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Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

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Re: Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

#31

Post by snowwrestler »

nextparadigms wrote: post #11
podperson wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know what those companies have in common? They don't sell software. If your business is basically running a website, what do you care about piracy? Not defending SOPA -- I don't have a clue about its intricacies -- but when a bunch of companies that don't sell software are against a bill that purports to try to do something about software piracy, I don't really see what the news is. In fact, these companies are a…

Does that mean Microsoft and Apple have to support any anti-piracy bill, without any regard for its consequences? Because if that's true, then they are no better than RIAA and MPAA and they couldn't care less about the Internet and censorship, as long as they reduce the pirated copies by 10% (if that).

To come at that question from the other direction, I sometimes wonder what (if any) anti-piracy bill some tech folks would support. The counter-argument to better IP enforcement often seems to be "change your business model", which is not a policy statement.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

#32

Post by dfc »

Disclaimer: I am whole heartedly against SOPA

That being said I think that it is important to raise the level of discourse on this issue in the community and I do not think that this article does much to that end:

    "We can, however, show that it does. And somewhat
    disingenuously, if I may."
Since when does membership/support of business alliances and/or lobbyists count as disingenious? I do not think you will see any veteran reporters on the hill write that being a member of the BSA equates with any disingenious activity; the fact that microsoft is a member is public knowledge.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

#33

Post by recusancy »

feralchimp wrote: post #30

There's no story here. The alternative to "supporting SOPA in virtue of membership in the BSA" is "leaving the BSA over the BSA generally lobbying government to enforce copyright protections." That's kind of the point of the organization. If you don't expect AutoDesk and MathWorks and SolidWorks to leave the BSA just to avoid this kind of second-rate muckraker reporting, then ignore the fact that Microsoft, CA, and A…

Apple left the Chamber of Commerce over their stance on climate change. Why is this different? Sometimes an organization that you belong to goes too far.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

#35

Post by pnathan »

Vivtek wrote: post #27
esrauch wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In this case I'm increasingly of the opinion that all campaign contributions of any kind should be banned. Unfortunately the only real effect of this is that only the independently wealthy would be able to successfully run for office.

Public funding. If getting information to the public about candidates costs money, then that's just another tragedy of the commons - an external cost of government that is simply ignored so that the rich and powerful can have government to themselves. It is very easy to argue that informing the public about their options in an election is essential and should therefore be covered by public funds.

That's a very good place for using public funds, in my opinion.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

#36

Post by freemarketteddy »

steve-howard wrote: post #14
naner wrote: post #13

Notice that the supporters are software companies and the opposed are Internet companies. Here is a theory I proposed yesterday[1]: Microsoft makes the vast majority of their money selling licenses. So does the entertainment industry. For years these industries (software, music, and video) grew to massive size by exploiting cheap duplication of digital goods and control over distribution channels. Now that further ad…

I have interned with Microsoft in the past, and am scheduled to in the future. Therefore take everything I say with a metric ton of salt. Obviously my opinions don't speak for them. Most corporations put their lobbying efforts behind or against legislation based on what's in their interest. I don't believe that the public can honestly expect them to act any differently so long as their behavior is in accordance with…

You are right....The notion that corporations (which is a group of individuals together to achieve a particular objective,most commonly money) have the same rights as individuals(objective:happiness) is the root of this mess!....But I dont know if such an old legal precedent like Dartmouth vs Woodward can be changed!...Not that people havent tried.....http://movetoamend.org/!

This should really be the aim of the OWS movement!

Re: Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

#37

Post by adriand »

rhplus wrote: post #23
AlexMuir wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoters, educate me! What's the issue here?

I didn't downvote, but possibly it's because you're suggesting people build webapps to compete with anti-virus firms, CAD/CAM vendors and a couple of hardware manufacturers.

Interesting, because I would bet that there will be a serious web app contender in the CAD sphere at some point. I'm not so sure the OP is off the mark here.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

#38

Post by andrewfelix »

I was on the fence about whether being a BSA member was enough to make one complicit in support of SOPA. But I think I've been swayed...BSA's support of SOPA would add a huge weight of legitimacy to the pro SOPA supporters. It's disturbing to say the least.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

#39

Post by pnathan »

AlexMuir wrote: post #8

The membership of this group is basically a list of businesses that startups should be chipping away at. Let them spend their time lobbying, while you sneak up behind them and whack them on the head with your niche webapp. -- Adobe Apple Autodesk AVEVA AVG Bentley Systems CA Cadence Design Systems CNC Software – Mastercam Compuware Corel Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation Dell Intel Intuit Kaspersky McAfee Micr…

The above comment displays a remarkable lack of understand of what it takes to build serious, featureful, software that solves hard problems.

Almost every webapp I've used is a recreational activity compared to some of the problems the above companies solve.

Particularly amusing in comparison are the antivirus vendors, Autodesk, CNC, and Solidworks. They are gen-you-winely complicated.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and 27 other tech companies backing SOPA indirectly

#40

Post by AlexMuir »

rhplus wrote: post #23
AlexMuir wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoters, educate me! What's the issue here?

I didn't downvote, but possibly it's because you're suggesting people build webapps to compete with anti-virus firms, CAD/CAM vendors and a couple of hardware manufacturers.

Trend did a pretty decent job with Housecall - I think that was mainly an ActiveX control? I don't know much about the AV industry, but their market (Windows PCs) is being challenged by mobile devices, tablets, *nix, Macs and browser-based systems.
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