SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

[cidbahamut]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

You mean Brian Williams? I missed him tonight, wanted to see how they handled this story. Usually they're pretty fair - hell, Time-Warner is in support of SOPA but that didn't stop CNN from talking about it in a serious manner.

Yes, Brain Williams. It was a despicable attempt to sweep the whole thing under the rug. NBC is now dangerously close to moving in next to Fox in the box labeled 'news organizations with no journalistic integrity'.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

Wana hear OMG, Icemage, Malacite and I talk about SOPA? Check out the podcast! DOO EET!

Everyone's Grudge: Archives

[cidbahamut]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

One of these days I'm going to remember to do that before Skyrim eats up all of my free time for the night.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

Yes, Brain Williams. It was a despicable attempt to sweep the whole thing under the rug. NBC is now dangerously close to moving in next to Fox in the box labeled 'news organizations with no journalistic integrity'.

They've been on par with FOX for years now. Somewhat worse, actually, if you factor in how laughable the whole of MSNBC is.

[cidbahamut]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

Just one more reason to get my news from Comedy Central. Isn't that sad?

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

Just one more reason to get my news from Comedy Central. Isn't that sad?

Well, so long as you don't take any of that seriously either, I suppose you're OK, but they're buddies with the MPAA and RIAA, too.

Let me explain how sick and twisted these organizations are and how the much younger ESA is already shaping up to be just like them.

As we all know, for any TV, Radio, print medium or website to stay afloat you need ad revenue. Other benefactors might be involved, but these things live and die on ad revenue really. Its how people get paid for what they do and how they keep the doors open and everything running.

So music was hit the hardest with change at first at all fronts. Radio was no exception to this and the radio stations that didn't accept that their strategies needed to change were among the first to have to face this reality head on. People took a like to audio streaming, drawing attention away to traditional radio. The smart radio stations adapted to integrate streaming and also found an additional ad revenue stream to enjoy, the stupid radio statoins instead focused on quashing streaming radio stations and preventing the resurgence of low power radio as low power radio threatened to take small towns and cities out of the commercial radio equation.

We know streaming won out in the long run and it is now where everyone is on top of traditional radio. Yes, we have an App for these things.

But once radio stations found this additional revenue stream and benefited from them, the RIAA came knocking. Since record labels themselves still were fighting the changes, they pushed for legislation in the house and senate demanding royalties from each song a radio station played. This, in effect, was altering the relationship between record labels and radio stations. Prior to this, radio stations had been given music from labels for promotional purposes. In other words, free.

For decades, radio stations had been promoting this music in good faith while working to keep their own doors open and then just as some of them were recovering they got hit with demands like that. Sick, utterly sick. I used to do a bit of newspaper and radio, so I have some understanding of how record labels see everyone as beneath them somehow. I was a co-editor for an entertainment beat and for months it seemed like we didn't exist to record labels, so we were just reviewing local band CDs as the bigger regional acts and the labels behind them didn't deign us worthy of promos.

But I decided to drop some cash here and there to get some of the larger regional or mainstream acts and wouldn't you know it? Promos from bigger labels started trickling in months after I started that. I guess they thought other labels were doing it. I had honestly given up on contacting labels with requests, so I was really just reviewing stuff I bought for myself.

This is how two-faced they are. You're a friend when convenient and something to exploit or turn against when they're too slow to keep with the times. The ESA has proven to be this two-faced within a year's time. They were with gamers on the California Law, but told gamers to fuck off about SOPA/PIPA.

These entities are not trustworthy. They do not have the consumer's best interests at heart and sometimes not even the interests of creators of intellectual properties. The RIAA has kept more than its fair share of musicians out of the loop. They did not strive to push for better contracts between artists and labels. The RIAA did not work on ways to make CDs cheaper until they had no other choice than to do so in the face of iTunes. They are fully and totally against changing.

[Malacite]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

MSNBC as a whole, yes, they're left-wing trash.

