RIAA Chief Whines That SOPA Opponents Were "Unfair"

First time submitter shoutingloudly writes "In a NY Times op-ed today, RIAA chief Cary H. Sherman accuses the opponents of SOPA of having engaged in shady rhetorical tactics. He (wrongly) accuses opponents such as Wikipedia and Google of having disseminated misinformation about the bills. He lashes out at the use of the term 'censorship,' which he calls a 'loaded and inflammatory term.' Most Slashdot readers will get the many unintentional jokes in this inaccurate, hypocritical screed by one of the leaders of the misinformation-and-inflammatory-rhetoric-wielding content industry lobby." A gem: "As it happens, the television networks that actively supported SOPA and PIPA didn’t take advantage of their broadcast credibility to press their case. That’s partly because 'old media' draws a line between 'news' and 'editorial.' Apparently, Wikipedia and Google don’t recognize the ethical boundary between the neutral reporting of information and the presentation of editorial opinion as fact."

Comments

A little uncomfortable

[bonch]

I didn't like the legislation either, but isn't this headline and summary kind of biased? I don't know...I just feel uncomfortable having the submission frame it specifically to make me react a certain way. I mean, it flat-out states how "most /. readers" will respond. I'd rather just read what Cary Sherman has to say and come to my own conclusions, which will likely align with others here, but at least I arrived there on my own.

Maybe it's just me. Carry on.

Re:A little uncomfortable

[Anonymous Coward]

You're new here aren't you ...

Re:A little uncomfortable

[Anonymous Coward]

Slashdot is unbelievably biased. The submitter simply recognizes and embraces that. It's only a problem if bias is denied or unrecognized.

Re:A little uncomfortable

[Anonymous Coward]

If you haven't come to a conclusion about the RIAA, then by all means go and read what he has to say too. Most of us weren't born yesterday and don't need to hear another round of lies and diversions from the people who would turn off the internet to save their business model if that were at all possible.

To Mr. RIAA: Censorship is a loaded word? Guess what, censorship is even worse when implemented and not just talked about, and we just need to talk about it because you're trying to actually DO IT!

Re:A little uncomfortable

[Brain-Fu]

Since you could, in theory, take politically-impactful action, every person with a political agenda has a direct incentive to influence your opinions. Writing a piece that tells you what your emotional response should be is a common way of doing that.

There is nothing wrong with complaining about this, of course, but don't expect it to change. Better to maintain eternal vigilance in your guardianship of your ability to form independent conclusions, especially when confronted with such biased information sources.

Re:A little uncomfortable

[Hatta]

Complaining about this is a way of maintaining that eternal vigilance. If people don't regularly point out dirty tricks, people will stop noticing the dirty tricks.

Re:A little uncomfortable

[Joce640k]

Direct bribery/payoff of politicians is sooooo much more ethical than using shady rhetoric!

Re:A little uncomfortable

[Red Flayer]

But complaining about it is an example of another commonly-used tactic -- diversion.

Bonch has successfully diverted the discussion at the top of the comments for regular viewers into a discussion of whether it's appropriate to editorialize when presenting news items. He's changed the nature of the discussion, whether intentional or not, into one that has fuck-all to do with the subject of the article.

Just thought I'd point out the possibility that another dirty trick may be in use here.

Re:A little uncomfortable

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you not been reading the news? The RIAA uses ONLY fabricated info in every and all of their releases. No hyperbole is necessary. So of course it is an utter joke when an RIAA exec bemoans the spread of disinformation. There's no way a sane person could read the statement in the article and keep a straight face.

Re:A little uncomfortable

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd rather just read what Cary Sherman has to say and come to my own conclusions

Why should that even be mentioned? Are their times when you don't do that or encourage others not to do that? It is not just headlines this has to be done with, it is stories from a friend about getting into a car accident, a company that "messed up on a bill", getting a traffic ticket from a cop, the reason you are late for work, your boss who is an idiot, your neighbor knocking over your fence etc.. There are two sides to every story and 99% of the time, the person telling it is giving their specific version only either subconsciously or consciously to swing opinion.

I've personally read many of your submissions and comments and I've seen the same thing.

On that note, I read his editorial. He left out a lot of what that bill would have done and the shift in responsibility for policing content. He also comments on jobs and american money lost but he does not give any actual hints to how those are connected to the bill. The biggest thing I find with his rant is that is the speaking for the RIAA on behalf of the RIAA but not much about the bills advantages he touted related to his organization. He mentions foreign counterfeit goods, pharmacuticals, foreign knockoff etc. He does mention P2P but only how it was hurting him, not how or what the bill had to do with reducing P2P sharing. I wonder why he did not go into details why or how the RIAA would benefit?

Another thing, I think he seems pissed that campaign contributions and a heavy inside hand in controlling the media and news organizations he and others have enjoyed for so long was thwarted by sources outside his direct control. He is not happy with dealing with that obstruction.

Re:A little uncomfortable

[CanEHdian]

Welcome to the NBC Evening news.

