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Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales blogs that he is considering a blackout of pages on the popular site to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act. Wales has asked users and editors of Wikipedia to weigh in with their opinions before he makes a decision. The entertainment industry wants the government to take stronger action against “digital theft” and has lobbied heavily in favor of SOPA, while Internet companies, the Consumer Electronics Association and others have argued that the measure is goes too far and is too vague. They fear that SOPA and to a lesser extent its companion Senate measure Protect IP Act would grant U.S. law enforcement sweeping powers to shut down websites and online services accused of facilitating piracy — or even sites media companies simply don’t like — potentially without due process. Google chairman Eric Schmidt says it amounts to a license for corporate censorship. Wales came up with the idea for his protest because “the Italian Wikipedia community made a decision to blank all of Italian Wikipedia for a short period in order to protest a law which would infringe on their editorial independence. The Italian Parliament backed down immediately,” he wrote on his personal User Talk page. Wales considers SOPA a much worse law. He believes that blanking out the site might be the best way to get Washington’s attention.
Wikipedia Founder Considers Site Blackout To Protest Stop Online Piracy Act Advocated By Showbiz
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I want one – just one – reliable piece of evidence proving that one downloaded item means one less copy sold.
Then we can continue to talk about ‘digital theft’.
You can take a look at record sales today and compare them to the record sales from before Napster.
Stealing is Stealing and IS WRONG. No matter if everybody does it or not.
Is this freeloader society which is destroying the US. China UP – US down.
But there are other factors as to why sales are dropping. The quality of products from the entertainment industry is diminished, while the prices continue to rise for little to no reason (even though, by and large, it’s cheaper to make a movie or an album in 2011 than it was 10 years ago). Moreover, companies are making it more and more difficult for people to access their products, especially if you’re not from the US. I’m in Canada, I have access to pretty much every major US network, broadcast or cable, yet I can’t watch things on NBC.com or AMC’s website? Not to mention the increasing intrusiveness of advertisements. If I want to watch a trailer for a show or a movie, which is for all intents and purposes an ad in itself, I have to sit through an advertisement for a Chevy Tahoe or some dishwasher detergent, despite the fact that I have 3 advertisements for the same products surrounding the video in the first place.
If I purchase a subscription to these channels, or if I use a download as a sample to see whether I’ll purchase something in these channels, then why shouldn’t I be entitled to have an easier time viewing a lot of these shows and movies? There are people who abuse, there’s no doubt about it, but it’s not as black and white as some people, and the people behind SOPA, would want to make you believe.
The argument that record sales are lower today is specious at best.
A substantial percentage of the purchases pre-Napster were to replace owned content in old delivery vehicles (i.e. buy a CD to replace vinyl, cassettes, etc.). The move to digital storage doesn’t require a new purchase, i.e. ripping your own CD to mp3, etc.
I purchased Led Zepplin I three times (vinyl, cassette, and CD). CD ripped to FLAC = no more album sales.
Stealing is wrong, but don’t use bogus stats as proof of your argument.
Why? Does Honda have to prove that stealing a Civic means one fewer car gets sold to make car jacking illegal?
When you steal a car, you take something from somebody and they no longer have that object. When you download a song, it creates a copy. I don’t see how car theft can be compared.
People are protesting SOPA not because they’re pro-theft, but because they’re pro-due process and anti-bad law. The problem (to use your car analogy) is that SOPA says Honda can accuse you of having stolen the Civic, and before you have any chance to prove that they’re wrong or even flat out lying, the authorities can confiscate the Civic that you rightfully own. There’s no due process, and in contradiction to a fundamental principle of American law, the burden of proof is now on the accused.
In short: Theft = Bad. SOPA = as bad or worse.
“Total revenue from U.S. music sales and licensing plunged to $6.3 billion in 2009, according to Forrester Research. In 1999, that revenue figure topped $14.6 billion.”
How’s that for you, champ? Napster took HALF.
Truth is, you don’t want to “discuss” it at all. You just want to be able to download stuff for free.
For all you know it would have been even worse without Napster. I’m not saying I think that I’m just trying to educate you on the fact that correlation doesn’t equal causation.
The revenue went down because record companies screw up their own marketing.
They killed the cheap single (45s, for those who remember that far) and offered only the 15$/20$ cd. They fought downloading sites (even legal one) instead of looking at that their own mistake. They, themselves, created the vacuum that permitted Napster to exist. Now, they are 20 years behind the concept and their sales are down: Apple’s music store is making billions $.
Let the disc industry died, may be others will understand. And, by the way, the biggest share of revenue for an artist comes from live shows.
