Copyright, censorship and an American-led digital world
Given how dominant US websites are on the internet, the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) would — if passed — have global implications. And with worldwide website ‘blackouts’, commentary on the subject has hardly been limited to the United States. Bernard Keane hasn’t let the loss of Wikipedia slow down his efforts to pump out a column on the subject, raising his concerns about the bills and how media titans are tackling the issue.
I’ve got to be honest, it’s not the most compelling piece of writing on the subject. For instance, quibbling over statistics about how much online piracy is taking place is a rather moot point — the fact is, piracy exists. Attacking the dubious origin of figures trying to quantify the trend may be satisfying, but it doesn’t change the parameters of the debate. Much closer to the mark is the lack of innovation within the entertainment industry. As Keane notes, the big players had every opportunity to set up their own digital distribution channels. But their negligence left the door wide open to the likes of Apple (iTunes), Spotify and Netflix. (Indeed, the evidence suggests that the availability of these legal channels has helped to dampen down illegal file sharing.) The old guard might be bitter about having to share the spoils of their business with new upstarts. But at least there are spoils to share — and in some senses, the old media companies can claim little credit for that given their own foot-dragging.
None of this is to suggest that content owners don’t have a right to protect — and profit from — their intellectual property. Indeed, it’s important for them to do so, because otherwise they will not bother to invest in content development in the first place. If no one were to ever pay for what they download, then there would be no commercial incentive to produce music, movies, TV shows, software, books and so on. (Yes, some would still exist — many musicians don’t expect to make money from their art, many coders contribute freely to open source projects — but output would be vastly lower, less diverse and arguably of lower quality.) The question is, in the digital world, what copyright enforcement measures are need to ensure the benefits of content production are realised at the lowest overall cost to society? Given the onerous burden that would be placed on internet service providers and major content disseminators — like Google, Wikipedia and Facebook — SOPA and PIPA certainly don’t seem to be the best answer.
The unfortunate truth is that if you want to change Washington DC, you have to buy it. And the big online internet companies, especially web-facing ones, have failed to pony up.
Mat Honan, Gizmodo
You might have experienced some difficulties over the past couple of days getting access to your favourite websites. Wikipedia was ‘blacked out’ from Wednesday for 24 hours, while other popular sites like Reddit and Wired ‘censored’ their content. Even Google got in on the act, slapping a big black block over its famous logo when its homepage was viewed by American users. The reason for these protests are two bills being developed in the US Congress — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) — that would impose new obligations on ISPs and websites in relation to their users having unauthorised access to copyright-protected content.
I won’t pour over the details about SOPA and PIPA each mean — there are plenty of explanations elsewhere — but it suffices to say that the two bills have got a lot of people fired up. Over at technology website Gizmodo, Mat Honan is one. He points the finger of blame for SOPA/PIPA at major online players, because they have failed to band together to lobby against such legislation on Capitol Hill. That might seem harsh on the surface — this ‘black out’ campaign has been pretty high profile, and already seems to have succeeded in convincing several congressional representatives (Democrats and Republicans alike) not to back the proposed laws. But Honan notes that even if SOPA/PIPA fail, there will be further efforts to come, because the media and entertainment industries are very powerful and well resourced, and will continue to fund hefty lobbying campaigns. (There should be little surprise that the lead lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America — a backer of the proposed measures — is a former high-profile senator, Chris Dodd.) Unless ‘the internet’ gets in the game, its capacity to influence events in Washington may only be eroded over time.