Today, RIAA chief Cary H. Sherman courageously outed the opponents of SOPA as having engaged in shady rhetorical tactics. Last month, Wikipedia and Google disseminated misinformation about the bills SOPA and PIPA, bills introduced to protect badly needed American jobs against rogue foreign piracy websites. Especially the use of the term 'censorship,' clearly a 'loaded and inflammatory term, was used by Mr. Sherman to illustrate his point.

In other news,

Re:A little uncomfortable

[tbannist]

Lying by omission is NOT lying, so long as all the statements are factually correct.

Sorry, if you intentionally leave out material information, it is deliberate deception and thus morally equivalent to lying.

After all, by your reasoning saying "It's perfectly safe" isn't lying as long as I'm only leaving out the words "as long as you don't fall into the pit of rabid wolves".

Re:A little uncomfortable

[hazydave]

BIAS isn't BAD. Not even remotely.

The great Hunter S. Thompson created the notion of Gonzo Journalism as a mean to expose the inherent bias of any journalist as part of the story. Pretending to be unbiased is at worst a best a lie, at worst a sneaky means for a mega-rich media conglomerate to sway public opinion.

Understanding of Bias is the key here. The bias of the average poster on Slashdot isn't hidden... this is a major outlet of the Open Source (aka, FREE software) movement. I would not expect a great deal of community support here for a pro-censorship article. On the other hand, we'll probably have more respect for IP than, say, a similar forum on a Pirate Party site.

And we know from where the RIAA/MPAA folks get their money.. they have an just as much bias, but it's directed very strongly in a different direction. The typical representative of this crowd will have no problem with the idea that a few accidental censorships are no big deal if the end result is protecting their IP better. Personally, I liken that to other aspects of the law: it should be totally unacceptable to suggest convicting a small number of innocents is a proper price to pay for getting more bad guys.

I have not done studies, but I would bet that most /. readers would agree with Blackstone's formula: it is better to let ten guilty men go free, than let one innocent suffer. That's the problem with the RIAA/MPAA/etc. written laws that our highly lobbied legislators are selling here... they don't care one iota how many innocents get punished, as long as the guilty are stopped.

I'm an engineer, writer, and musician... I have the utmost respect for rational IP laws. But as such a person, I value freedom even higher. As in all things, I won't trade even a small bit of freedom for a large bit of additional security. This is exactly the argument that these pro SOPA/PIPA/censorship agencies are selling... your freedom isn't that important, our IP is more so.

I won't do it.

[apcullen]

I won't click the link. I just don't want to in any way encourage the Times to print this stuff.

Re:I won't do it.

[davydagger]

ok, lets be fair here.

the NY times is a very reputable paper. They've allowed an OP-ED from the head of the industry under assault to defend his position in an essay, which is more than reasonable.

Even if it is a 1. blatantly false 2. nothing more than propaganda.

Here's the sound of ...

[dkleinsc]

Well, it would be the sound of the world's tiniest violin playing a sad song, but due to copyright restrictions I can't actually post a link to it.

Re:Here's the sound of ...

[theillien]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f2PCWYAZQc

"Loaded and inflammatory"

[betterunixthanunix]

Yes, calling a bill that requires ISPs and search engines to block access to certain websites a "censorship" bill is obviously bad -- it gets people angry! We should just sugar coat it and hope that nobody notices that the bill pushes for censorship.

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[mdwstmusik]

Yep, using the term "censorship" is "loaded and inflammatory"...unlike the term "pirate."

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[Kemanorel]

Or the terms "stealing" and "theft," when copyright infringement in no way removes the original items from the copyright holders. Yes, it is infringement, and yes, it probably does impact their bottom line in some way (I tend to believe in more positive ways than negative than they realize), but copying an item is far different than taking it.

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[Tharsman]

The part I found the funniest was the "gem"

A gem: "As it happens, the television networks that actively supported SOPA and PIPA didn’t take advantage of their broadcast credibility to press their case. That’s partly because 'old media' draws a line between 'news' and 'editorial.' Apparently, Wikipedia and Google don’t recognize the ethical boundary between the neutral reporting of information and the presentation of editorial opinion as fact."

I am not sure what retcon he is trying to inflict. I saw a lot of news broadcasts, tv shows, entertainment programs, some owned by "Pro SOPA" organizations, actually supporting the frigging anti SOPA movement! If "old media" is so right, then... SOPA is indeed bad!!! But no. He just relies on the old "lets tell them no one talked about it and hope they don’t remember that 'old media' did speak about it."

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[saveferrousoxide]

it's really hard to say POIFCTAPKP so it can really stand no serious chance as a law

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[Nadaka]

They have moved on to calling it theft now that "pirate" has been ingrained in the public mind. Maybe in a few years it will be called copyright rape or intellectual property murder.

It is all part of a war on language to guide the arguments, demonize those who would defend sharing (like Jesus?), and brainwash people into being incapable of forming a rational opinion on the subject.

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe in a few years it will be called copyright rape or intellectual property murder.

Only fitting, since the MPAA compared the VCR to the Boston Strangler.

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[betterunixthanunix]

Oh no, there is new technology and old ways of monetizing creative work are failing! How dare people use their computers without paying authors?! Let's write a bunch of laws that criminalize common and widely accepted activity, so that an old business model can remain profitable in the face of a changed world!

