Killing the Internet to save Hollywood

They are killing the web too.

I'm not sure that Hollywood is, in fact, dying. The evidence[1][2] suggests that Hollywood has been making more money in the 2000's than ever before.

1. http://the-numbers.com/movies/records/ 2. http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/2010-box-office-more-r...

They are having record breaking revenue years in 2009 and 2010. It's not like they are suffering the downtown that the newspaper industry has and they don't have nearly the legal protections that Hollywood has and while they are struggling, they are adapting.

If Hollywood were to take a new approach to entertainment, who's to say they wouldn't be having even higher revenue than they are having now? It just seems like a fix for a problem that doesn't exist.

Download Terra, which lets you spoof headers as FF or whatever you want.

So, I've been thinking. I know the whole "don't attribute to malice..." line, but isn't it possible that SOPA is an effort by big media to control all online content? Is there anything in the proposed laws that mandates rights-holders actively pursue violators? (Trademark law does have this requirement.)

Could SOPA be used as a tool to weaken content-driven tech startups, until they can either be shut down or scooped up at bargain basement prices by a studio? Would it be completely inconceivable that an industry guilty of payola (multiple times over) might collude to use SOPA only target web properties not owned by an RIAA/MPAA member?

Hell, I don't even think collusion would be required. All it would take is a massive cross-licensing deal covering online media. Then BAM! You're logging on to Sony Facebook or sharing a link on Twitter by TimeWarner. What if the true targets of SOPA aren't the pirates, but rather the small tech startups that have been making so much noise about how harmful passage would be to their business model. The small tech startups that aren't so small anymore and, day by day, are looking more and more like the future of content.

I begin to wonder if the studios are not so ignorant of technology trends as we might hope, but rather see a way to ensure that our computer screens are controlled by the same groups that control our television and movie theater screens...

As a Canadian I worry more about US media corporations influencing Canadian politicians which leads to laws being passed. Bev Oda being the the example of an MP that money can buy.

It's bad enough to have DMCA, HDCP, copy protection up the yin yang but when some suit in LA influences what laws are passed in a foreign land I say that's grounds for extradition of the executive and treason charges (or whatever the term would be) for the Canadian politician.

If the situation was reversed I'm sure people in the US would freak out if a music executive from Canada bribed a US congressman to help get laws passed.