SOPA
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Google lawsuit forces MPAA-backed attorney general to retreat
Remember that post Google put up this week that accused the MPAA of trying to resurrect the spirit of SOPA with the help of state prosecutors (that included evidence based on some of Sony Pictures' leaked emails)? It just turned into a lawsuit -- and it's already having an affect. The search giant has updated the page to explain that it's asking federal courts to dismiss a subpoena Attorney General Jim Hood sent to Google back in October. That 72-page document asserted that he believed that Google has violated the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act, and had failed to take actions to prevent crimes committed by using its services. Now that Google is suing, Hood made a statement via the New York Times, calling for a "time out" and saying he will call the company to "negotiate a peaceful resolution of the issues affecting consumers."
Sean Buckley12.20.2014
The MPAA is playing politics to help topple Google
Google sees itself as an unbiased index of the web, saying that it only removes results when lawmakers deem them to be illegal. Unfortunately, that's not an argument that holds much sway with the movie studios, still smarting after the heavy-handed Stop Online Piracy Act was shut down. If the New York Times is to be believed, it's prompted the Motion Picture Association of America to use politicians as its newest line of attack. It's a move that even Google has felt compelled to respond to.
Daniel Cooper12.19.2014
How Aaron Swartz went from internet activist to martyr
In 2000 Aaron Swartz was just a terrifyingly smart 14 year-old. He was a faceless name on a mailing list, quietly contributing code and copy to RSS 1.0. Roughly twelve years later, in January of 2013, he became an unfortunate casualty in an ongoing battle that pits the government and its business allies against a growing army of online activists.
Terrence O'Brien06.27.2014
Events 2012: SOPA
The Stop Online Piracy Act, had it been successfully enacted, would have given US law enforcement agencies the ability to legally bar search engines from linking to websites that were deemed to host copyright-violating content (whatever that may be), provided said agencies were able to obtain a court order.It also would have given law enforcement the ability to bar advertisers and e-commerce payment providers from doing business with offending websites, but the bill's real party peace was its ability to block access to infringing websites at the ISP level.If you think that sounds oddly familiar, that's because it's essentially what The Patriots were trying to accomplish in Metal Gear Solid 2, although the bill's less clandestine methodology wouldn't have required the construction of a massive submersible aquatic fortress. As troubling as all that sounds, internet legislation isn't really in our wheelhouse since we're a video game website and everything. Once Nintendo, Sony and EA all put their weight behind the bill, however, the issue suddenly fell under our jurisdiction and became much more complicated, especially once Microsoft, Apple and a consortium of other tech giants expressed their support. Of course, anything that threatens the Internet's right to free speech is swiftly met by the razor-sharp blade of e-activism, with the whole of the Internet collapsing into a singularity of outrage aimed directly at the companies in support of the bill. As public objection grew, Microsoft, Apple and the other members of the Business Software Alliance rescinded their support almost immediately. Nintendo, Sony and EA followed suit shortly thereafter, though the ESA (of which they are all members) remained in support of SOPA. Rep. Lamar Smith (who had originally authored the bill) eventually announced that he was removing the DNS-blocking portions of the legislation, making the proposed bill somewhat less insane, but still plenty dangerous. Shortly thereafter, House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa cancelled a scheduled hearing and indefinitely postponed voting on SOPA, effectively placing the bill into a state of suspended animation. A similar hold was placed on SOPA's Senate sister PIPA, which sought to accomplish the same goals. It was not until both pieces of legislation had effectively been killed that ESA withdrew its support.
Jordan Mallory01.02.2013
Internet Association to lobby Washington, may tout Amazon, Facebook, Google among its ranks
Political lobbying is often a mixed bag at best. Still, there's a cautious amount of optimism surrounding the Internet Association, a soon-to-start lobbying group that plans to advocate for an "open, innovative and free" internet among US politicians. The unsurprising (if well-intentioned) aim is to prevent another SOPA or PIPA with more formal opposition than even the Internet Defense League can manage. Who'll be pulling the strings is nebulous -- officially, the Association will only say that former Congressional staff director Michael Beckerman is at the helm until a formal September 19th launch. That internet openness must extend to some very leaky representatives, however, as the National Journal, AFP and Reuters all claim that Amazon, eBay, Facebook and Google are charter members. None of them are talking on the record; we certainly wouldn't be shocked if the roster is real, knowing how much Google and other partners have fought takedown laws that would bypass much of the normal legal system. We're hoping that whatever manifests a genuinely rational counterbalance to media and telecom influences that often aren't very interested in protecting internet-only business models or due process.