The copyright system was established at a time when most people could not make large numbers of copies of creative works using the equipment in their homes; only specialized industrial equipment could do that. Now the world is different, and the law needs to be restructured to reflect the new realities of the world.

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[GameboyRMH]

From now on maybe we should call censorship "marshmallowship" or "kittencuddleship."

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[PRMan]

Jesus was the original sharer. He made 5000 fish out of 1 or 2. That thief! He robbed the non-existent fishermen (they were in the middle of nowhere) of their sales!

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[betterunixthanunix]

Authors could try to model that has been working for Pioneer One. Or they could publish books chapter by chapter, and not publish the next chapter of a book until enough money has been raised.

There, two ideas from me that allow authors to publish books at no cost using the Internet while still being compensated for the time they spend on their books. Maybe it is not perfect, but at least I did not throw my hands in the air, demand that everyone be labeled a criminal, and buy off a bunch of politicians to further my agenda.

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[Blue Stone]

Cary H. Sherman [...] lashes out at the use of the term 'censorship,' which he calls a 'loaded and inflammatory term.'

Unlike "Piracy".

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[spire3661]

"The bottom line is, if you do a good job and request a fair payment, people will gladly pay" This is the best statement in the whole thread. We have to dispell this notion that every artist must receive payment for every mind touched and anything less then full payment for every single head is a crime

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[wierd_w]

And story tellers used to retell old stories continually, in an endless succession of chinese whispers like mutation. Such retellings and changes influenced and were influenced by the host culture in a myriad ways.

Take for instance "the bear king valamon" from norway. It has at least 8 related, and well recorded stories that are clearly influenced by (influencing?) It.

This form of copying and adaptation is as old as humanity itself is, and possibly older. The strict denial of that activity is comparatively young, and I would argue deleterious to the culture, for the benefit of a single person, or group of persons.

I find that to be illogical, and do not buy the "without those protections, people won't tell stories anymore!" Party line, because it is clearly invalidated by more than 6000 years of recorded instances of literature and rhetoric holding prime cultural realestate without them.

"Well, I'm an author and I would have to do something other than write my books to live! Is that what you want!?"

Yes. Yes it is. You make stories, and the stories are special, but once you give birth to them on paper, they belong to themselves, and travel the world on their own merits. No more than people should crank out babies so they can be forced into prostitution as a matter of the parents vocation should literary or artistic works be similarly abused and monopolized for money. That's my opinion on the matter. You are free to disagree, and argue the merits of the prostitution angle, but I am not alone in that view.

It is important to stress that I don't feel I am entitled to your work. On the contrary. I feel your work is entitled to influence me, and cause me to create in turn. Art forms are memes. Memes don't live unless they spread and mutate. The same is true of more complex memes, such as narratives, imagry and songs. I don't want free reign to hoard songs, images and stories. I want those things to have free reign over the whole world as an audience, and not just rich patrons of whatever publisher you are prostituting the work through.

So, beautiful madame of the brothel, stop telling me that my desire to see your daughters be free to pick and choose for themselves is just my own greedy desire to have them for myself without paying. The truly greedy one here is you, who concieved them for the sole purpose of prostituting them for your own enrichment at their expense.

I appreciate the art, not the artist.

Re:"Loaded and inflammatory"

[DanielRavenNest]

His dad owns the copyright on fish, so he probably had permission

World's Tiniest Violin Playing....

[PortHaven]

Seriously, RIAA has some balls....

Piracy - originally a violent theft (usually at sea). Equivalent of a mugging. But they've changed it to simply mean unauthorized use.

Theft - the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. Wait, have the downloaders deprived ANYONE of any tangible property? Nope...once again, RIAA has changed meaning to unauthorized use.

So if "unauthorized use" can mean theft and piracy. Then SOPA can mean censorship.

Re:World's Tiniest Violin Playing....

[Anonymous Coward]

So, the RIAA was around in 1654?!

From OED, definition fo Piracy:

"2. The unauthorized reproduction or use of an invention or work of another, as a book, recording, computer software, intellectual property, etc., esp. as constituting an infringement of patent or copyright; plagiarism; an instance of this.

[1654 J. Mennes Recreation for Ingenious Head-peeces clxxvi, All the wealth, Of wit and learning, not by stealth, Or Piracy, but purchase got.]
1700 E. Ward Journey to Hell ii. vii. 14 Piracy, Piracy, they cry'd aloud, What made you print my Copy, Sir, says one, You're a meer Knave, 'tis very basely done.
1770 P. Luckombe Conc. Hist. Printing 76 Theywould suffer by this act of piracy, since it was likely to prove a very bad edition.
1855 D. Brewster Mem. Life I. Newton (new ed.) I. iv. 71 With the view of securing his invention of the telescope from foreign piracy.
1886 Cent. Mag. Feb. 629/1 That there are many publishers who despise such piracydoes not remove the presumption that publishers and papermakers have been influential opponents of an equitable arrangement.
1977 Gramophone Apr. 1527/3 Governments have begun to realize that unauthorized reproduction of records (so-called piracy) adversely affects also the rights ofcomposers, authors and performers.
1996 China Post (Taipei) 1 May 16/3 Authorities here said they have cracked down on piracy in recent years, but foreign computer firms claim they are still soft on piracy."

