Stop Online Piracy Act

I'm sure many of you are aware of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that will soon be voted on by the U.S. Congress. The unprecedented powers this will afford to capital and the state, in terms of regulating the internet, is especially disconcerting.

The interesting dynamic that has emerged as a result of the proposed legislation is the antagonism between the tech sector and other areas of capital that have seen their profitability jeopardized by the ascent of the former. Clearly, the only threat to the aforementioned legislation is the political pressure being applied by the larger online companies that stand to lose a great deal of advertising revenues, etc. should this bill become law.

How likely is it that SOPA, in its current form, will pass? Should it not, do you find it possible that some form of alternative legislation will eventually be drafted which will somehow manage reconcile the differences between these divergent bourgeois interests and still threaten the independent citizens engaged in online activities?

I don't think it is extremely likely that the bill in its current form will pass. It was already fairly unpopular to begin with, and yesterday's protests led numerous SOPA co-sponsors to drop their support of the bill. Quite a few senators now publicly oppose the bill, as well. While there are some senators and co-sponsors who still support SOPA, their numbers are decreasing rapidly. The public outcry scared them, and it's obvious those who are now backing down in the senate are afraid of what the people are saying. That being said, it is likely the bill (if it fails passage this time) will return with another name in the future. Where it goes from there, it is hard to tell. The bill will probably be swept under the rug as far as it can be by its proponents, after all that has happened.

The future of this bill and subsequent bills will depend greatly on the involvement of the people, for sure.

The democratic will of the people is largely inconsequential when it comes to these sorts of issues. You are certainly correct in that these sorts of public controversies tend to put things on 'hold' for some time. However, I have no doubt that this sort of unpopular legislation would be passed if there was a sufficient level of support from the relevant (bourgeois) interests. The real question is if attaining such a thing is at all possible given the complicated nature of the 'problem' they are attempting to address (online copyright infringement).

Admin wrote:The democratic will of the people is largely inconsequential when it comes to these sorts of issues. You are certainly correct in that these sorts of public controversies tend to put things on 'hold' for some time. However, I have no doubt that this sort of unpopular legislation would be passed if there was a sufficient level of support from the relevant (bourgeois) interests.

I can agree with that.

Admin wrote:The real question is if attaining such a thing is at all possible given the complicated nature of the 'problem' they are attempting to address (online copyright infringement).

The undertaking would be extremely difficult. The sheer number of "violators" poses a major problem to those who will be forced to deal with the issues. The internet service providers and search engines will be the ones to carry out much of the dirty work the bill describes, which is probably why (amongst other reasons) Google and other such corporations are so opposed to SOPA/PIPA. Google itself is considered to be a violator in the eyes of the bill; they provide a method by which to access sites that the government may consider to be involved in piracy. Google would have to drastically alter itself for this to even happen, and it would eventually lead to the downfall of Google and other such programs as we know them. Youtube will pretty much cease to exist, other than videos specifically featuring completely original content/content uploaded by the company of origin. The whole thing is such a drastic undertaking, it's hard to believe the whole thing could work out as efficiently as its proponents claim it will.

It certainly would entail a restructuring of online administrative directives, but it would by no means present itself as a "drastic undertaking." The protocols could be enforced in a relatively straightforward fashion.

What we are witnessing is a prominent clash between copyright beneficiaries (Hollywood, publishers, record labels, etc.) and online distributors of information and content exchange. Both "blocs" stand to gain or lose revenue contingent upon the passage of the proposed laws. As a sustained effort to oppose the bills by the citizenry at large exists as a virtual impossibility, the outcome (or general conclusion) will ultimately be determined by the most politically (ergo financially) viable of the two corporate interest groups. This is likely to continue escalating over time, either punctually or continuously, until one side prevails over the other due to persisting trends in the various industries which would impact the respective rates of profit.

I agree with you, Admin, that the political polarization that has surfaced as a result of the bills is quite interesting. I expect that studying this phenomenon through the lens of the investment theory of politics will prove to be enlightening.

I doubt it will pass in fact isn't this just a modified version of a previous bill that failed?

I can understand why people do support the bill. Corporations are tired of people stealing their material, but this bill is very vague and could just easily be used to block sites with merely a few complaints . Personally I like downloading music and games for free, I hope that this bill fails. Why propose bills that are supposed to protect the profits of already wealthy record labels and producers, when there are problems on the internet which effect regular people such as Identity theft?

But anyways I am fairly sure it won't pass, since popular sites started advertising their anti SOPA stance everyone acts like they actually give a fuck about politics now even though on just about any other matter you'll find most of the people whom complain are completely ignorant of other issues.

I do not see how they would apprehend all the violators though, it would be a massive amount of people to arrest.
And it is a sad realization that so many people are riled up just because their precious internet lives are effected but when it comes to issues that are plaguing us in real life they are completely ignorant.

How do you guys feel about ACTA?

It was pretty much signed without any sort of announcement in Australia and Poland.. Which was obviously done on purpose.

In Poland hackers brought down government sites, and supposedly acquired "top secret information".

Balkan Beast wrote:How do you guys feel about ACTA?

It was pretty much signed without any sort of announcement in Australia and Poland.. Which was obviously done on purpose.

In Poland hackers brought down government sites, and supposedly acquired "top secret information".

I do not believe in intellectual "property" rights, period.