However for a long time (and even now still) I maintain that Brian Williams at least, has integrity. Guys like Ed Shultz etc. are just left wing versions of O'Reilly & Hannity. I'm disappointed to see Brian lower his standards like that, however. I seriously expect more of that guy.

Oh well. All the more reason to keep listening to Charlie Rose, Fareed Zakaria & Steve Paikin. Thank goodness for Jon Stewart Steven Colbert & Bill Maher too far that matter. Though I don't always agree with what Bill says, he's right on the money 9/10 I'd say. I love that Jon & Bill both take the time to do their homework and actually have intelligent interviews while cracking jokes (as opposed to Colbert who, while brilliant, can get a bit too silly and is pretty much 100% sarcasm so you have to really parse what he says a little too much).

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

Mal, this is why I mock you about boycotting. You are not consistent.

The frontlines of the media - the news corporations and commentators, the folks involved with the daily broadcast or publishing - they must be held accountable as much if not more than the house and senate. They claim to speak for us, for free speech and journalistic freedom and yet funny how it all disappears when its all on the line for an industry they're not a part of.

To hell with them, every one of them.

I can't say I would boycott all media, but those involved in the dailies out to obfuscate what actually happened? Fuck 'em. They're just as much of a fair target now. They had a choice, they chose wrong. Bill Mahar being a Hollywood pariah and Brain Williams seeming like a nice guy is not enough to save them.

I want to support the creators of fiction, sure, not the people that hide the truth if its inconvenient to them.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

Both NBC and MSNBC ran this ad yesterday.

Full article

Hollywood fights Internet protests with... TV ad, billboard, radio spot

Oh, and here's your friend Jon Stewart on the matter - "I dunno"

That's code for "I'll put my finger to the wind and see which way its blowing with my fans."

Jon Stewart promises to read up on SOPA, have "the Internet" as his guest

He might have views contrary to Viacom, his parent company, but he's still paid by them.

A lot of these guys could afford to have studios fully independent of Hollywood by now, but they choose not to. They like it the old way

[Raydeus]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

And to think it is these people and their archaic ways the ones (not so) slowly killing capitalism. They are afraid of evolving, afraid of free competition, afraid of adapting, afraid of their costumers, afraid of companies failing and raising, afraid of new ideas, afraid of the web. Pretty much afraid of every single thing that made capitalism successful in the past century and willing to bury their heads in the sand and living of past glory instead of facing reality.

All this while other nations around the globe are embracing the very thing these guys are trying to deny.

If it was up to them they'd probably live in a Vault made by Vault-Tec to try and survive the internet nukes because they are too afraid of picking up a gun and go outside to play.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

SOPA Sponsor Has Copyright Problems of His Own

Lamar Smith's site uses copyrighted images without citation or permission.

[Aksannyi]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

SOPA Sponsor Has Copyright Problems of His Own

Lamar Smith's site uses copyrighted images without citation or permission.

Pic related:

[Malacite]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

Notice how at the end of that add it says it was put out by the American Chamber of Commerce.

Pfft, as if anyone should even listen to those assholes. They're basically the largest lobbying group in the country who's sole interest is promoting big business. And what's wrong with Brian? Just because the majority of a network is rotten doesn't mean there aren't ANY individuals there without merit. And you can't really blast PBS either, they're the only non-partisan, publicly funded network out there. Bloomberg news is also very good I find, but you gotta pay extra for that. FOX, ABC, CNN (despite having axed Lou Dobbs lol) and NBC/MSNBC are all garbage but there are exceptions within them (except FOX - I don't FOX has even one saving grace, they're all pretty well full of shit.)

[Feba]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

There really ought to be some way to force them to change their name. There are so goddamn many things they support where their name is intentionally misleading people into thinking they're a fairly neutral party, like their city's Chamber of Commerce, and not a giant lobbying group.

[Firewind]

Re: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) / Is this for real?

Holy fuck Aks came back?