Re:World's Tiniest Violin Playing....

[Anonymous Coward]

> the television networks that actively supported SOPA and PIPA didn’t take advantage of their broadcast credibility to press their case. That’s partly because 'old media' draws a line between 'news' and 'editorial.' Apparently, Wikipedia and Google don’t recognize the ethical boundary between the neutral reporting of information and the presentation of editorial opinion as fact.

I wonder how the 'old media' that was so gallant about guarding the journalistic integrity would react if, say, a bill was introduced that allowed tech companies the right to pull the plug - for example, by shutting down transmitters - on any broadcaster that the tech companies *thought* was using unlicensed software. Think BSA on steroids. You want fair? Let's see that bill.

Re:World's Tiniest Violin Playing....

[kipsate]

You're making it sound as if it is a stretch to call SOPA censorship. It is not.

I Think It's Humorously Appropriate

[eldavojohn]

After all Slashdot didn't write any of that opinion, it was shoutingloudly so you should have known that it was just an opinion or editorial in response to the editorial. Wait, you mean you didn't read it as such? That's odd, I guess that was just confusion. Sort of like, you know when one of the 'old media' news channels has one of those bullshit talk shows like Glenn Beck that they play on their "news network" where he has free reign to act like a newscaster. And then when he says something completely false, they throw up their hands and go "It's just his opinion that happens to closely align with what we want people to believe. This show is entertainment, not news we just happen to have the Fox News Channel logo at the bottom of the screen at all times."

"As it happens, the television networks that actively supported SOPA and PIPA didn’t take advantage of their broadcast credibility to press their case. That’s partly because 'old media' draws a line between 'news' and 'editorial.' Apparently, Wikipedia and Google don’t recognize the ethical boundary between the neutral reporting of information and the presentation of editorial opinion as fact."

And when does Cary Sherman recognize the ethical boundary of paying off the people who vote on this bill -- a bill which clearly serves his interests?

Re:I Think It's Humorously Appropriate

[srussia]

Free 'rein'. Thought you would have known that.

Maybe he wasn't willing to give up his kingdom for a horse.

Re:I Think It's Humorously Appropriate

[s73v3r]

You essentially said, "Its ok for us to do it because Fox News does it too!" That excuse really doesn't fly.

Re:I Think It's Humorously Appropriate

[Curunir_wolf]

Here's a "news" flash for you - Beck isn't on Fox anymore. The advertisers all left due to pressure from a campaign led by Change.org, so now he's only on the Roku. But complaining about Beck in this context is pretty ironic, considering that all the other MSM "news" outlets kept mum about it, but Beck was complaining about how bad the bills are.

But of course that's the part that is really disingenuous about Sherman's claim. The MSM completely blacked out the story - they didn't talk about it at all. The bills were already written and ready to go, so the way to promote it is to simply ignore it as a news story, and don't even mention that there may be some controversy over a Congressional moving that's boiling over on the Internet and social media. Note that this isn't typical of them. News and conflicts that arise on the Internet are very often picked up by the MSM television news, so it's not that they didn't know about it. They were, in fact, supporting the bills by proactively ignoring the story.

Re:I Think It's Humorously Appropriate

[AngryDeuce]

This. CNN didn't even cover it before the plans for the blackout solidified, and even then, there was only a couple articles in their "tech" section. Until the actual blackout on January 18th, then they actually had an article on the main page about it, and the article was pretty simplistic at that. The actual reasons for opposing SOPA were all but ignored...

At least they admitted their parent company, Time Warner, was a supporter of SOPA/PIPA. It got all of a single line in the article, but they admitted it. How many other "news" organizations admitted their own involvement in the creation of these bills?

This entire situation only got coverage in the MSM when they were forced to cover it due to the opposition online. If not for the blackout, they wouldn't have said a word, despite the fact that there was serious opposition going on for weeks before that point...

Re:I Think It's Humorously Appropriate

[Avarist]

When did "we" ever make any pretenses about being journalists or any sort of NEWS organization?

Well, you know.... like: "News for nerds, news that matters" perhaps?

the very first comment on the NY times page

[Dr. Tom]

Mr. Sherman: You made a good point in your conclusion, "we need reason not rhetoric." That's exactly why it was a terrible idea for you to have written this rhetoric-filled inflammatory piece /we're done here

Senators and congresspersons are sold "As is"...

[Snufu]

No refunds.

Pot meet Kettle

[Registered Coward v2]

In a NY Times op-ed today, RIAA chief Cary H. Sherman accuses the opponents of SOPA of having engaged in shady rhetorical tactics

Fortunately, the RIAA and it's brethren always engage in reasoned, non-iflammatory rhetoric when presenting their case. After all, it's a well documented fact that every unauthorized, err illegal, d/l of material they own directly results in a terrorist organization receiving money.

