Hey everyone, Creative Karma here.
This post is going to be a little different than the rest of my usual fare because things are coming up in our government that need to be focused on.
Many of you might have all ready heard of the possible new legislative acts namedSOPAand PIPA that are trying to be passed into law. If you haven't, it's about time to wake up and pick up a newspaper or check out a website.
There are numerous sites and pages dedicated to talking about these two pieces of legislation. More than enough to understand what they are and what could happen if these new bills pass. And before I go any further I will say this: This site is purely dedicated to my opinion on things based on things I have heard and heard. Anything I say on this subject is based purely on the things I've read and heard about the legislation.
Now, to give a brief intro here,SOPA and PIPA are pretty much the exact same bill save for a change in words and things that are added or not there in the other bill. In short, these two bills are the collective idea and suggestion for how to stop internet piracy of American products such as movies, songs, games and so on.
Of course, this idea is a great one in theory. But then so is a lot of things in a perfect world.
Why don't I support these bills?
It's really quite simple.
These bills give ultimate power to artists or authors or companies that believe someone has stolen (aka being guilty of copyright infringement) to take that person to court to either sue the person or company and/or force the site to shut down or to remove/block that copyrighted item from their site.
While in a perfect world this is a great idea for making sure people aren't committing the internet version of shoplifting, this isn't a perfect world. It's very likely that some companies will use this power without mercy against even the slightest of offenders.
Imagine with me if you will. Imagine video taping your child walking for the first time. Cute right? I know it's adorable. Then, let's say you have music you have on your computer whether you bought it on line or in a store and you set this cute video of your kid up onYoutube with that music in the back ground or added to the video when you edited it.
Nothing wrong with that right?
Well, if these bills pass, there is a good chance that a company might go to the owners ofYoutube and try to take them to court if they don't remove or block the video from their website because the song itself is under copyright and people could download the video and steal the song.
So now that cute video of your kid gets removed from the video sharing site because you decided to play music during the video.
It might seem very far fetched but there is a possibility that companies may take it too far in the name of protecting their clients.
To me this is cutting the line far too close to taking away our right to freedom of speech. If it's not then it's really splitting hairs very closely.
I would gladly support these bills if the government would put restrictions on the companies and how much power they'd have over what is bannable and what is not. Yes, I created a new word there.
If the government could make sure that those people that are truly stealing music, images, videos and the like are the ones being targeted and not the little people that are simply posting things like videos of their kids or syncing music they bought up to a game they are playing that they are paying for anyway. It's that second group of people who aren't purposely committing copyright infringement but sharing their likes and dislikes and hobbies with friends and family.
Until the government can make that kind of promise, I'm againstSOPA and PIPA.
I personally don't want to see the day that I can't review books and show things like the cover art for the book because that'd be copyright infringement or the day when my friendTheCinemaChick has to shut down her site because she reviews movies and sometime places clips of movies on the site. I don't want to see the day where people like That Guy With The Glasses team can no longer maintain a website because they show clips of movies and books and comics and games during their reviews. I don't want to see that happen to anyone who is only expressing their opinion on a certain subject manner.
So, along with many other websites and the like I'm supporting black out day which is January 18th. This post may be getting posted in the morning of said date but I support it just the same. This same message will be posted on my other sites as well. This is because, while I may be an artist and a writer and want my works to be protected I don't want that at the expense of freedom of speech. I want people to show pictures I've drawn and make commentary on them. I want to one day have someone showing clips from a movie of a screen play I wrote. I want that because it only serves to spread my works out to everyone. To have them noticed by everyone and get me noticed and appreciated by people who need inspiration or like the way I think.
This is Creative Karma and I'm blacking out.
This post is going to be a little different than the rest of my usual fare because things are coming up in our government that need to be focused on.
Many of you might have all ready heard of the possible new legislative acts named
There are numerous sites and pages dedicated to talking about these two pieces of legislation. More than enough to understand what they are and what could happen if these new bills pass. And before I go any further I will say this: This site is purely dedicated to my opinion on things based on things I have heard and heard. Anything I say on this subject is based purely on the things I've read and heard about the legislation.
Now, to give a brief intro here,
Of course, this idea is a great one in theory. But then so is a lot of things in a perfect world.
Why don't I support these bills?
It's really quite simple.
These bills give ultimate power to artists or authors or companies that believe someone has stolen (aka being guilty of copyright infringement) to take that person to court to either sue the person or company and/or force the site to shut down or to remove/block that copyrighted item from their site.
While in a perfect world this is a great idea for making sure people aren't committing the internet version of shoplifting, this isn't a perfect world. It's very likely that some companies will use this power without mercy against even the slightest of offenders.
Imagine with me if you will. Imagine video taping your child walking for the first time. Cute right? I know it's adorable. Then, let's say you have music you have on your computer whether you bought it on line or in a store and you set this cute video of your kid up on
Nothing wrong with that right?
Well, if these bills pass, there is a good chance that a company might go to the owners of
So now that cute video of your kid gets removed from the video sharing site because you decided to play music during the video.
It might seem very far fetched but there is a possibility that companies may take it too far in the name of protecting their clients.
To me this is cutting the line far too close to taking away our right to freedom of speech. If it's not then it's really splitting hairs very closely.
I would gladly support these bills if the government would put restrictions on the companies and how much power they'd have over what is bannable and what is not. Yes, I created a new word there.
If the government could make sure that those people that are truly stealing music, images, videos and the like are the ones being targeted and not the little people that are simply posting things like videos of their kids or syncing music they bought up to a game they are playing that they are paying for anyway. It's that second group of people who aren't purposely committing copyright infringement but sharing their likes and dislikes and hobbies with friends and family.
Until the government can make that kind of promise, I'm against
I personally don't want to see the day that I can't review books and show things like the cover art for the book because that'd be copyright infringement or the day when my friend
So, along with many other websites and the like I'm supporting black out day which is January 18th. This post may be getting posted in the morning of said date but I support it just the same. This same message will be posted on my other sites as well. This is because, while I may be an artist and a writer and want my works to be protected I don't want that at the expense of freedom of speech. I want people to show pictures I've drawn and make commentary on them. I want to one day have someone showing clips from a movie of a screen play I wrote. I want that because it only serves to spread my works out to everyone. To have them noticed by everyone and get me noticed and appreciated by people who need inspiration or like the way I think.
This is Creative Karma and I'm blacking out.