That’s circumstantial. And if your basing your argument on Napster your clearly out of date and suffering from your favourite child hood game of “drop him head first on hard granite”
And iTunes has since SOLD over SIX BILLION SONGS. You’re talking about album sales which are irrelevant to today’s music consumer.
You are barking up the wrong tree, friend.
Or, Digital took 30% and Apple took 30%.
Part of the reason Revenue is down for the industry also goes like this:
In 1999, an Album at say, Sam Goodies was $19 to buy it “day and date” and kids would buy the CD.
In 2010, it’s $9.99..
More importantly, kids can buy singles directly at .99 cents vs. a whole album at $10.. and half of the albums aren’t worth them buying the whole thing now that they don’t have to.
Count in Apple getting their cut, and walla, revenues drop.
The part that doesn’t get lumped into this though is that costs of production also went down.
I don’t know anyone that downloads music for free anymore. Ten years ago, sure, everyone I knew did. Now everyone I know would rather buy it from iTunes, since it’s better quality and less hassle. Even the kids still in college aren’t downloading like my peers used to.
What I hear all the time is what a hard time they’re having finding new music they care about.
I stopped bothering with most new music about five years ago, and now buy maybe 3-5 albums a year.
Piracy is an easy boogeyman, but most people realize that it isn’t the real problem causing a downturn in sales.
I don’t know enough about this bill to know if it’s a good thing or not, but the sense of entitlement illegal downloaders exhibit is disgusting. If you don’t want to pay for something, fine, but you don’t have a *right* to watch it for free. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if the notion you have a right to free entertainment (regardless of how much money and time it takes investors and creatives to make that entertainment) expands to the entire culture, there is no more entertainment *business*. Sorry if the individuals and companies in that business don’t want to stand around and watch that happen.
They should do it! … And watch when No One Cares.
This isn’t Italy. That site is notoriously flawed and is constantly begging users for cash donations. It’s kind of a joke.
Why is this article slanted in favor of Big Tech, who has relentlessly lobbied with a ton of money and an online fear campaign? Of course Google is against any action to counteract piracy! They profit from piracy through search-related ad sales! They are the single biggest enabler of pirates.
The amusing thing is that sites like this would have to shut down comment sections and censor your because there’d be no other way to ensure they aren’t committing a felony in case some random person posts a link to something. You probably don’t know anything about this horrible destructive bill or why Obama is probably going to veto it. You just see that it’s “anti-piracy” so it’s just “rah-rah go my team!” for you isn’t it?
Wasn’t Obama FOR this bill? Or something like that. I don’t think he’ll veto it, if it goes that far.
You’re in a fantasy world. “No One Cares?” It’s not some small website, it’s the 6th most visited website… While it has flaws, (many in fact,) it’s still a site that is a huge part of our lives.
Oh, and about them asking for money all the time… yes they do, because they’re non profit. They don’t have any advertising, so of course they’re going to ask for money. It’s not free to run a website, especially one using as much bandwidth as Wikipedia. It’s no different from your local public radio or public TV station doing a pledge drive.
And finally, you say Big Tech relentlessly lobbied with a ton of money and online fear campaign. Yes they have, which is no different from what the music and movie companies have been doing for a decade. Why wouldn’t they come out with money a lobbyist when their livelihood is at stake? You seem to be attacking them for fear ads, money, and lobbyist, but don’t say the same thing about movie and music companies. They’re basically at war with each other… they are BOTH doing it.
What if content creators just boycott the internet? I’m cool with renting DVD’s from blockbuster, buying them from Best Buy and watching cable tv again. Wouldn’t mind just reading my paper subscription to Variety and Hollywood Reporter and getting contact info for companies from Hollywood Creative Directory. Can go back to doing business by phone and fax and get a lot more stuff done. Making movies and watching them has pretty much started to suck since the internet. Same for music. Same for the economy. Think we should all just boycott the internet, really. We would all be a lot happier.
Right on, Man!
I wholeheartedly agree with you, 100%.
The Digital Age has replaced the warmth of film with the sterility of digital cinema.
I think the future reality is that customers will no longer being to buy Blu-Rays and DVDs. All movies will be locked to the cloud where security can be much better.
Good luck with that luddite.
BTW HCD just closed down.
Comeback for encyclopedias!
Mitnik, funny you all post this on the Internet
))
The entertainment industry has historically and consistently asked congress to empower it to ban technology or censor media that it perceives is a potential pirate threat to its intellectual property. They wanted to ban VCRs with recording capabilities. This technology ultimately provided a new market which enriched the film industry. The music industry wanted to prevent digital recording. But again, this technology ended up being a boon for the industry. Now they want the power to censor websites. They will never learn that empowering consumers actually puts money in their pockets. Censorship is wrong in any form. Sopa is the worst example of crony capitalism. Where’s the Occupy crowd on this one?
