SOPA and PIPA

[Dugout Dad]

Let's see how he snakes his way out of this one.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/exclusive-hollywood-moguls-stopping-obama-donations-because-of-administrations-piracy-stand/

Btw, linking an article like I did could be deemed illegal under SOPA and PIPA and numero uno could get shut down.......

[ontheblack]

Let's see how he snakes his way out of this one.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/exclusive-hollywood-moguls-stopping-obama-donations-because-of-administrations-piracy-stand/

Btw, linking an article like I did could be deemed illegal under SOPA and PIPA and numero uno could get shut down.......

From that article:

The moguls are reminding Obama et al that, in the words of one studio chief, “God knows how much money we’ve given to Obama and the Democrats and yet they’re not supporting our interests. There’s been no greater supporters of him than we’ve been from the first day and the first fundraisers continuing until he was elected. We all were pleased. And, at its heart institutionally, Hollywood supports the Democrats. Now we need the administration to support us."

They may not write checks to Obama, but Obama knows Hollywood wont support the GOP, so its a fairly empty threat.

[blackwidow]

Folks, SOPA/PIPA is indicative of crony politics far more than party politics. Hollywood owns politicians from both parties to one degree or another depending on the issue - but own them they do. Anyone even wonder why a republican representative from Texas is the sponsor of PIPA? How on earth does this represent his constituents in Texas? It is a bipartisan effort.

So those trying vainly to use SOPA/PIPA (and many other issues as well) to make R's or D's the villain/hero are wasting their energy and accomplishing less than nothing and worse: falling into the trap our corrupt leaders count on: Divide and conquer - split the people as R's and D's or Liberals and Conservatives and then fill them with ideological lies, innuendo and propaganda, and let the battles begin.

Those who profit most from 'we the people' fighting each other are the politicians, activists and partisan ideologues who create the situations we the people find ourselves in, then stand above it all promising to fix everything and pretending to have the answers.

[blackwidow]

The Stop Online Piracy Act was introduced by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and was initially co-sponsored by Howard Berman (D-CA), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Steve Chabot (R-OH), John Conyers (D-MI), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Timothy Griffin (R-AR), Dennis A. Ross (R-FL), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Lee Terry (R-NE). As of January 16, 2012, there were 31 sponsors.

[anonlooker]

UPDATE

In the wake of the hugely successful internet black out earlier this week, the US Department of Justice and FBI shut down the file-sharing website Megaupload.com, charged it's founder with violation of piracy laws, and arrested four of it's members.

In a direct response, Anonymous launched a DoS attack and took down the following government and music/film industry websites:

justice.gov
universalmusic.com
riaa.org
mpaa.org
copyright.gov
hadopi.fr
wmg.com
usdoj.gov
bmi.com
fbi.gov

The FBI issued a press release related to the seizure of Megaupload.com and the arrests.

Here is the link: http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press- ... fringement

Can't read it? Get an error page?

A copy of the subsequent Anonymous release is here: http://pastebin.com/WEydcBVV

It appears the battle for a free internet has reached a new intensity.

[ontheblack]

The kid sent me this:

We, the jury, declare you...

OJ Simpson, not guilty

Casey Anthony, not guilty

14yr old girl downloading last night's pisode of Glee - there's a special place in hell for you

[Blind Squirrel]

I recently did some work on a project to be sold to the studios. I went to a little conference they held where the topic was dealing with piracy. I see both sides but one thing I'm certain of: The studios are scared shitless of being Napstered, they are cooperating like never before and will spend a ton of money to deal with what they perceive as a multi-billion dollar threat. They are fighting this on many fronts including forensic watermarking, internet legislation, etc. They're not going to stop.

A story a director told (not internet related): He directed the movie "Ray" and went to the premiere in NYC. When he walked out of the theatre he decided to walk down the street and sure enough he came upon a guy already selling copies of his movie. He talked about how hard it is now to get financing because people are so concerned about the growing number of people who are watching movies without the movie's investors being paid a dime by them.

IMO SOPA/PIPA went way too far. The only reason it got as far as it did was the reason anything like this gets any traction in Congress: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Disgusting. But I guarantee you there will be more legislation pushed by the studios.

Cinematic Squirrel

[ontheblack]

SOPA will never be enacted as this will end up in court the minute Obama signs it, if he does.

Squirrel is correct that this is all about money.

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/hollywoodland/2012/01/18/hollywood-moguls-shut-obamas-donation-spigot-off-over-admins-piracy-bill-stance/

[anonlooker]

Of course it's about money, but it's also about access to the content.

The problem is that the film industry is trying to stick to the old release/distribution model, whereas their audience has moved into the digital "instant-access" age.

They remind me of Detroit in the 70's, failing to respond to the growing threat of Japanese imports.

They would be further ahead finding ways to satisfy their customer base in the digital age. Instead they buy politicians and try to pass bills that will protect their antiquated business model. If all the money they spend on lawyers went to forward thinking internet gurus they would find a way to compete. As long as they try to fight they will be throwing money away. The levee has broken.

And another note, much of the pirated material comes straight from the industry itself. Copies sent out to Oscar members make their way around town instantly, and the same engineers who produce the product then re-engineer it to remove watermarks, etc, and put it out on the internet. They know their own members are most culpable, but can't seem to find a way to stop the release of the material, so they now try to stop the distribution with ill-advised legislation sponsored by unwitting politicians eager to raise funds. Totally whack, IMO.

[Blind Squirrel]

Part of my work involved the watermarking. It isn't simplistic and the techniques make it extremely tough to locate and remove from the large number of frames that contain the watermark. The watermarks are also imperceptable to the human eye, may be randomly located, may be scattered in pieces, are resistant to digital analysis of frames to identify patterns, etc. One of their uses is to be able to track a stolen/copied movie back to the technician during production, the person who was sent the nominated movie, etc. that was the source (forensic watermarking). The studios now share info on anyone caught stealing or illegally copying movies, but that was after they got burned twice by the same guy at different studios.

There have already started having some success. Some BluRay movies already have the ability to, when put in a player, either not provide audio or not play at all. I believe all currently selling players can detect when not to play such movies if it is a pirated copy. I monitored a few related hacker message boards and the hackers were not happy, expressed frustration and no one had figured out how to beat it.

Obviously people are going to try to hack whatever is done by the studios WRT video or audio watermarking. It will be like in weapons development - measures, counter measures, counter counter measures and so on.

BTW, they are also considering quite a few different business models. One talk I sat in on was about monetizing pirated copies.

I think I just put myself to sleep. Again.

Slumbering Squirrel