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I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

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Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#141

Post by o2sd »

credo wrote: post #41
edw519 wrote: post #19

Alexis, you did great. Cool, calm, collected, and sharp. You did a great job advocating what most of us here understand and champion. But here is the problem I see with this whole SOPA debate... I didn't see anything that would help my Uncle Art understand what this is all about in his language and why he should care. This is what he sees: - There is a bill in congress. - It's to stop people from stealing other peopl…

Here is what Alexis seemed to be saying in the interview. - SOPA is bad for websites that rely on user-generated-content (and entrepreneurs like him) - We (i.e. tech community) intimidated GoDaddy and forced them to back away from their support for SOPA - One guy made a million dollars by requesting donations on PayPal instead of demanding payments from all users. This is a great example of innovation. The private se…

Noam Chomsky once noted that the problem of the soundbite age is that some questions don't have simple answers that fit inside 30 seconds or 2 minutes.

The main problem with SOPA is that it is not possible to solve a market problem with legislation. Copyright infringement is a market problem, and markets are a lot more effective in delivering solutions than Governments. Consequently, SOPA will utterly fail to prevent copyright infringement, resulting in even MORE draconian laws sometime in the future.

Specific to the problem of music and film is that these markets are highly regulated oligopolies that use their market power to engage in price fixing. Unlike efficient markets, in which there are a range of different prices, the music and film markets only have two prices: Idiotically expensive and free (illegal).

Personally, I would LOVE to pay $1 per episode to watch my favourite HBO series at a time, and in a place of my own choosing. Sadly I cannot. Hence, I either don't watch it at all, or I obtain it by 'other' means. Monopolies/oligopolies only offer one price, and they are free to gouge their customers as long as they can prevent any competition in the market.

In other words, SOPA is NOT about preventing piracy (because that is a hopeless cause, much like the war on drugs), but about protecting the music and film industries illegal, anti-competitive price fixing practices (by way of preventing any other production/distribution of that type of media). Illegal price fixing is a small price that all Governments will gladly pay, as music and film support the propaganda/mythology creation industry of Government.

The simplest solution to prevent piracy would be to open the music and film markets to competition, but that is exactly what the RIAA and MPAA are trying to prevent.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#142

Post by luv2lrn »

dgeb wrote: post #81
edw519 wrote: post #19

Alexis, you did great. Cool, calm, collected, and sharp. You did a great job advocating what most of us here understand and champion. But here is the problem I see with this whole SOPA debate... I didn't see anything that would help my Uncle Art understand what this is all about in his language and why he should care. This is what he sees: - There is a bill in congress. - It's to stop people from stealing other peopl…

We really need to do a better job arguing this case. This is about justice vs. injustice, not jobs in tech vs. jobs in movies/tv. Here's the analogy I tweeted a couple weeks ago: "SOPA is the equivalent of allowing Disney to shut down a restaurant because a customer drew Mickey Mouse on a napkin." I think anyone can recognize the injustice in that.

How about this slight modification: "SOPA is the equivalent of allowing the US Government to shut down a restaurant because Disney thinks a customer may have drawn Mickey Mouse on a napkin."

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#143

Post by Natsu »

credo wrote: post #41
edw519 wrote: post #19

Alexis, you did great. Cool, calm, collected, and sharp. You did a great job advocating what most of us here understand and champion. But here is the problem I see with this whole SOPA debate... I didn't see anything that would help my Uncle Art understand what this is all about in his language and why he should care. This is what he sees: - There is a bill in congress. - It's to stop people from stealing other peopl…

Here is what Alexis seemed to be saying in the interview. - SOPA is bad for websites that rely on user-generated-content (and entrepreneurs like him) - We (i.e. tech community) intimidated GoDaddy and forced them to back away from their support for SOPA - One guy made a million dollars by requesting donations on PayPal instead of demanding payments from all users. This is a great example of innovation. The private se…

> However, imo, a better approach to win public support would be to come up with specific solutions for the copyright problem and also acknowledge that copyright holders do have some legitimate concerns.

The types of solutions that are possible are the types they are least inclined accept. Piracy is not killable without taking away the ability to communicate privately and probably not even then. Soviet attempts merely lead to Samizdat, in spite of going to extreme lengths to track people down. Also, prior to the internet, copyright infringement was widespread over sneakernet. Attempts to control that via technical means merely taught a generation of kids how to crack software.

