Post by JAI
Award winning composer, vocalist, and superhero
Since SOPA and PIPA have come to light over the past month, it would interesting to find out what all our friends fans think about the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act
Huffington Post put out a good article on January 19th, 2012 titled “What is SOPA? Anti-Piracy Bill explained” that thoroughly explains what SOPA is and how it could be abused heavily. “The legislation would allow copyright holders and the Justice Department to seek court orders against websites associated with copyright infringement. SOPA, the House version, applies to both domestic and foreign websites, while PIPA targets foreign websites. If that court order is granted, the entire website would be taken down. Internet users who typed in the site’s URL address would receive an error message, and for all appearances, the site would never have existed. Importantly, the court does not need to hear a defense from the actual website before issuing its ruling. The entire website can be condemned without a trial or even a traditional court hearing.”
So, basically, if we as a band use a snipet of any copyrighted material, including sound bites from movies, the maker of those movies could obtain a court order to shut down our entire site, force credit card companies to stop processing payments to our site, make google remove it from search results, and force 1and1.com from hosting it on the web! Then, it would take a court order to get it back up and running. SOPA makes it a felony to stream copyrighted video without permission, punishable by prison time
For a well established band, even if they have legal permissions, a mere accusation without evidence could happen, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars and most likely a musician’s entire life.
Related Articles:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-brodsky/hollywood-sopa_b_1258240.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16655272
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/21/sopa-and-pipa-bills-anti-piracy-legislation_n_1220817.html
