Recently Google, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia and many other websites, especially including WordPress have been trying to fight a new law the U.S. government is trying to pass: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). Has it been difficult to search? Many of them have censored out everything to protest against this law. I know on this website alone, all “Freshly Pressed” articles have been censored out.What do I think of this? As a blogger, what do you expect?
Well, for one thing I do see why the law was released. First off, because we’ve (as in all of us; the people) been illegally downloading movies and music, we’ve been taking from the mouths of celebrities (the famous people) who work hard to produce music and movies for us and thus expect to make a profit. We haven’t been supporting them.
Of course, not to be mean, but what is the music industry anyway? How does that contribute to our society? When the music industry started to truly kick off as an actual business around circa 1904, you think those singers made any money? No. They were broke as smoke. And before then, people only sang in church or when with family or just to perform. And in some streets, they were considered beggars and sinners. Why was this so? Because the music industry serves no greater human purpose but to entertain us. Can we not entertain ourselves? Entertainment is an extra medium, that yes we need to an extent, but something that we can do ourselves. It’s the same with the movie industry. It’s not like a doctor who saves lives, or a teacher who shapes our nation, and yet those people don’t make nearly the money entertainers do. To add, the celebrities aren’t even making the quality materials that are WORTHY of buying. For instance, the music industry for the past couple of years have been totally drowned in “auto-tunes” which alters the pitch of the voice, thus the quality of the voice is gone. Just about anyone can be a singer with auto-tunes. SO why buy something like that? If you want people to buy your stuff, make stuff that’s worth buying. But see, the way things are now, when people make quality stuff they charge a price out of this water because no one wants to do hard work without a price. Again, we can make our own music, we’re just paying them to do so because they offered. We can make our own videos with the right equipment, we just choose not to. We would rather watch other people. But it isn’t a necessity.
All that being said, the music industry was bound to go downhill when some new technology was introduced. Thanks to the internet, one person who has the money to buy something, can post it up and share it. It’s a bit like carpooling; everyone rides in one car to save on gas. Music and movies took the hit to this “carpooling”. There has been a decline in sales for many artists, aside from concert revenue, which also has been declining a bit due to the fact we can watch it on youtube.
Now, I understand that this law protects online intelligence. I can see that when I decide to draw a great picture, and post it on DeviantArt, I will get the credit. At the same time, to me when you share things online, you’re asking for people to “steal” it, because you have given them permission to “share” it. What does share mean? Share-the full or proper portion or part allotted or belonging to or contributed or owed by an individual or group. So when you “share” things on the internet, you have said that the group owns it, therefore you have already given up your rights of ownership. If you don’t want that, DON’T POST IT ONLINE! It’s simple. Don’t obstruct others’ rights to maneuver on the web, and cause further harm to businesses.
The main thing is the damage is done. When internet was released, there were no stipulations. Now, it’s a multimillion dollar industry. And what do people go on the internet for? 1) To talk to friends on social networking sites 2)To listen to their favorite music and/or download 3)To watch movies and/or download 4)To research the latest in bad news, or to do any research. With the piracy act, I can see the music and movie sites going downhill. No website wants to risk being sued or losing millions of people who are very guilty of piracy. Social Networking sites would have to be responsible for every single individual that posts up “pirate” material. That’s hard to do. They also would go under. The only things that would still be around is research…and that’s too boring to do all day. Basically, computer would revert back to it’s origin: a way to further business opportunities and school intelligence. It would no longer be a thing of entertainment. Many people might not mind that. However, it destroys business and marketing tools that could be of benefit to an advanced society.
This is a battle between the old way vs the new. We’re living in 2012. We can’t go back to the old days and how it used to be. We’re far too advanced of a society to revert backwards now. It would be pointless to do so at this point. Censoring the internet will not convince people to buy things, it will only further limit people from having the experiences they once had. It will stop the spread of knowledge that promotes many artists. It will only make people listen to the free radio. But it won’t get people to buy it. Music and movies are an extra expense to patron. Fans will only decrease, and people will go back to the old way of things: Making their own music so they won’t have to buy it.
Or who knows, maybe people will cooperate and start buying the materials. But I know before internet, I didn’t know anything about world music. I listened to my first Utada Hikaru and BoA song and was sold ever since. It introduced me to a new world of music, sound, and language. I’ve been a patron of Asian music ever since. I will admit that at first I downloaded without paying because I was a punk kid. But now, I’ve grown to love the artists so much that I support them with my money. It helped promote those artists around the world. Censoring the internet prevents people from knowing or understanding those artists.
The one thing that did catch my interest was the Protect IP Act. Not to say that I’ve gotten my IP address stolen, but I was banned from a website, and so was my sibling, and I wanted to know why they banned us both. They told me that we had the same IP address, and said we were sockpoppeting…that scared me. It was almost like they knew we lived together without me saying anything. We couldn’t be two individual people on the same website without them tracking us. Because we had the same IP Address, we couldn’t prove we were two individuals. So this Act sparks some interest in me. However, I do realize that it’s my choice to use the internet. If I don’t want people to know my IP Address or things about me, it’s my choice to remove myself from those places that can track it. Plus, this act will stop me from playing my favorite online game Wizard 101. No thanks.
To conclude, I feel that the internet should be a marketplace with a free exchange of ideas. I think people should be responsible for the choices they make regarding the internet and it’s use. I don’t feel the government needs to regulate it. I feel if people don’t want their “thing” stolen on the internet, they shouldn’t use it or post it. Celebrities in the music industry have to keep up with the ever-growing industry, it’s a part of the hard-boiled career they chose. It’s changed since 1970, and it’s going to continue to change. If you don’t want people to post your music from their paid downloads or from your hard copy CDs, you have to find a way to make music in a form that can’t be downloaded. DVD business owners can probably try to ship their investments elsewhere. Maybe even try to make a website and CONVINCE people to buy your stuff. That’s fair, and much better than forcing people to. The business industry is changing, and things will change. We can’t stop it. It will fail. We just have to find ways to advance along with society. Online games already got the message. After several days of playing Wizard 101’s free trial, I bought it. Maybe other places need to hop on the bandwagon.
This sort of reminds me of the Prohibition Act of the 1920s. All that did was create MORE crime. It was a dumb move then, and this is a dumb move now. We have FDR, who loved alcohol, to thank for that one being uplifted. Maybe the next president can give us some hope for a better future.
GO and sign the PETITION for free internet use: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
Generation Next 