The Truth Behind SOPA

 Over the last few weeks it’s been difficult to ignore new, controversial copyright-protection legislation being discussed both in Europe (ACTA) and in the US (SOPA). Today we’re looking at SOPA – the Stop Online Piracy Act which has seen dramatic protests from websites including Wikipedia, Google and Reddit and is currently ‘on ice’ in the political process with some even expecting it to be completely shelved. What’s become very clear is that everyone has an opinion, but it’s not always easy to distinguish between reported fact and hype and it seems nigh on impossible to have a proper debate over an issue where opinions are steadfast on one side or the other*.

So let’s try to change that. The object of The MIX is to inspire debate on industry topics and to do that we’ve approached two of the US music industry’s top thinkers and commentators who have been kind enough to let us share their views here – so read what they have to say and discuss your thoughts with our other readers in the topic at the end of the article – who knows, it might just change your mind!

*If you’re not yet clued up on SOPA and would like a bit of background before diving in we recommend these articles on CNET, The Pop Cop, Forbes, The Register and these articles by Chris Castle as a reasonably rounded selection of arguments from either side.

So in we go: first up is music producer, author of industry books such as Confessions of A Music Producer and Million Dollar Mistakes and respected industry consultant Moses Avalon – telling us why SOPA isn’t to be feared.

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I sat next to a 20-something, “SOPA is evil,” tech-employed hipster the other night at a poker table. He thought information should be free.

He was repeating the standard propaganda you read in all tech-rags, how SOPA is censorship and will destroy the internet. I managed not to puke on him but did politely ask, “Help me understand your view point, cause I don’t know much about this stuff; if information should be free, then why should I be paying ISPs for data charges?” He stumbled, “That’s different,” he said, “You’re dealing with lots of technology and infrastructure.”

Yep, that’s different, I guess, than spending hundreds of hours getting a song just right.

Anyone who thinks that SOPA, which simply gives content providers a slightly bigger stick when seeking court injunctions to defend their property, will destroy the internet, well… I think we can guess what that person is using the internet for. I’ve questioned many a person-on-the-street about SOPA. Without exception, all who oppose it have not read the Bill itself. (You can read it here.)

If they did, they would see the Bill clearly states that blocking counterfeit sites is only something a ISP is required to do if it’s “technically feasible” and reasonable. (Bottom of page 19 of the Bill.) This still leaves ISPs with an enormous amount of wriggle room.

SOPA does have its problems. Most of which will ironed out in the next draft. But when it passes (and it’s a safe bet that it will) it will not destroy the internet or free speech any more or less than FCC regulation has “destroyed” cable TV or radio. History has proven that a little bit of regulation changes very little. Humans find a way to say what they want.

What SOPA will do is cost ISPs a lot of cash to be compliant. Which means this is not a philosophical argument, but a financial one.

The rest of the “censorship” claims are window-dressing. What the tech-biased, music-biz hating media, pandering to their advertising clients don’t want you to know, is that most people do not use the internet to find/steal/share entertainment content illegally or legally. According to studies, most people use the net mostly for:

1) Shopping.
2) Finding restaurants.
3) Finding dates, their friends, and finally…
4) Cloud storage.

THE BORING TRUTH

And that is what the ISPs are really, secretly afraid of and why they are fighting SOPA, ACTA, et al with threats, boycotts and thuggery instead of logical arguments.

It’s not because the internet will end if they have to take a little bit of responsibility re: piracy. It’s because if laws make ISPs liable for piracy, and they are forced to filter many P2P sites and forgo profits from advertizing such sites, then it will reveal to the public what the internet really is to MOST of us: a communication service. A simple, electronic, hi-tech yellow pages and Post Office replacement. Not the sexy entertainment hub and you-can-get-anything-your-heart-desires dream-box the Valley Lords wish it to be.

And if that happens then the Tech Gods will have to come to grips with the fact that they are not the new Les Paul. They are just the new Thomas Edison.

Why they are not happy with that probably goes back to a junior high-school trauma about losing a chick to a jock or a musician.

Sorry Valley Lords, I know you want to be cool like us. But you are not. You’re cool in your own way and this year Congress will prove it to you.

See you in court.

Mo Out

You can read Moses’ full article on SOPA “SOPA Opera and the Anti-Music Media Bias” on his blog Moses Supposes.

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Giving us an insight into the largely reported anti-SOPA feeling is former entertainment business attorney, outspoken industry consultant and author of the long running Lefsetz Letter, Bob Lefsetz.

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The content industries don’t want a distinction between what’s legal and illegal, that bit them in the ass already, with the Home Recording Act of 1992, wherein it was declared legal to make your own mixtapes, even share them. That horrified them. So they changed their game, they decided to go after the sharing itself.

That’s what SOPA and PIPA are all about.

And the way they’re going to achieve their goal is to put the burden of policing upon Google and Yahoo and the other portals/search engines that provide links. If the cost of policing is high enough, they’ll just outlaw the practice. Entirely.

There’s a great analogy at the beginning of this clip. A story about a bakery in Brooklyn that allowed customers to bring in their kids’ drawings so they could be imprinted upon cakes. Only one problem, kids like to draw cartoon characters, the ones they see in movies and on television. And this is copyright infringement. So what did the bakery do? Instead of having someone make a judgment as to the legality of each drawing, they outlawed the practice entirely. Now you can still get an image on your cake, but it has to be one of the authorized ones the bakery provides.

But maybe your kid drew a fish because he likes fish and he’s never even seen “Finding Nemo”. He can’t get his fish on a cake because the bakery is afraid of infringement, they’re not even gonna make that judgment. Google is gonna outlaw links to all sharing because it’s just too damn expensive to figure out what’s legal and what’s illegal. So you’ll just consume pre-approved content, manufactured by the usual suspect music and movie companies. You can’t create your own because it might infringe and Google doesn’t want to make the wrong decision and it takes too much money to make a decision, so you can create your music, but it won’t be findable, the search engine can’t take that risk.

And if you think the above is blown out of proportion, you don’t understand how the content companies think.

They want control. The Internet is their worst nightmare. It allows anybody to create. And under the rubric of preventing you from mixing up your content with theirs, they want to outlaw sharing completely, they don’t want you making music and movies, they just want you to buy theirs. This is the concept of scarcity that made them so much dough, this is the past they’re trying to jet us all back into by crippling the Internet. As Clay Shirky says in this video, they want to “raise the cost of copyright compliance to the point where people simply get out of the business of offering it as a capability to amateurs.”

They think we’re dumb. They’ve got no idea the Internet is all about smart. They want us to believe in the nincompoops on “The Jersey Shore”, not some egghead with degrees who’s actually thought about all this and isn’t in it for the short term money and fame.

TED talks are a burgeoning resource. The brand stands for intelligent insight. Take the time out to watch this presentation, you’ll get it, you’ll be horrified, you’ll send it to all your friends.

P.S. You might be unable to do this under SOPA. For fear that you might be sharing copyrighted material, your ability to share at all could be crippled, because it would cost too much for the linking service to determine whether it’s legal to share the content or not.

You can read Bobs views in full on The Lefsetz Letter article “Phenomenal Explanation of SOPA“.

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There you have it folks – the two arguments on one rather hearty plate – breathe out and take a moment to recover. A big thank you to Moses Avalon and Bob Lefsetz for allowing us to use their work in this pilot MIX article (check them both out if you don’t follow them already – they’re well worth the read!)

So, now it’s up to you. We run the poll mostly for our own amusement, but let us know how you now feel about SOPA with a click and then, should the mood take you, tell us by getting involved in the forum discussion!