Jon Fingas07.26.2012
Internet Defense League forms with support of EFF and Mozilla, bills self as 'bat signal' of the web
It looks like the Dark Knight Rises hysteria is affecting more than just spoiler-averse fans. Billing itself as the "internet's bat signal," the newly formed Internet Defense League is a collective of companies, websites and non-profit groups-- including the EFF, Mozilla, Reddit and WordPress -- banding together to nip future SOPAs and PIPAs in the bud. The IDL will officially launch today, and according to its website it's enlisting web denizens to sign up and "broadcast an action" when net freedoms appear to be under threat. The League is really milking that Batman metaphor to full effect; it will broadcast its logo, a cat that looks plenty eager to tackle all foes of speech, into the sky in five cities around the world, including, interestingly, Ulan Bator, Mongolia.
Sarah Silbert07.19.2012
Sergey Brin clarifies Apple and Facebook critique, says statement was 'distorted'
Sergey Brin wasn't too happy with how his critique of Apple and Facebook was represented in the media following an interview he gave to the Guardian. In a post on Google+ (hey, if he won't use it, who will?) Brin lamented that, "my thoughts got particularly distorted... in a way that distracts from my central tenets." The founder believes that undue attention was given to his complaints about Facebook and Apple's "restrictive" walled gardens, when he sees oppressive governments and state-sanctioned censorship as much larger issues. Of course, while Brin does say he admires his competitors, he never truly backpedals from his criticism or says that it was taken out of context. To let Sergey explain himself, hit up the source link.
Terrence O'Brien04.18.2012
Sergey Brin says the internet is under attack by governments, Apple and Facebook
One of the qualifications for scoring a CE-Oh no 'round here is actually being a CEO -- so Sergey Brin does not receive that honor. We will, however, draw attention to what some might call his hyperbolic ramblings. In an interview with the Guardian, Google's cool uncle said he was worried about the state of the internet and that his company could not have flourished in an online ecosystem like today's. According to Brin, the threats are coming from all sides -- most notably governments. While oppressive regimes like those in China and Iran get top billing, the US doesn't escape without criticism thanks to SOPA and PIPA which seemed perilously close to passing with support from the media industry. The co-founder also took shots at Apple and Facebook, which he said have built "really restrictive" walled gardens. For more smack talk from one of the most influential men in the tech industry, hit up the source link. [Image via Thomas Hawk]
Terrence O'Brien04.16.2012ESA spent over $1m last quarter, partially for SOPA/PIPA lobbying
Between October 1 and December 31, 2011, when the Entertainment Software Association wasn't having its quartet of lobbyists pushing lawmakers on subjects such as international trade, constitutional rights, immigration policy, and STEM initiatives, it was petitioning in favor of "copyright/patent/trademark" issues. More specifically, it was supporting SOPA and PIPA in the two Congressional houses up until January 20 when lawmakers pulled support.And all that lobbying can add up, as the association's disclosure filing reveals expenditures of $1,082,167 across all lobbying initiatives in the fourth quarter -- that figure also includes regular overhead expenses, to be clear. How much of that was spent on SOPA/PIPA is unknown, but by comparison, the Motion Picture Association of America spent $850K during the same period, which also includes its own support for SOPA/PIPA.The ESA collectively spent $4,391,201 last year, and declined a request for specifics regarding its spending in 2011.
Ben Gilbert02.03.2012
WRUP: Contact your [redacted] and tell them you oppose [redacted]
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too! Ladies and gentlemen, WoW Insider is not where I typically get political, but there's something that needs to be said. And if I'm going to say it anywhere, it's going to be on the rudderless ship of filler we've all come to know and love as WRUP. As you may know, this past week, half the internet wound up blacking itself out in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), two anti-piracy bills that could have wide-reaching consequences in terms of what those of us who make a living as internet creatives do. The congressmen who support the bill barely know what the internet is and sound like sputtering children when they try to explain why SOPA and PIPA are good bills. They're not. SOPA is dead for now, but its House sponsor promises to bring it back in February. PIPA, SOPA's sister bill in the U.S. Senate, is undergoing retooling after a massive nationwide protest Wednesday. We did good, but we haven't won. And because the bad guys have unlimited money and stand to make more of it by passing SOPA/PIPA, we may never win for good. They'll keep trying. We have to keep fighting. Why should you care? There's this thing out there called fair use that lets us at WoW Insider use certain copyrighted material to bring joy to your life. Fair use is what lets us talk about and show you images from World of Warcraft without having to beg Blizzard's permission. Fair use is what lets me bring video clips like that of Duane above into your life. SOPA and PIPA would literally kill WRUP. SOPA would kill Duane. OK, I've said my piece. I'll get down from the soap box and hand you back your WRUP. Watch that video of Duane over and over again until the bad taste of politics is out of your mouth. Today's bonus question is a fairly innocuous, SOPA-free one: How far have you progressed in the new Dragon Soul raid? Are you running hard modes? Working on 10-mans? Or just running the Raid Finder? The world needs to know.
