the bill. It’s all hysteria (mixed with a little paranoia about the gov’t).
    To the degree that the content industries played this poorly, keep in mind that those who led the opposition to SOPA are pitching the easier case. “Leave my Internet alone” is short, simple and aligns with how most people feel when they’re enjoying surfing from site to site.
    Unfortunately, the creators’ position that we NEED some meaningful help would best be articulated by those we really care about: the artists. And if you’ve seen what happens to any artist who speaks up against piracy I’m sure you understand why nearly zero artists are interested in doing so.

  14. exactly, there really is no issue there but major tech companies which profit off of illegal content (directly, indirectly) made the issue about free speech because they know how to activate their basis. This bill has nothing to do with speech. this bill isn’t even about US owned websites.
    It’s all silly but its jumped the shark, SOPA is taboo and will never pass as a result.

  15. On “drawing parallels to Chinese censorship” and saying that it’s the opposition to SOPA/PIPA making this comparison:
    Quote from Chris Dodd, MPAA: “When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn’t do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites.”
    I don’t have time to dig for more, but there have been lots of quotes FROM THE CONTENT INDUSTRY speaking approvingly of Chinese Internet controls.

  16. Last time I look most of the supporters of SOPA are the same MultiNational Corporation that have been halliburtonizing the entertainment biz via off shoring profits, and paying almost no taxes in the US. So why not get our congress and justice department and legal system to help them finnish off what’s left of US MADE MUSIC.

  17. I’m appalled that Bruce / Hypebot, who created a successful agency supporting artists would take a negative position on the very bill that is designed to protect those artists. Its obviously that Bruce has no clue what its like watching royalties evaporate because everyone is stealing your music. Why would you support Pirate Bay which profits from ripping off artists, which in turn only hurt those who work with and for those artists (i.e. YOU)?

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