“Wikipedia and other Websites [Reddit and Boing Boing] are reportedly considering a one-day shutdown in protest of SOPA and PIPA, anti-piracy legislation they argue goes too far,” Nicholas Kolakowski reports for eWeek.
“Wikipedia plans on undergoing a self-imposed blackout Jan. 18, in protest of proposed legislation that it says would harm a free and open Internet,” Kolakowski reports. “The legislation in question includes the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) before the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. The bills are intended to curb online piracy by allowing copyright holders to block access to domestic and foreign Websites allegedly distributing illegal content. However, critics contend that blacklisting those Websites — and preventing advertisers from doing business with them — is nothing short of censorship.”
Kolakowski reports, “Google has already pushed back against the legislation, which would potentially force it into a more police-style role with regard to Internet content. In turn, that provoked News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, whose companies produce a significant percentage of the content pillaged by Web pirates, to fire off a Jan. 14 Tweet: ‘Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The best way to prevent rampant piracy is to make your content (TV shows, movies) readily available everywhere, without restrictions (DRM), and price it reasonably. You’ll have more paying customers and, at the same time, the pirated materials will diminish in value. It seems counterintuitive to free the very thing you’re trying to protect, but it’s working for music.
There’s a point where, if you make it convenient enough and price it right, piracy isn’t worth the effort:
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
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On red-hot online piracy debate, Obama walks a thin line – January 14, 2012