Today is SOPA/PIPA protest day; So I’m █ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████.

J.L. Gatewood Featured, Internet, social-issues G+, PIPA, politics, rant, SOPA 0 Comment

██ ██████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ███ ██!  █ ████ ████ ███ ████████ █████ █████ ████ ████…

(This post has been CENSORED courtesy of your government and the good minds at WESAYSO Inc.)

I believe we should treat the Internet like we treat space; no one country can own it, no one corporation can control it, and no one person, group, or other entity can dictate how it is used (or abused).

As with the other spaces outside your home, it’s the PUBLIC. If you don’t want to go into a casino or adult shop, then you don’t go there right? If you don’t want to buy bootleg DVDs from Montay and June-bug out the back of a Cutlass Supreme in a Kroger parking lot, you don’t do it, right? Then the same rules apply on the net.

This is just another attempt at government kowtowing to corporation’s whims, instead of letting the companies figure out how to INNOVATE. And therein is the real issue here.

See, there’s no way government can legislate faster than technology’s relentless and endless march skyward. We’ve already seen this madness when they forced a file-sharing company called Napster to shutdown back in 2000… It didn’t work then either– The next day in fact, I was downloading the Chronic 2001 album from eDonkey… See when you try to kill a hydra by cutting off its head, 2 more heads grow back.

However a man named Steve Jobs went to the music industry and said “Guys, people are just going to figure out new and better ways to pirate your stuff… You can’t beat them, so join them.” Eventually the industry saw the writing on the wall, the iTunes Store was created where you can get songs a-la-carte for 99¢ a pop, and the rest is history.

As network speeds get faster and computers get smaller and faster themselves (smart phone much?), this same saga is about to be played out with music’s heavier sibling, video– and Old-World media is pissed. The MPAA, TV and movie studios can’t seem to understand the history lesson from 10 years ago… I’ll reitterate…

Ultimately, the CONSUMER will dictate how and where they’ll consume your product, not the other way around.

That means if I want to watch Kung-Fu Panda on the train using my phone, then I’m going to figure out how to do just that. Technology is giving us the way to do these new things, and the big companies are scared that we aren’t gonna pay them the duckets that we’ve been paying… But that’s where they’re wrong. See, the average person DOES NOT PIRATE!

On the contrary, you stand to make MORE money when you open your content up so people can consume it however, wherever they want.

Have you seen what happened with Louis C.K.?  He ditched the traditional route of selling the rights of his comedy tour to HBO, Showtime, et al, and spent $40k on production and website team to do it himself…  The video that came out of the effort is a simple DIVX encoded AVI file that can be played anywhere… He didn’t even encrypt it, so technically you could torrent, serve, or do whatever you wanted to it, although he nicely asks that you don’t… and besides its only FIVE DOLLARS for the video… Now the fun part–Dude made $1 million in a WEEK.

Louis CK: Live at the Beacon TheaterLive at the Beacon Theater: show available to download now!

via Louisck

And I think this is where the ultimate battle is– The companies are putting up a smokescreen in the form of SOPA/PIPA because they know, it’s only a matter of time before we’ll be getting the content that we really want from the people WE think are talented.

For more information, head over to Google using the link below– they’ve come out against this bill and they’ve stockpiled massive amounts of information and they also have a petition going as well.

Here’s a list of sites that are blacked-out or prominently protesting SOPA/PIPA right now.