Tag: Protests against SOPA and PIPA

Or to use their term 'misinformation'. Really the RIAA and MPAA don't seem to know when to lick their wounds and give it a rest, judging by their petty and frankly wrong response to the successful Internet Blackout and actions by Wikipedia and Google - so it's nice to see Techdirt calling them out line by line, internet forum style, and rather than coming over all green ink it's great to see such stupidity pwned so intelligently and with knowledge. Something the RIAA and MPAA seem to lack, with the cases as mentioned where blogs have been taken down for sharing music with permission from their very own members - or from non-members thus they have no jurisidiction over. No, it's sad to see such protectionism at work with the corporates, trying to save an industry which, to quote Jello Biafra 'put out too many lousy records' - whereas Spotify, Bandcamp and a lot of independents seem to be in rather rude health at the moment providing good music to people who want to buy it, not at the rare £15 a pop for an album but many multiples of pennies per track...or special formats like vinyl which the big boys were so quick to drop. Also strange that RIAA, BPI et al are first to trumpet the rude health and worldwide success of the likes of Adele - on the indy label XL no less - but then go and claim the industry is then ailing under piracy. Which is it? It can't be both... Especially offensive and intentionally misleading (and an outright lie, in my case anyway - aren't generalisations a bitch, RIAA?) is this part: but how many knew what they were supporting or opposing? Would they have cast their clicks if they knew they were supporting foreign criminals selling counterfeit pharmaceuticals to Americans? Was it SOPA they were opposed to, or censorship? Ahh the old 'piracy supports terrorism' unfounded propaganda trick! If those 'foreign criminals' are selling patent-free AIDS drugs to keep people alive in sub-saharan Africa and Asia, then yes, I'm quite happy for them to break the law. Ditto those resisting Monsanto's efforts to screw the developing world over GMO crops. But that's actually not what this was about, and the language is intentionally inflammatory and misleading - that to oppose SOPA or PIPA is to be one with criminals and counterfeiters and yes, probably terrorists. I remember this particular strategy being used directly after 9/11 and had to point out there were many 'ways' (as John now says 'Yes there are alternatives') not just the black and white that was presented as the currentfait accompli. And also look where that thinking took us all... It's not about allowing counterfeit goods - there are already many laws to deal with those, especially in the drug sector. What was the worrying thing was possible uses for censorship and a corporate crackdown on patents over drugs where generic versions now flourish under a concerted action to not allow the pharma giants to squeeze poor countries more into debt, or play god with people's lives over patent rights. And censoring sites that would enable such access, or take away financial accesss such as Paypal to those who were organising around these - people like Sherman would say 'oh of course that isn't in the bill' - but laws like this are so broad and open then of course it could have a freezing effect. Laws are always misused, and those drafting them must counter for that, unfortunately when faced by nosy government and corporates they will be misused to protect those interests. But to tell me I was supporting 'criminals' by my SOPA Blackout, well Mr Sherman you can fuck right off. Especially when later suggesting by classic veiled association that I and others might have been 'hacking' sites for Anonymous too. By and large the protest was lawful, and can't say I was critical of Anonymous's actions (maybe their techniques with that DDOS Spanish link director that was floating around Twitter - that was silly & dangerous) - well I call that a dirty trick and misinformation too because like most people I wasn't involved. Basically RIAA and MPAA had to back off by forces of many good and vocal people rising up and expressing how unhappy they were with such legislation that wasn't transparent and most definitely not consulted widely or considered enough. That's democracy, and if you don't like it Mr Sherman, you know where to go.

Tag: Protests against SOPA and PIPA

Calling out RIAA and MPAA lies over SOPA & PIPA

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