He Still Doesn't Get It

[Tackhead]

From TFA:

But what the Google and Wikipedia blackout showed is that itâ(TM)s the platforms that exercise the real power. Get enough of them to espouse Silicon Valleyâ(TM)s perspective, and tens of millions of Americans will get a one-sided view of whatever the issue may be, drowning out the other side.

Cary Sherman still thinks this is a battle between "Google and Wikipedia" vs "Media Companies". And that the only reason his companies lost is because the other companies had better PR.

He still doesn't get that what happened was the people who consume the content - content linked to by GOOG, content distributed by Wikipedia, and content licensed by RIAA and MPAA - who finally got off their duffs and exercised their rights as citizens to demand that their elected representatives actually represent them.

I can't be too hard on him. When I ask "Who does Sen. or Rep. X represent", my answer is typically a company or group of companies that funded his/her campaign, and/or hired the lobbyists to write the bills that the politicians sponsor.

To put it in language that Sherman can understand, it's not that Rep./Sen. X changed from (R/D - MPAA) to (R/D - GOOG). It's that, this being an election year, and there being tens of millions of active internet users who are also eligible voters, Rep./Sen X represented (R/D - wishes of their constituents as tallied by their staffers, regardless of donation size).

Re:He Still Doesn't Get It

[Baloroth]

He still doesn't get that what happened was the people who consume the content

Don't forget: quite a few of the people who actually create that content(as opposed to simply distribute it) opposed it too.

Re:RIAA Thief

[Anrego]

I actually sometimes wonder about the individual people involved in big media.

I mean we like to personify the RIAA and friends.. talking about it as some kind of big bad pure evil entity, but it's actually a huge collection of people all doing their individual (evil) parts. I wonder if these guys actually take these attitudes home with them, or if they just play the part at work/in public.

Before you get angry at the New York Times...

[RobinEggs]

Please remember that a good paper publishes relevant opinions, not just ones they agree with. I've seen abortion opponents, global warming deniers, and all kinds of whackos published in their letters section, and you can be damn sure the paper doesn't agree with them. I'm not sure they ever publish full-length editorials they truly disagree with, but you still can't take the presence of this piece as the Times endorsement of Sherman's viewpoint.

So please calm down and stop saying things like "I won't click the link. I don't want to in any way encourage the Times to print this stuff". Censorship isn't just suppressing the very existence of opposing views in the media, you know, you can also censor yourself by refusing to even acknowledge and examine the viewpoints of people who disagree with you. You even ultimately censor your friends and peers to some degree when your behavior leads them to stop thinking and automatically ignore data from certain sources or types of people.

So click the damn link. Know what was actually said rather than just knowing the summary opinions and selective quotations from someone who did read it and already thinks like you. Understand that encouraging full-length discourse over sound bites is always a good thing, even if it it means encouraging lobbyists and liars sometimes.

the old media makes this distiction?

[davydagger]

That’s partly because 'old media' draws a line between 'news' and 'editorial.'

They say they do, but did they ever?

they play fast and loose about this too much. I think every subculture group thats ever been covered in the news can attest to this. They have a great way of influencing court decisions by assuming guilt or lack there of on the onset, and using "news" articles to cater to their opinions.

just because they keep the TONE quasi npov(less and less these days), doesn't mean the content is in any one bit NPOV. When they mean "fair and impartial" they just mean they "dead pan" it to have the stylistic elements of being "fair and impartial". Anyone who's ever watched cable news know how skewed it is, and how news broadcasters use heavy bias in their reporting.

FOX News

MSNBC

CNN

Even before this, they had a long history of skewing the news in any dirrection they like. They NEVER lived up to the standards they pretended to. Like the rest of their arguments, its a bold face lie. This is about command and control, and their made up authority.

Cary Sherman lives in a bubble

[LordZardoz]

I do not mean in the 'bubble boy' sense. Specifically, I do not think that Sherman interacts with anyone not in a position where piracy has caused real damage to their income, or who does not have a personal interest in maintaining the current copyright laws. There is no one who Sherman is talking to who is going to say anything negative about copyright.

Talking to Sherman about the privacy situation is like trying to talk to your grandmother about the internet. You may work with the internet every day and you may be aware of what Meme's are, you have an opinion on Facebooks privacy policies, and you know enough not to click on links to a certain .cx domain. If you work in that world every day, and all of your friends work in that world every day, it gets harder to relate to people who chose to live a life without an internet connection.

I have no doubt that Sherman was truly surprised at the amount of visible and high profile backlash because in Shermans world, he cannot understand why a 'normal' every day person would have a problem with SOPA and PIPA. So clearly someone else must have manipulated the agenda to turn the masses against his agenda. So I bet that Sherman is certain that once he carefully explains his position that everyone will understand why SOPA / PIPA is a good thing.

END COMMUNICATION

Re:Unfair huh?