Fox Van Allen01.20.2012ESA withdraws support for SOPA
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) -- or, more accurately, its membership -- has decided to withdraw support for the ailing "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA). The move comes as both SOPA and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) continue to lose momentum."From the beginning, ESA has been committed to the passage of balanced legislation to address the illegal theft of intellectual property found on foreign rogue sites. Although the need to address this pervasive threat to our industry's creative investment remains, concerns have been expressed about unintended consequences stemming from the current legislative proposals," the ESA wrote in a public statement."Accordingly, we call upon Congress, the Obama Administration, and stakeholders to refocus their energies on producing a solution that effectively balances both creative and technology interests. As an industry of innovators and creators, we understand the importance of both technological innovation and content protection and are committed to working with all parties to encourage a balanced solution."Although SOPA and PIPA have retreated away from a vote, both had some powerful backing and could come back. You can continue to contact Congress and the US State Department and let them know how you feel by filling out forms found here.
Alexander Sliwinski01.20.2012WoW Moviewatch: Operation GnoVibrator Fury
Who knew? It turns out that Anonymous is largely made up of gnomes. That's probably not a surprise to any of us who spent real time with gnomish engineering. With all the recent talk of SOPA, PIPA, and Megaupload, the gnome members of the hacktivist community finally decided to take action. Working through Olibith, these gnomes have announced Operation GnoVibrator Fury. They are Anonymous. They are pretty small. They do not forgive. And most of the time, they do not forget. This is a super-short video (see what I did there?), but it's a lot of fun. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Michael Gray01.20.2012
PIPA on hold in light of 'legitimate issues raised by many,' says Senate majority leader Harry Reid [update]
It seems that the unending stream of protest from the internet, as well as from the meatspace, have helped to slow -- and potentially stop -- one of the broad reaching anti-piracy acts being proposed for legislation in the US Congress. An upcoming Senate vote on the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) has been postponed by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV).In a press release issued by Reid's office this morning, he cites "legitimate issues" brought up by protesters keeping the bill from being voted on, and calls on PIPA author and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy to "continue engaging with all stakeholders to forge a balance between protecting Americans' intellectual property, and maintaining openness and innovation on the internet."Reid remains "optimistic" that the Senate will work out any issues with the bill "in the coming weeks," but given the bill's sister act in the house (SOPA) also getting a big delay, we're not similarly optimistic about PIPA's reintroduction. Additionally, Reuters reports that a "senior Democratic aide" speaking on condition of anonymity claimed the act was unable to garner support among the Senate, thus abetting in this delay.Update: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) issued a statement in response to the PIPA announcement, specifically addressing his SOPA bill in the House. "It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products." His complete statement can be found here. [ER 09 via Shutterstock]
Ben Gilbert01.20.2012
PIPA and SOPA votes pushed back in the face of overwhelming opposition
In the face of overwhelming opposition from just about every major technology company and the general public, the US Senate and House have decided to delay votes on the anti-piracy bills known as PIPA (Senate) and SOPA (House). Majority leader Harry Reid and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith both announced that upcoming work on the acts would be delayed, "until there is wider agreement on a solution." While both have said that concerns over piracy must be addressed, it seems unlikely that they or any other politician will be rushing to revive the would-be laws after very public protests from Google and Wikipedia and the reported deluge of phone calls and emails that hammered offices at the capital Wednesday. The fight over intellectual property rights and fair use is far from over but, as the sibling bills face yet another delay, it's beginning to appear as if SOPA and PIPA's days are numbered
Terrence O'Brien01.20.2012WoW Moviewatch: Mister Evil Runs for Office
Mister Evil Runs for Office is an older Oxhorn video, released a little over a year ago. While the video was a general political parody at the time, it's been on my mind lately as we all consider the ramifications of SOPA. Ostensibly, the video is about Mister Evil's doomed race to become dean of Evil University. When I watch the video, though, I can't help but think about the shenanigans, sound-bite politics, and general distasteful miasma that surround our elections. While the entire political speech is obviously fantasy and fake, Evil's words unmistakably remind me of actual, real-world campaigns. That's a scary thought. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Michael Gray01.19.2012
The Daily Grind: How political should game companies be?
