Great Article, Mr. Saturday,
http://www.sanglucci.com/mr-saturday-sopa-all-magic-needs-a-diversion/
The issue slices across political persuasions - at its core support hinges on whether a company benefits from a "free" internet with loose online piracy rules. Critics of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) claim the bill would "effectively promote censorship" and expose law-abiding Internet companies to new liabilities. To fit the ‘digital piracy’ classification, the domain needed to offer or point to one or more of the brands used in the digital content portion of the study for free. According to a report (PDF) released yesterday by MarkMonitor, a company that protects online brands for its corporate customers. There report states that The top-three websites classified as ‘digital piracy’—rapidshare.com, megavideo.com, and megaupload.com—collectively generate more than 21 billion visits per year.
Industry wide: Traffic to sites suspected of offering pirated content was over 146 million visits per day. Selling counterfeit goods, i.e. Drugs, Fashion, etc.
Friday, January 20, 12:10 PM Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid indefinitely postpones a vote in his chamber on the PIPA online anti-piracy bill pitting Hollywood against Silicon Valley. Lamar Smith, Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, follows suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar SOPA
Thursday, January 19, 2:54 PM The AP reports that one of the world's largest file-sharing sites - Megaupload.com - was shut down by Federal authorities and company workers were indicted over charges of online piracy. In a twist of irony (or not?), the firm's CEO has been extremely active in the anti-SOPA
Winner and Losers:
Big Media:
"These golden geese are in danger of being strangled to death by video streaming," so anti-piracy talk really comes in second to stunting the growth of even legitimate online distribution. Its much to do with protecting the pipe as it does protecting the content itself.
Former Sen. Christopher Dodd takes up the case for SOPA (video) on behalf of the motion picture industry, claiming the online piracy bill will not be the "end of the Internet." He says the bill doesn't impinge on freedom of speech rights, but merely aims to end rampant online crime by foreign entities.
Corporate Companies:
Internet names are up in arms over a new piracy bill would grant law enforcement officials broad powers to shut down sites deemed by media companies to be enabling the flow of pirated content.
Public uproar:
In the face of a public uproar and acts of protest from leading Internet properties, as well as growing White House concerns, the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) now appear to be dead in the water, at least in their current forms. Already, two of SOPA's co-sponsors are pulling their support for the legislation. Blogger "We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet,"
Related Companies:
Tech giants like Google (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Yahoo (YHOO) and eBay (EBAY). Facebook, and domain hosting firms or loses out from reproduced content along the likes of Disney (DIS), Sony (SNE), and Time Warner (TWX).
Gaming firms are caught in a quandary over their initial support over the online piracy bill Though industry players such as Nintendo (NTDOY.PK), Sony (SNE), Electronic Arts (EA), and Entertainment America are publicly siding with the "free Internet" crowd to avoid a customer backlash, privately the firms support the bill through lobbying groups aiming at preventing rogue firms from stealing IP and customers away.
Conclusion:
There's been talk of a "nuclear option" where firms including would simultaneously go dark to protest the legislation. Well, easier said than done. “Corporate Bottom Line's.” vs “Public Interest.” And yes the word placement is corporation first.
