IF SOPA and PIPA passed...DU would have to get rid of the Video Forum and probably the Lounge

[Justice wanted]

As I was posting my latest thread in the lounge I was thinking just how much I rely on sites like youtube to help me explain something or just wanting to share something with this community.

Think about it. Some of the threads that do entertain us such as the 80's video thread and what about threads that showed you a you tube clip of perhaps a artist or show you never thought of? How many of us seen something on here and ended up giving the Artist or show a try or even got a DVD or CD because of the influence here?

Just needed to share.

[Capitalocracy]

1. If SOPA passed, DU would have to shut down entirely.

Or cripple the posting ability to the point where you can't put any links or URLs of any kind, and have someone check every post for possible copyrighted material. Fair use will not survive SOPA, because you're guilty until proven innocent under SOPA, and this forum, the people who post here, or any independent content creator or sharer who practices fair use doesn't have any money to defend themselves against that kind of system.

[Justice wanted]

2. Exactly. And everyone is talking about How the Entertainment industry wants this bill so badly BUT

What about news organizations?

[snagglepuss]

3. You know what? Whatever happens we will deal with it. In fact such massive changes will

radicalize people, people who wouldn't have known what radical meant.

[JDPriestly]

4. SOPA and PIPA would be very good for libraries.

We would just return to reading off-line and use the internet mostly for e-mails and that sort of thing.

[Withywindle]

5. You can't put toothpaste back in a tube.

The internet has been part of many people's daily lives for a quarter century now. It's like saying that if telephones were to shut down, people would go back to writing more letters or visiting more--and saying that in 1950!

[bigwillq]

6. And for newspapers!

[SoCalDemGrrl]

7. I'm going to share a different prespective-that of a copyright holder...

My husband and I have worked for 30 years building a small music catalog. We invested tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in promotion, paying royalties to artists, acquiring product, etc. with the hope that we and our artists would be rewarded and paid when those copyrights were used or re-recorded.

However in the last few years we have been dismayed to see the rise of Napster et al and with that the absolute disregard of many for the rights of copyright holders like ourselves and our artists.

The SOPA and PIPA acts protect not just the huge corporations, but people who are just like all of you on DU - hardworking people who have invested time and money into creative endeavors in the hope and promise that we would be protected by Copyright laws that have existed in the USA for generations and should not be shredded or compromised just because new technology can enable it.

Please listen to people like Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog who has the backs of artists, independent labels and music publishers and has exposed Google and others as disingenuine in their opposition to SOPA and PIPA.

[Justice wanted]

8. But that is just it! SOPA and PIPA not to mention ACTA would Shut down small businesses like you

down.


Let me ask. Is your Catalog online in any form?

Let's pretend that one of your artist has a song with 3 cords simular to maybe a more famous song under these laws. Universal music (just as an example) comb through your library notice that one song and under SOPA could have you shut down and possible arrested. What happens to your clients? Don't you think a bigger publishing hand won't try to pick up those artists?


These bills are badly written. Yes, I support small businesses like you BUT not at the cost of Free market which we will see destroyed. Let's say I write a sentence here on DU that is similar to a sentence in a newspaper article on the same topic. You want to bet a Large Corporate owned Newspaper is going to want to silence a small forum like DU? (Think about how many news articles you see here on this site compared to actually reading the NYT or serveral newspapers sites.

What if I get a camcorder and start doing video bloging. I'm in one room and my husband is in another room let's say watching a game. I don't realize it but the sounds from his room bleed in enough that his game is JUST barely audible on my blog that I then post on let's say my own website and I share the blog here.

Now let's say on this blog I say something that Pisses off the owner's of one of the teams he's finds out about my blog listens to it and can hear the barely audible noise in the background take it to a specialist who boost the sound. He has SOPA or PIPA or ACTA shut me down and arrest me for copyright violations.

These might be overreaching to you but can happen.