The guys behind SOPA and PIPA are essentially rich, non-creative people leveraging America's power and global reach to ensure they can remain fat off the creativity of others. They are lawyers, big-shot producers, media moguls, owners of copyrights. They are not writers or musicians or actors or music- or film-lovers. They are, essentially, parasites.Once upon a time, I'd buy records by James Brown. Lots of them. Then tapes. Then CDs. Then the internet came along. James Brown is dead now. If I spent £17.99 on a rare CD of his early recordings tomorrow - where would the money go? To the record company that bought the record company that bought the record company that bought the record company that once upon a time - more than half a century ago - invested its money to record James Brown and the Famous Flames? To the relatives of Mr Brown, quarrelling over their relative share in his fortune? To the lawyers, servicing record company and heirs?
The copyright issue all clicked with me the day I watched Hugh Grant in the film About a Boy (2002). From IMDB's synopsis of the plot: "38 year-old Will Freeman is a slacker who has lived comfortably off the royalties of a song written by his deceased father, and as such has never had to work a day in his life." The film, coincidentally, appeared just as peer-to-peer music downloading was becoming mainstream.
Paying money to the heirs of dead people to listen to their music is wrong. After all, why shouldn't my children receive royalties for their late grandfather's architectural drawings, still underpinning schools and hospitals across north-west England?
I do not believe for a second that Sir Paul McCartney or Sir Michael Jagger ever had an eye on decades' worth of royalties cascading down upon them, their children and their children's children as they co-wrote, respectively, I Want To Hold Your Hand or (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. They co-wrote and performed their songs for entirely different reasons. Neither do I believe that J.K. Rawling wrote the seven Harry Potter books in order to become Britain's second-richest woman.
I wish Sir Michael Jagger the longest life. Let's say he lives to 100; this would mean he dies in 2043. Copyright law, as it stands, means that for the next 70 years - i.e. until 2113, all royalties on the songs he wrote/co-wrote will pass to his descendants. By then, his youngest offspring Lucas Jagger (born 1999) will be 114. And he will have been able to spend his entire life living off his father's earnings.
The reason that copyright laws exist is to protect the investment of the book publisher, record company, movie production company or software publisher. They must feel confident that the money they invest in bringing a book, song, film or program to market will be recouped. Fair enough. But the cost of doing so (in real terms) has plummeted thanks to technology, while the copyright owners (not necessarily the creators) have, over the years, been extending the protection period for ever-increasing lengths of time. [I can't tell you precisely how long, because Wikipedia's down. But when it's back tomorrow, check for yourselves].
SOPA and PIPA are attempts by big-money people, people who have more money than you or I could ever dream of, to hang on to a handy revenue stream despite the fact that the world is moving on. Technology and globalisation are changing it all. SOPA and PIPA, if passed, would allow America a huge say over who can and who can't access knowledge around this planet. This is just plain wrong.
This time last year:
Waiting for the sun
This time two years ago:
From suburban to inter-city
This time three years ago:
Into the trees
Once again the US is trying to impose its legislation on the whole world. I would like to know precisely why I was charged US$3 last time I flew with BA before a flight from Warsaw to London in order to register my personal details so that I would be allowed on board. Transpires that some airlines gave in to US pressure to register all passanger personal details irrespective of where they are flying to. And why should I be charged in US$?
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