[Jason Levine]

I think this is what he found so unfair. SOPA/PIPA opponents went about brandishing the truth when everyone knows that the truth is poison to the RIAA. This just in: Truth declared a WMD! (Weapon of Media-conglomerate Destruction)

Re:Come on

[betterunixthanunix]

There are valid reasons to fight against piracy

There are plenty of laws on the books to help companies pursue copyright, patent, and trademark violations. SOPA, PIPA, and ACTA are about creating this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_scarcity

By turning this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

Into a fancy version of this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television

Using tactics borrowed from this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_firewall_of_china

We do not need more legislation, we need innovative business models that monetize entertainment in new ways. As long as there is an Internet and people can buy general purpose (read: not restricted by DRM) computers that connect to the Internet, there will be downloading. Future business models for the entertainment industry will have to use downloading in some profitable way (this is not terribly far fetched -- musicians have been known to use filesharing systems as a form of free advertising).

Re:Come on

[dkuntz]

There are valid reasons to fight against piracy.

I agree... I hate it when my ship gets boarded by skallywags and they take all my stuff... and shoot at me too! It's very depressing.

It's not property.

[trout007]

"Policy makers had recognized a constitutional (and economic) imperative to protect American PROPERTY from theft, to shield consumers from counterfeit products and fraud, and to combat foreign criminals who exploit technology to steal American ingenuity and jobs."

From the Constitution Article 1 Section 8 - Powers of Congress

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

It's not theft of property. It is a violation of your Congressionally granted limited monopoly.

RIAA's position

[Enderandrew]

We have record profits but want more money. This is a crucial issue that Congress needs to tackle, because record profits aren't enough. To that end, we think that we should have the right to seize personal property without due process. And even though we're currently abusing the DCMA (filing mass take-downs for content they don't own or review), we feel we need more power and promise not to abuse it for censorship.

Why wouldn't people support that?

The RIAA holds artists back from making more money by fighting the adoption of digital music. As content becomes more convenient to digest, people will consume more of it. Stop fighting consumers and embrace them. That is the way to combat piracy. Just look at iTunes, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime streaming, HBO Go, Spotify, etc. etc.

What a load of poo nuggets!

[Ynsats]

First off, the "author" (used loosely) unfairly lumps the ENTIRE population into the category of gullible schlubs lapping up the misinformation spread by Wikipedia and Google. He assumes (which is par for the course for RIAA and MPAA) that the consuming public is completely made up of blithering idiots and thundering morons and that none of us are capable of understanding any piece of legislation that isn't presented to us in a manner that we "can understand". That destroys any credibility to his statements.

So I'm going to largely ignore what was said in the article because he largely ignored that I leaned about SOPA when the legislation first came about and read up on it for the length of time it was being deliberated in Congress. PIPA as well. Wikipedia only made it stupidly easy to contact my representatives...which I had already emailed about 9 times each concerning SOPA and PIPA prior to the day of protest.

I'm all for protecting intellectual property. But there are serious concerns with those bills that money-grubbing windbags like my senator, Frank Lousyberg, don't see. SOPA and PIPA are both bills intended to prevent people OUTSIDE the U.S. from stealing U.S. property. Great! I love it! But, explain to me HOW a U.S. law will apply to a jurisdiction outside of it's reach like, I dunno, Russia? China maybe? How are you going to punish Oleg in Moscow for a crime against the U.S. using U.S. based legislation without Russian buy in? Simple, you're not. The legislation will only serve to watch and punish U.S. citizens, the ones they say it's going to "protect".

SOPA and PIPA give FAR too much control to non-law enforcement bodies like the RIAA and MPAA by allowing them to get websites and even domains shutdown with "evidence" that amounts to "Hey, that looks like my words "the" and "and" on that webpage! I'd better tell a judge and get them shut down so I can investigate further!" (yes, I know it's exaggeration but it's used to show the absurdity) Once you prove that the ass trumpet that went to court and got the order is wrong, you can get your site turned back on and BAU it all day long. BUT! You have to prove your innocence first.

Let me restate that. You have to PROVE YOUR INNOCENCE FIRST.

What happened to innocent until proven guilty, in a court of law, by a jury of your peers? When did the RIAA become a law enforcement body with judicial responsibilities and furthermore, my peer? In most court rooms, someone with an invested financial stake is tossed off the jury or even reassigned because of a POTENTIAL conflict of interest. Not even an actual conflict, just the potential to have one.

I for one am not happy about any of that. I think the legislation is self-serving and far too open for interpretation. I don't even care about what Google and Wikipedia were on about. I don't care if they were spread "misinformation" or not. What I care about is some windbag, crybaby in L.A. putting out BS articles like this because legislation serving his personal agenda was shutdown by a government for the people and by the people because THOSE people think it sucks.

BTW Mr. Sherman, your profits and sales are down since 1999 because you make a shit product. Nobody wants to pay for your over-priced, overly produced, auto-tuned schlock. Piracy isn't destroying your business, your customers are. If my company lost 50% of it's market share over the last 12 years we'd be out of business...mainly because we don't have half of Congress in our back pocket to prop up our sucktastic business model and mediocre product line. I guess it's easier to point the finger away than to look at your sniveling, self-serving mug in the mirror, huh? So, tell me, what happens when you do actually get to stop piracy (good luck) and you're still hemorrhaging money and market? Who are you going to blame then? Or will we all still be stupid and not know a good thing when we are told to like it?

Re:Come on

[bonch]

So I can steal GPL code then? Technology lets me do it, after all.

