Remember this date very
well. Really, know this date well! Feb. 13, 2011, one day before
Valentine's Day. Seriously, remember Feb. 13, 2011. Now, onto the
program.
To this day, Lamar Smith
has been an Internet Troll Target for introducing Stop Online Piracy
Act, commonly known as SOPA. Basically, it was an act to have the
government intervene the website whether that particular individual
was violating copyright. Unfortunately, it would also mean to police
the internet similiar to something called the internet blackout where
anybody can abuse the law and have the government to shut them down,
despite not violating any copyright laws.
Hearing about how everybody
was freaking out that the government are going to intervene with
their bootlegged porn collection, I have to smirk. (Mind you, it
wasn't about the porn!)
Another worthnoting fact
that while congress was getting involved, so are the major Hollywood
players, mainly the RIAA, News Corp., Go Daddy (bailed out due to the
Danica Patrick backlash), EA Games, and so on.
Of course, I was irritated
about SOPA but not the reason what everything thought which was
internet censorship. Yes, their points are valid that the internet
should have free speech and stuff, but that wasn't the real reason
why they tried to push SOPA.
And no, it wasn't about
piracy, at all. Yes, many people are guilty of piracy and we should
focus on buying legitimate goods (without any stupid trailers,
copyright warnings, import limitations, or DLC mind you)!
So, what was the reason
behing SOPA? Whenever somebody introduce the bill to congress, just
remember this:
If someone or something is
attempting to get influence from Washington, it probably means their
current obsolete business is at stake!
That's right, the whole
ordeal behind SOPA was an attempted bailout from the old Hollywood
industry because they are having a hard time competing with new media
(internet specifically) and they are cowarding to congress to protect
their old business model. Don't believe me? Take a look at some of
these cases:
Marijuana Act: Lobbied by
William Randolph Hurst, The oil companies, Dupont, and the logging
industry, this law was pass to prevent hemp as a commercial crop
(clear violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act). To this day,
industrial hemp has yet to commercialize despite clear contrast with
marijuana.
Commercial Airline Bill:
Lobbied by Juan Trippe of Pam Am, sponsored by Owen Wilson. It was
supposed to grant a governmental monopoly to Pan Am regarding
international flights due to the ongoing competition with Howard
Hughes and TWA. After Hughes exposed the Pan Am / Owen Wilson
conspiracy, that plan fell apart.
There are many more cases
including the Betamax Case, MGM v. Grokster, Itunes, Microsoft,
California Emission Mandate, among others, but it comes to no
surprise they use congress to keep innovation from taking over their
old business models.
Now remember I told you
about Feb. 13, 2011? What to know what was that about? Well, it was
the date when Arcade Fire got Album of the year at the Grammys. It
wasn't Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Eminem, or Lady Antebellum. It was an
independent rock group that took home the grand prize. To celebrate
their unexpected win, they performed at their face 'Ready to Start'!
(I love ironies.)
Little Monsters were
outraged and so were the mass audience who created a trend called
'Who's Arcade Fire?' But the real people who were outraged, even to
the point of destruction, were the record producers. A Grammy win
from an independent record label shows that you don't need those
overpaid agents, the RIAA, or even a big label to get the awards.
Though they got their big hit in their hands with Adele in 2012, the
damage was already been done.
This had shown that you
don't need the middlemen anymore to get your big break. Thus, if
this trend continues to the Oscars, the Emmys, the Razzies (it
happens), or any other award shows, along with the advertisers taking
their money elsewhere, it would come to the point that Bill O'reilly
would start crying to the set that his show was taken away from a
non-bias Internet newsstation that advertises Chuck Norris Karate
Kommandos reruns.
(Interesting enough, when
Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. Saw Google TV at CES, you can see his
anger and tears raging inside his head!)
It came to no surprise that
Hollywood tried to use congress to keep their businesses from going
under. Thus, Lamar Smith sponsored SOPA. Unfortunately, nobody
expected the amount of backlash in comparison with Occupy Wall
Street. In response to this whole ordeal, Google, Facebook, and
Wikipedia, started to blackout content in order to show the effects
on SOPA. (It also didn't help Lamar Smith that he was caught
red-handed using unauthorized copyrighted work on his congressional
webpage.)
Because of the overwhelming
awareness on SOPA, the bill was folded and Hollywood is already
banging their heads to the wall.
So remember kids, whenever
a bill's introduce, don't forget that someone's business is at stake!
