Monday, January 23, 2012

Why Writers Should Care about SOPA



If you’re like me, then two weeks ago the words SOPA and PIPA made you think of this: 


Delicious fried pillows of happiness, served with a dallop of honey

And now, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know better, and SOPA might make you think of this:

The January 18 blackout


But have you thought about how the SOPA legislation might affect you as a writer? Until a few days ago, I hadn't thought about it, either.

Backing up a bit: SOPA, otherwise known as the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” is an anti-piracy bill that was being hustled along quietly through Congress until Wikipedia brought it to everyone’s attention. That company, and several others, blacked out their pages on January 18 in protest of the bill. (PIPA, or the Protect Intellectual Property Act, is SOPA’s Senate twin.) I followed the story with mild interest, sharing The Oatmeal’s own hilarious protest, and assumed that everyone was united in their opposition to this piece of legislation. Then, while reading through a discussion of the subject on Facebook, I came across a published author I know who offered a different point of view. Unfortunately, I was unable to arrange for an interview with her in time for today’s post, so I’ll have to paraphrase for now.

Arrr, matey: we be stealin' yer content
Piracy isn’t just something giant corporations have to worry about. It affects individual artists, too. This author’s books have been pirated. Illegal downloads of her intellectual property have not only cost her money, but cost her a book contract, she said. She directed me to this site, in which an agent laments the theft of his client’s books. His client (not the author I chatted with) is Charlaine Harris, known for the Sookie Stackhouse mystery series. Big companies like eBay, he said, don’t care about the rights of the little artist who's actually creating the content. They care about profits. So it’s hard to sympathize with these companies when they rail against SOPA. What are they doing to protect musicians, artists, and writers?



That said, even he — and the author I spoke with — agree that SOPA and PIPA are over the top. The legislation, as written, is likely to cause more problems than it solves. This does not mean that piracy isn't a real problem, however — it is a problem, and one that could affect our livelihoods. Let us hope that with the additional attention on the issue of piracy, people won’t be satisfied simply with defeating these two bad pieces of legislation: they will work to find better ways to protect intellectual property. Let’s make the criminals work harder to steal an author’s work, without compromising intellectual freedom.






What is your opinion on SOPA/PIPA? Is there a way authors and other content creators can have their intellectual property better protected, without stifling Internet freedoms and enabling censorship?





17 comments:

  1. I see both points in this debate, but the hard truth is that the book world is dealing with the same problems the music world faced ten years ago. Legislation was put in place for that situation, so why not when it comes to the intellectual rights of authors? I don't know all the angles to this piece of legislation, but why should one sector of the entertainment industry get picked on when all others are getting better treatment? A person can do time in prison for pirating movies, same goes for music. Shouldn't it be an equal playing field?

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  2. SOPA , the closing of Megaupload and several other desperate and as you point out Sister Stephanie, bad pieces of legislation won't stop piracy, but will make life harder for online users. Something as simple as the Google images with which we enhance our posts will be forbidden. And as your last line points out our freedoms will be trampled upon and censorship will have its field day.

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  3. I'll just comment re Google images as Violante says. I got a nasty Anonymous post saying my blog was riddled with images from other blogs - where someone runs a blogfest and asks you to post the image in your sidebar. 'Have you heard of SOPA?' I was asked. 'We're after you!' Will be interesting which images SOPA comes and tells me I'm in violation of. I'm starting a website of my own images (I travel the world and photograph it) so I can't be accused of downloading other's images. It will be time consuming but worth it. Where else can you be sure you're not violating copyright. I've visited friends' blogs and seen the message over where they had posted an image - 'Infringement of copyright. SOPA. Removed.' Geek! They are really worrying the little people who're not using these images for gain.

    Strange, scary old world we live in Master Jack.

    Denise

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  4. Exactly. You've said it. They are scaring the little people. The big shots can continue with their healthy pirate business.

