The Internet blacked out today (01.18.12) in protest against SOPA & PIPA.
The Economist’s World in 2012 conference had a debate on whether innovation is dead. Well, today, it almost felt like it could be dead… maybe not now, but very soon. All over the web, tech titans like Google and Wikipedia and others like WordPress and Tech Crunch stood together in protest against SOPA & PIPA.
What’s SOPA & PIPA?
Imagine a world where you can no longer upload a video of yourself singing a cover to your favorite artist or mix parts of a movie or just have the freedom to share information freely and openly.
Well, that’s what SOPA & PIPA are trying to do. Limit you. Don’t get me wrong, I believe these two pieces of legislation have good intentions, theoretically, but like many theories (e.g. communism), in practice, it doesn’t really work.
SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act (House) and its sister legislation, PIPA, is the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Senate). Both laws aim to curb the rampant piracy that has gone on in the web space for years, especially with the torrents giant The Pirate Bay, stripping billions from the movie industry.
However, SOPA & PIPA at its current state, gives away too much power to too few, says Gizmodo. ”The beating heart of SOPA is the ability of intellectual property owners (read: movie studios and record labels) to effectively pull the plug on foreign sites against whom they have a copyright claim.”
In addition, SOPA (unlike its sister legislation, PIPA) has a provision, dubbed the “Free Bieber,” which makes “it illegal to stream unauthorized copyrighted content” (Wall Street Journal).
Here’s something even crazier: “If the government decides any part of that site infringes on copyright and proves it in court? Poof. Your digital life is gone, and you can’t get it back” (Gizmodo).
Now, that’s scary.
But what’s scarier is the fact that these two 4-letter words could kill innovation!
How can SOPA & PIPA kill innovation?
Well, innovation or creativity, in general, often comes from copying, mixing and remixing of existing ideas.
When tons of restrictions are placed on what may or may not be deemed as “pirated” materials, people could stop trying. Just imagine reading a ten page contract each time before you can draw a picture of your favorite cartoon character. Wouldn’t that deter you from drawing that character? And, if you don’t make the attempt to draw that, would you ever think of changing the eyes and ears to bring about more personality to your creation? And, if you don’t do that, would you ever add this potential new character to the world? Maybe… but maybe not.
Think about it. Sometimes, the best creations are the “improvements” upon the old. Look at Counter Strike, one of the most played PC games. It was a mod(ification) to Half Life!
If that didn’t make you think twice, then think about one of our time’s most memorable songs: “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice. That song was—yes, that’s right—pirated, in SOPA/PIPA terms. (I don’t condone straight-up copying, but sometimes the beginning of an innovation starts with copying something that exists…)
Anways, TED’s Clay Shirky explains best (see Mashable’s article for highlights):
Conclusion:
All in all, I agree that we need better regulation so our intellectual property rights can be protected. Mark Schaefer from {GROW} said it well: “I just spent nearly a year of my life writing a book. If there is no hope of getting paid for the difficult work and sacrifice that goes into creating content like this in the future, I will never write another book. And so on.”
But let’s not go overboard and cut off the pipelines that could potentially fuel innovation and creativity!
Sources:
Gizmodo - What is SOPA?
Mashable - TED Takes on SOPA: Why it Would Create a ‘Consumption-Only Internet’ [VIDEO]
{GROW} - Have you become a STOP SOPA lemming?
Wall Street Journal - What Is SOPA Anyway? A Guide to Understanding the Online Piracy Bill
International Business Times - What is SOPA? Possible Consequences that Could Ruin the Internet
CNN Money - SOPA explained: What it is and why it matters
Tags: censorship, google, PIPA, SOPA, technology, thoughts, wikipedia, wordpress
A good balanced post. Well done and thank you!