So, who here has heard about this SOPA thing? PIPA? Anyone? I would venture a guess that most of you out there have not only heard about it, but you're violently opposed to it, as are Massively, Joystiq, and our parent company AOL. To think we're not is silly because the internet is our livelihood. But politics and videos games don't usually mix, so this is new ground for us. When you read about game companies boycotting SOPA/PIPA, the reaction is mixed among players. Some respect the fact that these companies are rising up against this piece of legislation while others think these studios should just concentrate on making (or fixing) their games. But the entertainment industry is far from a stranger to politics. From Neil Young to Dave Mustaine to Kanye West, politics are a staple of music, and movies usually do their part in portraying every opinion on major political issues. So why should games and game companies be any different? Let us know what you think of the mix of politics and gaming in the comments below! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Shawn Schuster01.19.2012
Daily Update for January 18, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Steve Sande01.18.2012
Virgin Media suffers three hour outage days after announcing super-fast broadband
Less than a week after announcing it would double customers broadband speeds nationwide, Virgin Media suffered a nationwide blackout that sent the network dark for most of Tuesday evening. At 5:00, the service dropped after router hardware decided it couldn't go on streaming the same episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show to the nation. The company admitted to the fault and service was restored by 8:00pm. Had it been smarter, it could have gotten away with passing the whole thing off as a SOPA protest, but we admire Virgin's honesty -- even if it did lead to the brilliant comment on Twitter pictured above.
Daniel Cooper01.18.2012
The Queue: Research like it's 1995
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Do you like WoW Insider? Do you like WoW? Do you like the internet? Then you should be concerned about SOPA and PIPA, even if you're not living in the United States. Go read about them. holtzmanneffect asked: do you think the world will survive an entire day without Wikipedia? Some people on the Internet will have their first taste of a post-apocalyptic future tomorrow! I didn't last very long. Thirty minutes in, I regressed to playing MindMaze.
Alex Ziebart01.18.2012
TUAW on SOPA and PIPA: What they are and why we're against them
By now, news about two bills making their way through the US legislative approval process, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), has spread like wildfire across the Internet, along with widespread criticism of both bills. As part of that criticism, if you're reading this on January 18, 2012 and you try to click on either of those links above, you may notice that neither of them work as expected. That's because Wikipedia, one of the most-trafficked and most well-known sites on the Internet, has pledged to "go dark" for 24 hours in protest against both bills. If you hit Google for information on the two bills that same day, you'll likely find that the Internet's most popular website is also protesting the provisions in these controversial bills. We briefly considered following suit and taking TUAW offline during the same period, but we decided that it would be better to take the opportunity to educate our readers on the implications of these two bills, and why we think they're ill-advised. SOPA is the US House of Representatives' version of a bill intended to "promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes." PIPA is a broadly similar bill working its way through the US Senate, with the full title "Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act." Depending on how libertarian your mindset is, this type of phrasing either sounds perfectly innocuous or like the stamping of marching boots right outside your front window. The intent of both bills is to crack down on illegal sharing of copyrighted media content, colloquially known as "piracy," especially of films and music. Not coincidentally, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) are the biggest supporters of both SOPA and PIPA; the MPAA in particular has issued a somewhat melodramatic response to the criticism of these bills. PC World had a good overview of SOPA as far back as November -- things move slowly in the US legislature -- and Kirby Ferguson from the "Everything is a Remix" web series produced a short video, embedded below, which outlines the US Senate's similar PROTECT-IP Act, criticizing it as a lashing out against the fundamental freedom Internet users have enjoyed since day one. Essentially, both bills are designed to increase the United States' ability to enforce US copyright law outside its own borders, since the Internet knows no national boundaries. The bills specifically mention "rogue websites" that function outside the US -- and I think we all know who some of the biggest targets are -- which the various content producers have accused of being repositories of pirated copyrighted works. Court orders against such sites would be intended to block websites, financial institutions, ad networks, and search engines from linking to or having anything to do with "infringing" sites, essentially walling them off from the rest of the Web like a cyst -- or such is the intent. [Some of the most technically problematic portions of SOPA, including the ability to DNS-blacklist offending sites, are already working their way out of the bill. –Ed.] In reality, neither bill is likely to stem the tide of copyright violations in the slightest. The site