That's not to say there are no solutions. William Patry has a new book about copyright reform. There are new ways of doing business. For example, iTunes proved successful, in spite of the fact that anyone who wanted to could have downloaded the same songs for free. None of those things are stuff they want to hear, though. They don't want to change. They don't think they should have to change. But reality has the last word and reality has no qualms about being unfair.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#144

Post by imaan988 »

wes-exp wrote: post #121
DevX101 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite my differences with much of the Republican party platform, one thing that they are damn good at and I respect them for is an ability to communicate with their target base. Where's there's a hot topic issue, the Republicans will come out in lockstep with voices on the same wavelength. They use clear and simple language with a single antagonist. In the really big battles they even coin phrases like 'Obamacare',…

Agreed. So here's how we do it. This is the word: Prohibition . It's our "death panels". This is how you tell it to grandma: - The music & movie industries want a Prohibition on user-created content. - When radio was invented, they wanted a Prohibition on it. - When cable TV was invented, they wanted a Prohibition on it. - When the VCR was invented, they wanted a Prohibition on it. - Now Youtube and many other websit…

I went and found my password for this account which I haven't used in an age just to say this is a really good idea, I hope other people who get a chance to talk on TV about this pick up on it.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#145

Post by lloeki »

wowtip wrote: post #140
earbitscom wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The shoplifting metaphor might be simple and relatable, but it's inaccurate because it's not just someone stealing in your store, it's other people putting stolen merchandise in your store to be re-stolen by someone else. The real metaphor is, "If you own a pawn shop and let obviously dirt broke people come in and sell you stolen Rolexes all the time, you may be shut down."

I would put i like this: It is like you own this huge supermarket. Lately some shady guys have started putting flyers with information on where you could buy pirated merchandise from China for cheap. With SOPA this would mean the Governmnet could shut down _your_ supermarket because someone found one of these flyers at your place.

Another take: in this huge supermarket two random people talk about drugs, and a police officer overhears their ramblings, so the supermarket gets shut down.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#146

Post by atlantic »

credo wrote: post #41
edw519 wrote: post #19

Alexis, you did great. Cool, calm, collected, and sharp. You did a great job advocating what most of us here understand and champion. But here is the problem I see with this whole SOPA debate... I didn't see anything that would help my Uncle Art understand what this is all about in his language and why he should care. This is what he sees: - There is a bill in congress. - It's to stop people from stealing other peopl…

Here is what Alexis seemed to be saying in the interview. - SOPA is bad for websites that rely on user-generated-content (and entrepreneurs like him) - We (i.e. tech community) intimidated GoDaddy and forced them to back away from their support for SOPA - One guy made a million dollars by requesting donations on PayPal instead of demanding payments from all users. This is a great example of innovation. The private se…

Why not take a more radical approach, and deny that there is a copyright problem. The supposed losses of the entertainment industry are all based on the argument that whatever is downloaded is lost revenue. In fact revenue should be compared to sampling - you try out a lot of stuff, and only buy the best. But you do buy. I download hundreds of e-books that are not locally available in bookstores, I browse through them, and purchase the best ones through Amazon. I do a lot more buying than if I did no downloading, so it's a net gain for the publishing industry.

Now, the evidence points to the fact that downloaders are also the biggest buyers of CDs and DVDs. If you look at it that way, there have been no lost revenues, and in fact the entertainment industry has benefited immensely from free downloading, which has helped it to reach a much broader market.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#148

Post by dolbz »

kn0thing wrote: post #88
TheEskimo wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a little more in depth than the shop lifting analogy. I like to use the following: "A person tells the government that they saw a TV in the local pawn shop which is really theirs. They never asked the pawn shop owner for it back and they have no reason to suspect the pawn shop owner knows it is stolen. The government will then shut down the pawn shop without even talking to the owner first or having significant…

Thanks for writing this. While it's more thoughtful, it's also much more verbose -- deadly in our soundbyte-driven media.

also while all analogies have problems the verbosity here introduces more complications.

Technically the store isn't shut down it's only removed from the phonebook. At this point the analogy breaks down as that doesn't sound as drastic at all. However, on the web, being removed from DNS would be a death sentence to legitimate sites but ironically (and tragically) not for sites dedicated to copyright infringement.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#149

Post by MrMatters »

sliverstorm wrote: post #79
jaekwon wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"SOPA is the Great Wall of America" "SOPA is Internet Mutilation"

People generally think the Great Wall is pretty cool, and also that it was effective and did good things.

I agree, tacking on "of America" only makes it sound more positive to most people. Even I'm having a hard time thinking "SOPA is the Great Wall of America" doesn't sound really awesome.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#150

Post by eftpotrm »

DevX101 wrote: post #37
edw519 wrote: post #19

Alexis, you did great. Cool, calm, collected, and sharp. You did a great job advocating what most of us here understand and champion. But here is the problem I see with this whole SOPA debate... I didn't see anything that would help my Uncle Art understand what this is all about in his language and why he should care. This is what he sees: - There is a bill in congress. - It's to stop people from stealing other peopl…

Despite my differences with much of the Republican party platform, one thing that they are damn good at and I respect them for is an ability to communicate with their target base. Where's there's a hot topic issue, the Republicans will come out in lockstep with voices on the same wavelength. They use clear and simple language with a single antagonist. In the really big battles they even coin phrases like 'Obamacare',…

One more suggested metaphor -

If some kids at a mall talk about shoplifting, all the malls that company owns get shut down without a trial.

We know and understand user-created content because we've been using it (and creating it) for years. That's the thing we need to get across to the great masses - not that websites should be penalised for giving out unauthorised copies (which they'll largely agree with), but that a huge percentage of the websites they use and love are no more in constant control of what appears on every page of their websites than malls are able to control every last thing that happens within them, and that the penalties should be organised accordingly.

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