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  5. "Delicious fried pillows of happiness, served with a dallop of honey."

    Now I'm craving those yummy sopaipillas in your picture! (But if you're a Spanish speaker you'll think of a soup and a pipe, ha!)

    Thanks for this interesting and thought-provoking post, Sister Steph. I don't know much about this issue, but it's very disconcerting.

    "Let’s make the criminals work harder to steal an author’s work, without compromising intellectual freedom."

    This seems like the ideal solution, but how do we do this? How exactly do people download books illegally? I knew images/music were easy to download, but I didn't know it was also happening with books.

    In the case of photos, I mostly use movie/book images in my articles, which are spread all over the internet anyway. When I used my uncle's photograph (the artist) I asked the photographer for permission, and he granted it. Sometimes, when it comes to blogs or other non-profit purposes, it's just a matter of contacting the photographer and asking permission.

    Excellent post!

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  6. But that is the whole point, Lore, we won't be able to use those images and they wont be spread all over the Internet. Why do you think Google and Wikipedia have protested against the passing of SOPA?

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  7. SOPA and PIPA is bill to turn America to another Cuba and China. No longer land of the free or home of the brave.

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  8. It´s true. I am here whining about blog illustrations and old songs in YouTube , but I haven't yet realized the negative effects SOPA may have on our personal freedom and our right to access information.

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  9. First of all, that picture made me hungry. Extra honey, please!

    And if a bill is passed, I'd like it to be better thought-through than SOPA or PIPA. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future with all this.

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  10. Hey, Steph,

    Thought you might appreciate this as much as I did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYqkU1y0AYc

    -S

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  11. Mmmm... I just realized something. The internet is world wide, so the US Congress or Senate cannot do anything to control piracy internationally. They can only legislate what happens in the US. Therefore, wouldn't this bill be inconsequential? Let's say they control all the US ip's or US-based websites. Would that be enough? Let's say Google/Wikipedia open a company outside the US. How is the US Congress/Senate going to enforce their bill?

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  12. Ohh let´s hope that happens. I have never downloaded a film, and I only read nvels in Gutemberg Project (hope that is legal) but I live in YouTube, and not only for the music.

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  13. Whether we want to believe it or not, piracy is a HUGE issue. No, I don't agree with internet censorship, but what if you worked at a job where anybody and everybody was allowed to walk through the front door and steal your unique projects right off your desk. Then that person turned around, made thousands of duplicates, and sold them for dirt cheap. And you saw none of the profits. Should this be allowed to continue in perpetuity? Or would you go and get your rightful share of the pie you invented? And who should be allowed to help you? Thousands of businesses already have laws like this in place, so why not be more strict in the entertainment industry? SOPA and PIPA are not a good solution, but there will someday soon be another bill addressing the same issues, and instead of letting the big online corporations continue to take cuts like it said in the site Stephanie suggested we read, maybe we should consider the best steps to protect our intellectual property. After all, it's ours.

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  14. Lorena, according to the Economist (a British newspaper), "Since American law cannot directly touch such sites, SOPA would allow copyright holders to ask American sites to take down links to them, payment processors and ad networks to stop doing business with them, and internet-service providers to block traffic to them via a technique known as DNS filtering. If these firms failed to act within five days, they could then be sued." But I think you're correct that it would be massively difficult to enforce, and that's been one of the many criticisms.

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  15. Suze, thanks for the tip! I'll watch that lecture.

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  16. Whether SOPA is American or not, they are rabbiting around the internet and removing images from blogs, whether American or not. I've been threatened. I also wonder about all the book review blogs whose only purpose is to promote an author's work. No doubt the book cover is copyright and we all use these to enhance our book reviews. It could get to be a dull old world if these anti-piracy groups have their way.

    Denise

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  17. Forgot to say, no matter how many times I've emailed the owner of an image for permission to use it I've never ever had a reply...I'm only using my own from now on.

    Denise

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