blocking provisions in each bill are almost laughably circumventable -- in many cases, simply knowing the IP address of the offending site and inputting that rather than its URL is enough to get around the restrictions. What has the rest of the Internet (and us) up in arms are the rather Orwellian implications of these bills, which essentially amount to Internet censorship in the name of safeguarding the profitability of the entertainment industry. SOPA and PIPA threaten to undermine the Internet and transform it into something no one wants to see. Opposition to this bill isn't coming solely from vocal, idealistic neckbeards, either; SOPA opponents include not just Wikipedia and Google, but other organizations you may recognize such as AOL, Facebook, Twitter, the Mozilla Foundation, and the White House itself. Why the opposition? Let's take a step back and answer a question: Aside from "a series of tubes," what exactly does the Internet represent? The Internet has arguably done more for the free expression of ideas than any other invention in human history, including the printing press. I'm sitting in a swiveling office chair in my lounge in New Zealand as I type this, and these words will find their way onto the Macs, PCs, iPads, and iPhones of tens of thousands of readers all over the world. My benevolent corporate overlords at AOL have a few basic guidelines for the things I can and cannot write here, and my fellow TUAW editors have some guidelines of their own, but other than that, I can say pretty much whatever I want with a guaranteed global audience. That's an incredibly powerful set of circumstances, and it's one that virtually anyone with a computer and internet access can build for themselves. Anyone with a voice can broadcast that voice to virtually anyone anywhere in the world. That simply wasn't possible before the Internet; free exchange of ideas still existed, but the power to broadcast those ideas rested within the hands of a relatively smaller subset of society. That's no longer the case, and unless a rogue solar flare fries the electrical grid beyond repair, it will never be the case again. Here's a more pertinent example with more wide-ranging implications than anything I've said on TUAW. People have debated how much influence the Internet had on the Arab Spring riots of 2011, but if the Internet was even a minor player in the organization and communication of these movements seeking democracy in countries that have never known it, that's something worth fighting for. SOPA and PIPA are antithetical to the free expression of ideas underpinning the foundations of the Internet. The entertainment industry has been at odds with the Internet almost since its inception; the film, music, and television industries have never had customer convenience as their core principle, but rather tight control over the supply and distribution of their content. As recently as the 1960s, these three industries essentially had total dominion over the cultural landscape; with rare exceptions, you'd never see a film outside of a theater, or a television program not broadcast on one of the big three US networks, or be able to purchase for yourself a song you'd heard on the radio anywhere but inside a record store. This was a sweet setup for the entertainment industry, but not so great for consumers. Over the years, as technological improvements have made it easier to distribute such media content -- over both sanctioned and "rogue" channels -- the balance has tipped in decidedly the other direction. With few exceptions, I can go from thinking about watching a film to actually watching it within minutes. I don't even need to have a broadcast antenna hooked up to my television in order to keep up with my favorite TV shows -- and indeed, I don't have one. Using apps on my iPhone, I can hear a new song on the radio, identify it, find it in the iTunes Store, download it, and listen to it again, almost instantly. The entertainment industry has fought against that kind of user convenience every step of the way. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was all about trying to ban cassette tapes and VHS so that consumers couldn't record songs off the radio or movies off of broadcast TV. In the late 1990s, when DVDs and MP3 players first hit the market, the industry made sure to wrap DVDs in layers of copy protection and tried to ban digital music players (ask Apple how that one worked out). Remember the nearly decade-long, drawn-out battle between the RIAA and the rest of Earth? It sued Napster out of existence, pursued further suits against teenagers and old ladies, and tried its damnedest to thwart Apple's efforts at digital music distribution. As recently as a few years ago, songs sold on the iTunes Store were still encumbered with DRM restrictions -- at the insistence of the major labels and against Apple's wishes -- but those restrictions have since disappeared, and the iTunes Store is now the number one seller of music in several parts of the world. The film, television, and music industries have fought tooth and nail against technologies and distribution methods that emphasize user convenience over distributor control for the past 50 years, and they've funneled millions of dollars into Congress in order to get laws like the DMCA, SOPA, and PROTECT-IP passed. The end result of the DMCA itself has been a confusing, Balkanized landscape as far as online media distribution goes, and it hasn't affected piracy in the slightest. For all their intentions, neither SOPA or PROTECT-IP are likely to measurably impact piracy either; instead, they will make it easier for the entertainment industry to abuse its already outlandish influence over the US government, and it will make it easier for