In a class room: How many here want to work and get paid in the entertainment industry? (many hands go up), How many download stuff ? (even more hands go up, even those who want to work and get paid)…by the way the other day I had to call in a plumber, but would you believe after he had done his work he expected me to pay for it? I mean seriously… he should be happy and pay me that I allowed him to enter my toilet, that I chose him instead of the other plumbers…What’s next? That we should pay for the food we eat?
What’s funny about this is Wikipedia has always had a ton of plagiarized material added by nerds. If they removed all the entries with copyrighted content, a good portion of the site would actually be “blacked out”.
Yes, jonestown, no one will care, because it’s not like people use this internet thing anyway (Google, pfft). Besides, the entertainment industry is struggling and needs donations more than the free work done at Wikipedia. I mean, look at Tom Cruise; he already has Obama breathing down his neck about higher taxes. He needs this because these internet users (aka liberals) are taking food out of his mouth! Do you expect him to only have one Bentley??
Online piracy is the red herring here. The real purpose behind this act is to give governmental authorities a pretext for stifling political dissent that challenges the status quo.
While I don’t agree with stealing, as an assistant in this business to pay 11-16$ for a movie is asinine and unaffordable on a regular basis.
If it wasn’t for free screenings I’d probably never see new movies until they’re avail on netflix.
A time without Wikipedia? OMG! How shall I ever survive it?
Easily. Probably without noticing its absence.
I am in favor of rights-holders controlling the distribution of their work. If this law helps them to do that, then more power to them.
If, in the implementation of it, someone else feels their rights are infringed upon, then I would hope they would challenge the law in court. That’s what we have a legal system for – to settle these differences of opinions.
Holy awesome crap! I never thought anything could stop this insidious cultural disaster known as Wikipedia. Please please please do it! Good riddance to a terrible idea.
I’ve never illegally downloaded anything in my life, and the problems with film distribution have probably had a huge, direct effect on my standard of living.
But moves to jail 10-year-olds, and the moms of 10-year-olds, like the music industry did, and to pass draconian, freedom-destroying bills like the SOPA bill, are just the wrong way to going about making things better.
I don’t illegally download music, and, really, I’ve never been a high-volume user of recorded music. But, after I read about the Gestapo-like practices of the RIAA, I decided never to buy recorded music ever again. I am so angry about my memories (maybe 10-year-old memories?) of the RIAA war against Napster — even though I never even looked at the Napster Web site, and even though I don’t even know whether Napster had a Web site — that I have a hard time staying reasonably polite as I write this. I’m a little nervous about Iran and Al Qaeda; I HATE the RIAA. If I had a choice, I’d put the Gitmo prisoners in a nice hotel suite without phone or Internet service, and I’d put the RIAA people who were involved in the Napster war in Gitmo.
But it seems as if SOPA is way, way worse than the war against Napster. The movie industry makes and distributes films against Big Brother. Why does it want to become Big Brother, or, at least, pass a law that a Big Brother could easily use to ruin our lives, and the lives of the exact same people who make and distribute films?
Mitnik – If it wasn;t for the fact that you were using a computer to write your post I would assume you were Amish!
The Internet isn’t going anywhere, neither is piracy. The entertainment industry has enjoyed decades of ripping off consumers. Remember how expensive CDs were when that technology was fairly new? Despite that fact the actual overheads that go into producing a CD are extremely low. Now the shoe is on the other foot and they are the victims they want to shut the Internet down!
The Internet will eventually destroy the printed press and physical media (CDs/DVDs/Blu-Ray etc.), it’s called progress. Digital delivery is less expensive and far less damaging to the environment.
That’s the stupidest thing I ever read. If a car gets stolen, the guy who lost the car needs to buy another. There’s no downside for the car industry.
I’m curious: why is it prices never really went down when we converted from physical material (record, tape, CD, etc.) to digital? If companies claim it costs them more money now to produce an album than it did before, they’re operating under a bad business model. Music should be dirt cheap for them to produce and those savings should be passed on to the consumer. Not to mention, quoting album sale declines is a ridiculous way to say online piracy is to blame because this doesn’t account for people wanting to buy just the songs they want from an album instead of having to pay for the whole damn thing.
The record companies have been sticking it to the consumer for decades, so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t cry for Jay-Z only affording 20 Lamborghini purchases this year instead of 25.
Wikipedia aint broke, don’t fuck with it.
You must be a lawyer. They drafted this bill. That is the problem.
I think wiki should go black.
Big entertainment companies will die because of piracy.
And I am happy.
Content will be made by those who love movies, and the money grubbing agents will be long gone. Because the money is gone.
Big up to pirates.