I was posting this around the internet yesterday... as an artist & heavily internet user (and pirate) this law has some serious shit going on.

..............


I've been following this law very closely and participating as much as I can, and feel I finally have to speak out against it. SOPA isn't about stopping piracy: it's now really about censoring the public. The laws may have started out with good intentions of targeting piracy... but in reality its not a threat to pirates, but a threat to the openly-speaking, freely-creating entertainment-loving individual that you are. SOPA can't stop media piracy, but it can stop you from growing and prospering without the very companies that are 'supporting' all of this. Let me explain.





First off, I must say the saddest part of all of this is that anyone who knows about media piracy knows SOPA isn't going to do anything to slow that trade down. Were you aware pirates have already written browser addons for both firefox and chrome that archive SOAP-sensitive domain's IP addresses (read: media piracy websites) and share them between users just incase these sites go down? So, when SOPA comes along and forces your U.S. based (or any other controlling government) ISP's to block The Pirate Bay's domain name so that you can't connect, all you have to do is download an addon that connects you directly to ThePirateBay and wham you're there. Thwre's even more advanced features these pieces of code can do, such as built-in proxy jumping, DNA & DNS spoofing, and all sorts of other fun techo stuff that I don't understand. It's already written, already available, and already field tested. Outside of pulling the whole plug on the 'net, it's impossible to censor the internet from those who know how to use its best abilities.





All that's REALLY gonna happen to the pirates is they'll move elsewhere. It's the people who live on the surface of the net (read: you) are going to be shafted from being able to express themselves, while the real 'threat' of all of this will continue unharmed. All SOPA is going to do is lead the piracy teams deeper underground where they're even harder to stop, meanwhile stiffing the lives of the masses. No more rare music videos on youtube. No more cover songs. No more borrowing of samples from Big Media for indie music. No more Justin Bieber covers on youtube (heh). No more expression.





And these media companies should know this, right? They have enough money to afford the research, so they ought to know this, right?





Ever hear of the darknet, or freenet? Places so outside the public's concept of the internet that most people wouldn't even consider it the same thing. These are other internet systems completely separate from the domain-driven ones that your Goggles and Faceblags exist on. Internets built on the connection of individual people's home computers that talk to each other and pass websites around... essentially these sites don't actually exist in any one place. There's no 'servers', there's just little bits from here and there that make it all up at once. Internets without anyone to control them, or have say of what goes. Internets where there really are no rules, and no way of stopping them. Internets where the real criminals thrive online, way outside of capture from the law. The real rings of extreme violence, pedophilia, jobs-for-hire, and who knows what else. Piracy is a fucking slice of cake compared to some of the real shit out there.





And, even scarier, who knows how many other internet systems are out there that are even more secretive, more inclusive, and more self-preserving? These alternative realities can't be controlled, and this is exactly where the pirates are going to move to when the legislation comes down on them. When the 'surface' internet too dangerous from them, they'll simply move on.



THEY ARE NOT THREATENED BY SOPA AT ALL.





What SOPA really is money chasing by greedy corporations stuffing their dollars into congress's pockets. As a media artist myself I've said it endlessly that the little artists aren't hindered by the internet; they actually thrive because they can be fond my the masses. It's the giant, outdated corporations that are threatened by the internet. These lumbering dinosaurs of corporate models are built out of fat middle-manager upon middle-managers who feed off the creators, and occasionally throw them a bone. They're old money made up from another time when artists couldn't be discovered easily on their own, and had to pay up to these fat corporate pigs to hopefully get noticed. These media companies have the money to boss around whoever they want, and they're sick of not getting their premium 30 dollars for their DVD-re-re-release of Bambi in the last 10 years. Gotta squeeze every last drop out of the masses, huh?





Are you familiar with Louis C.K., the hilarious standup comedian? Last year Louis realized he didn't need to pay Viacom (Comedy Central's owners) to get his standup to all his fans, so he invested his own money into a theater, lighting and camera equipment, and produced an hour-long video himself, and sold it online through his website and paypal for five dollars. Within two weeks he made over a million dollars that went straight into his pocket.



Didn't get that?



HE MADE OVER 1 MILLION DOLLARS IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS.



This was so far outside of his expectations that he didn't know what to do with that much; he ended up giving most of it away to charity. Know why? Comedians aren't used to making that much money; they're used to getting the scraps that their media hogs leave after gouging themselves sick off the earnings. They pay artists just enough to keep them around, keep them afloat, keep them writing jokes. Viacom used to suck up most of the profits from Louis's DVD sales, standup TV Shows, and cheesy joke products such as calendars, cards and who-knows-what-else-they-try-to-squeeze-out-of-him. This is how these pigs survive: stealing from the artist. These inefficient companies are FUCKING TERRIFIED of what Louis proved last month: Big Media is no longer required. They don't exist in the 21st Century. The internet can replace them. They're outdated, outpaced, out-thinked and out-thunked. They're bloatware in a constantly-(although slowly)streamlining society.





SOPA is their new weapon against it. If you can't compete, smother. So they're paying congress to grant them that right, and sneaking it through under your nose by targeting media piracy.





Know how SOPA works, on a personal level? All Disney, Viacom or Sony has to do is send a letter to your ISP or Youtube or whatever, saying that one of their customers (you with your website or youtube account) contains copyright materials (which in itself is a vague concept... because technically most information on the internet is copyrighted in some way), and BY LAW the ISP must: A. inform you to remove it, B. remove you if you don't comply to what the muscle says. Notice there was never a trial by peers, an examination or inquiry, or a a judgement passed under law. All it takes is a note sent from the money-slinging media giant, and... poof, you're gone. This is on par with the fucking mafia or openly-admitting corrupt politicians of the past; only now it's moving onto the internet, the last 'free' place we have.





I'm not opposed to piracy laws that actually target media pirates, but as I've demonstrated they won't do jack against them. But I am opposed to terms so vague that the concept of what this law actually covers has both internet experts and law experts scratching their heads, and I'm especially sensitive to forced mandates that attack individuals based off of unproven statements.





Pass laws that actually target piracy,.



Fight back. Stop SOPA.