Not to cut in on the INFORMATION-WANTS-TO-BE-FREE rant, but culture can't survive in the long term if its creators don't get rewarded for their work. Just because something can be done technologically doesn't mean it justifies itself. Some people, who are often new to OSS, get confused over the fact they can download Linux software for free and end up thinking everything should be free. As the saying goes, it's free-as-in-speech, not free-as-in-beer. If someone wants to sell their software, they have that right too. Would you like it if your boss withheld your paycheck and told you your code "wanted to be free" and that you were a casualty of technology changing the world?

You have to be rational and fight against overreactions like SOPA while acknowledging sane solutions for compensating content creators so that we can continue to enjoy cool shit in our society.

Re:Come on

[jamstar7]

There are valid reasons to fight against piracy. It ruins the argument to be so silly and inflammatory.

Sure there are. For one thing, it causes a menace to navigation.

By redefining 'piracy' as 'deliberate copyright infringement through means up to and including downloading digital copies off the internet without buying a license to do this', they lower the threat of those Somali gentlemen who recently made the news. After all, if a software/music pirate doesn't pack a gun, shouldn't we expect those same Somali gentlemen to be similarly unarmed? The point is, downloading a file off the internet isn't piracy, it's copyright infringement. If RIAA put the legislation in those terms, nobody would take them seriously. By redefining it as 'piracy', they can get sentiment whipped up a lot easier in their favor.

No, he does, and that's more dangerous

[zooblethorpe]

Cary Sherman still thinks this is a battle between "Google and Wikipedia" vs "Media Companies". And that the only reason his companies lost is because the other companies had better PR.

He still doesn't get that what happened was the people who consume the content - content linked to by GOOG, content distributed by Wikipedia, and content licensed by RIAA and MPAA - who finally got off their duffs and exercised their rights as citizens to demand that their elected representatives actually represent them.

No, I think he really does get it -- but it's easier to build a case against Google and Wikipedia as the next big evils to legislate against. Google, Wikipedia, and the open Internet in general are anathema to the old top-down television-and-radio style of content provision. I don't think he's trying to sway public opinion, he's making a calculated misrepresentation to emphasize the perceived danger of these two with Congress and thereby pave the way for the next round of paid-for dubious laws that help narrow the competition. The more the MAFIAA can turn the Internet into just another TV channel, the more they can extend their ride on the gravy train.

He really does get it. And that makes him more dangerous.

Nerd-rant deconstruction

[JustinOpinion]

I know it's a sign of weakness to do a line-by-line rebuttal of flamebait, but TFA is seriously pissing me off.

Policy makers ... knew that music sales in the United States are less than half of what they were in 1999, when the file-sharing site Napster emerged, and that direct employment in the industry had fallen by more than half since then, to less than 10,000.

These statements are not backed up. Given the industry's history of exaggerating their claims, I put the onus on them to prove that these numbers are in any way correct.

Consider, for example, the claim that SOPA and PIPA were “censorship,” a loaded and inflammatory term designed to evoke images of crackdowns on pro-democracy Web sites by China or Iran.

Yet the author's use of "theft" and "piracy" are totally neutral, without any intent to evoke particular emotions in the readership?

When the police close down a store fencing stolen goods, it isn’t censorship, but when those stolen goods are fenced online, it is?

This is being purposefully obtuse. The claims of 'censorship' were about collatoral damage: that the laws would have a chilling effect and would be open to abuse. No one was directly equating "shutting down online counterfitting sites" with censorship. (Although, of course, the difference between shutting down a physical store and an online presence is indeed that the Internet is all about communication/data-transfer, and curtailing communication is essentially censorship.)

They also argued misleadingly that the bills would have required Web sites to “monitor” what their users upload, conveniently ignoring provisions like the “No Duty to Monitor” section.

This is an interesting claim. But if the author is sure that the "No Duty to Monitor" section protects conveyors of content, then why not spell that argument out in detail? Why not quote from the bill, and explain how this protection works? That is the very crux of the disagreement, it would seem, yet the author just mentions it in passing.

Apparently, Wikipedia and Google don’t recognize the ethical boundary between the neutral reporting of information and the presentation of editorial opinion as fact.

This is perhaps the only valid point in the entire piece. It is true that Wikipedia and Google (in very different ways) strive for some measure of neutral transmission of information. I can see how one could argue that using their position as trusted sources of information to spread their own viewpoint is an abuse. However:
1. This is begging the question, by assuming that what Wikipedia and Google were reporting was incorrect. But that is precisely what the debate is about: is it true that SOPA/PIPA would lead to collatoral censorship? If the claim is true (and as far as I can tell, it is), then Wikipedia spreading that information was just another manifestation of them spreading truthful statements.
2. These entities do have a right to let their opinion be known.
3. The opinion piece provides no reason why these companies would be misinforming the populace. What is it they hope to get out of it? Their stated reason is simple: that they wanted to stop the legislation because they couldn't continue operating under the legislation. The author provides no evidence, not even spurious reasoning in fact, for any other motivation. So, one could accuse them of being mistaken, but to accuse them of pushing an ideology is wrongheaded.