the US government to undermine the very foundation of the Internet. Here's how you stop piracy: You won't. Ever. There will always be people who want something for nothing, and no amount of trying is going to stop those people from looking for and finding it. Just accept it and move on. Here's how you reduce piracy: Make it easier for people who want to access and pay for your content. That means no more arbitrary restrictions on what devices we can view it on. That means making the same content available to everyone, worldwide, simultaneously or as close to it as feasible, and at a fair price that consumers won't balk at. No more geo-restrictions on online content -- this is the Worldwide Web. No more distribution delays to overseas territories. No more region coding on DVDs and Blu-rays. No more DRM on electronically-distributed media. And for God's sake, no more forcing me to sit through two minutes of anti-piracy propaganda every single time I insert a DVD. In short, stop punishing the people who want to pay for your "intellectual property." Oddly enough, Apple's already provided the tools to do this, from the distribution method down to the devices the content's viewed on. But in countries like the one I live in, content makers still Don't Get It. Let's try to do the simplest thing imaginable: I want to watch the latest episode of 30 Rock. It's a show made in the States, but I live in New Zealand. And... go. Right off the bat, I know I can't watch it on broadcast TV. Because of various Byzantine workings of the entertainment industry that I as a content consumer couldn't care less about, New Zealand won't broadcast the latest episode of a US TV show until weeks or months after its US airdate -- and that's assuming the show is aired here at all. To the Internet! NBC.com streams episodes for free on its site... but not to me, because I don't live in the US. Hulu is the same story. The show will find its way onto the iTunes Store a day later... but not the NZ iTunes Store, because it doesn't sell TV content. I have to switch to the US Store, which thankfully isn't as geographically limited as the rest of these digital distributors -- so long as I have my US-based credit card handy, I'm golden. But that episode of 30 Rock will only work on a PC, Mac, or iOS device. My poor PlayStation 3, which I use as my media center, just has to sit there feeling sorry for itself unless I insert a DVD or Blu-ray instead -- but I have to make sure it's a DVD or Blu-ray from the United States, because media manufactured in New Zealand won't work on my US PS3 thanks to region coding. (I can stream media to my PlayStation, but not DRM-encumbered video like the TV shows from iTunes.) If I want to watch a DVD made in New Zealand, I have to put it in my wife's MacBook, which has its DVD drive set to Region 4. If my wife wants to watch one of the DVDs we bought in the States on her MacBook, she's out of luck, because industry-mandated firmware encoding on her MacBook's SuperDrive will only let her switch DVD regions a set number of times before locking the drive down to whatever region she picked last. If I want to watch a film I purchased on DVD on my iPad, according to the entertainment industry that's just tough cookies. According to my personal code of ethics and Handbrake, the entertainment industry is on the losing side of that argument. I'm sure this is a bit of preaching to the choir, but isn't all of this more than a little ridiculous? I follow this stuff and write about it on a daily basis, yet even after reading over the past few paragraphs my head is spinning over the needless complexity of it all. And I pay for this? Here's what a "pirate" has to do: find a magnet link to a torrent, click it, and walk away. Depending on the speed of his connection, he's probably watching Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin yuk it up about 15 minutes later -- on any device he wants, with no restrictions and no BS. Do you know how much I would pay for that kind of no-nonsense, unrestricted access to content? At least as much as basic cable costs. At least as much the iTunes Store charges for its DRM-wrapped digital bit buckets. Instead, content producers keep finding new and improved ways of making their content more difficult to access, and they try to push through legislation like SOPA and PIPA -- wrongheaded bills that will do nothing to prevent piracy, but are exactly the foot in the door the US needs to make its version of the Internet look a lot more like the locked-down version you get in places like China, Saudi Arabia, or Iran. At the same time, I don't have much sympathy for an industry that's making hundreds of billions of dollars per year, giving a huge slice of those profits to studio and network CEOs, then complaining that teenaged pirates are stealing billions from them every year, when instead of embracing distribution methods like iTunes that make things easier for content consumers they go crying to the government and demand that basic freedoms be curtailed in the name of (theoretically) greater profits for themselves. The day the entertainment industry makes it simple for consumers in every corner of the world to have easy, equal, and simultaneous access to content, at a fair price, and with the ability to view it anywhere at any time without restrictions, watch how far the piracy rate drops. That initial drop is as good as it's ever going to get. You can write the rest off forever, because those are the people who were never going to pay for your content no matter what you did, and no amount of legislation is ever going to change that. In the meantime, stop punishing the rest of us. We need more freedom, not less. Photo: Paul Stevenson | flickr cc
Chris Rawson01.18.2012