“old media” draws a line between “news” and “editorial.”

This is laughable. Mainstream media has a well-documented history of injecting bias into their reporting (everything from their selection of what to cover, to how events are described, to thinly-veiled ed

Re:US law and RIAA disagree

[b4dc0d3r]

Oh good, you took everything out of context to prove your point. Usage in that sense came from the actual "pirate at sea stealing things" sense.

And in every example you have given except for 1996, these are the "traditional" meanings of piracy. Even the 1996 entry probably relates to selling counterfeit software, which is common in poor parts of Asia. A physical good is either copied mechanically or reproduced on another medium. Of course the 1654 quote is not long enough to tell if it involves ships.

I don't see any evidence that anyone but the BSA / MAFIAA and media printing MAFIAA quotes have brought "unauthorized use" into the common usage of the word "piracy" until the pre-BSA did in the 1970's. The very concept of copying without using a physical medium did not exist until the digital age.

Copying a disc and selling the disc, whether it's music or software, or movie, meets the pre-MAFIAA definition. But it does not meet the "downloading without paying for it" definition from the 1970's, and I draw a clear line between monetary gain and gainless copying.

Piracy is a subset of copyright infringement which downloading is not a part of, and this overloaded usage equates violently storming a ship at see and plundering its booty with clicking a link and having something without paying for it.

I believe in the evolution of language, but this is not an acceptable overload of the word. We should not accept such usage.

In US law, which is what the MAFIAA follow and what we are discussing for SOPA/PIPA, Piracy is almost always either accompanied by "profiteering" in the sense of counterfeit or otherwise copied tangible items, or specifically qualified as in "Cyberpiracy" such as 15 USC 1129.

The RIAA website answers the "Piracy" question with specifics using "copyright infringement" and "unauthorized", not "piracy"

http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=piracy_online_the_law

A report to Congress summarizes the usage of the term "piracy", and software/music/movies are not mentioned.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm00009.htm

It has only caught on in sound bites from MAFIAA, therefore I don't accept the redefinition.

perfectly comfortable

[bzipitidoo]

I don't see the summary like that at all. We all know the MAFIAA is reactionary, brutal, and flat wrong. They thoroughly deserve that reputation. They earned it by suing thousands of ordinary people, in an attempt to terrorize us all into giving up the Internet. And by trying to impose DRM on the public. The Sony BMG Root Kit fiasco alone is enough to condemn them, but they've tried much more than that. And they earned their reputation still more by bribing and suborning our legislators into supporting their insane vision, and attempting to hide what they do. Their motives in trying to keep ACTA secret are painfully obvious. They've shown no regard whatever for the damage they've done to the public and artists, while screaming very loudly and selfishly about the supposed damage done to them. At the very least, holding back public libraries from going digital costs us all huge amounts of money in maintaining, housing and tracking "dead tree" copies. Yet the damage they've done is as nothing to the damage they would do if they could.

No, it isn't bias to call it like it is. I don't feel there's much left to debate except the details of what will replace copyright, and so what'd I'd like to do is move on to that, not keep rehashing this controversy that's become almost as fake as the controversy between Creationism and Evolution. They of course refuse to admit it and want to keep it alive, to "teach the controversy", and they have some success because there are a lot of uninformed people who haven't heard or thought much about the issue. Moving on, how can we once and for all end this threat to our freedoms? Shut down this attitude so hard that anyone who ever again dares to raise it will find themselves sidelined in the same way that flat-earthers and other kooks are? A "Freedom of Knowledge" constitutional amendment perhaps?

Re:Come on

[lgw]

Not to cut in on the INFORMATION-WANTS-TO-BE-FREE rant

Information wants to be free like water wants to run downhill. That quote has never meant "I want information to be free" but rather "information is always one leak away from freedom".

The simple technological truth is, there's no way to force someone to pay for the use of digital goods. You may think of that as morally Good or Evil, but it won't make it false. Any successful model for rewarding creators will account for this fact (and likely won't include any of the middle-men currently fighting for survival - they're history).

Yes, you can.

[langelgjm]

So I can steal GPL code then? Technology lets me do it, after all.

Yes, you can.

Well, technically, no, you can't--you can violate the copyright license under which GPL code is distributed, but you can't actually steal it, unless you're physically taking away the author's hard drives, etc.

But seriously, I think the reason most folks on /. have a problem with GPL violations is because of the hypocrisy involved. Companies viciously enforce their copyrights, but then violate copyright law when it's convenient for them to do so.

Hatta's comment might be flamebait, but it's also pretty much true. Virtually costless, anonymous duplication fundamentally alters the economic underpinnings of modern intellectual property law, and there's really no going back. It doesn't matter how many op-eds Cary Sherman or the Author's Guild publish about how it's unethical to violate copyright... when you confront humanity with the ability to duplicate something of value at essentially no cost, there's only one reasonable result to expect, and it isn't self-control. This doesn't justify the behavior, but reality doesn't need a justification.

IP law needs a total and fundamental reworking to remain relevant in the next century. Whether or not this happens, culture will survive... how creative works are created and disseminated may change significantly, but culture existed long before IP was even a concept.