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Why I Support SOPA
Though most of you know what SOPA is, I’ll give a quick rundown for those who are unclear. SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, was introduced by the House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX). The intent of the bill was to give the Dept. Of Justice a way to shut down foreign rogue piracy websites. Presently the DOJ can shut down and seize domestic domains that are participating in pirating copyrighted works (the recent Megaupload case), but has no power for foreign sites. SOPA gives them means to extend enforcement for foreign sites through DNS blocking. The DNS is the registry that matches a domain name with its proper IP address. The IP address is the location of the site and the domain is the “nickname”. This is beneficial because it’s much easier to remember www.facebook.com than a long list of numbers. For these foreign rogue websites, when their URL is entered and a DNS request is sent, the request would be blocked from retrieving the IP address. The site is not gone. It’s still accessible by entering the IP address. Consequently, SOPA would make illegal the publishing of rogue site IP addresses.
SOPA also provides a new way for content owners to stop copyright theft. If a site meets the criteria of a rogue website, owners can go straight to the payment provider to cut off funding to the site. The provider is not required to stop funding to the site, but it has five days to contact the site and determine if it wants to file a counter notification. After five days the content owner can bring the claim to court, and get a judge to serve an order forcing the payment provider to cut funding to the site.
Now, about the opposition to the bill…
This copyright issue is a funny thing. When the internet first made free music available, I downloaded quite a bit of it. Honestly I didn’t know it was wrong. I thought, “Well, if Napster is up, then it must be OK.” Eventually I learned that wasn’t the case, and as I took on a profession in the music industry, I realized how detrimental that ignorance (and willful criminal activity) was to people who did what I now do. Through a series of controversial lawsuits, the RIAA has made it clear that copyright infringement is just as illegal as it’s ever been. And yes, it has always been that way.
Because I make my living creating copyrights, I’ve kept an eye on everything that’s been going on in Washington the last couple of years. And believe me… quite a lot has been going on. The internet and tech companies have taken one side, while the content owners have taken the other. Stronger copyright enforcement means many companies have increased liability for the activity they allow and profit from. Many file sharing companies have hidden behind the excuse that they merely provided a service, a channel to transmit files, and whatever is done over it is not their responsibility. It’s been a long process, but that kind of thinking is slowly dying off, along with many of those types of sites. Still, there is a mentality that sharing or downloading illegal copyrights isn’t really a crime.
The SOPA conversation has been an interesting one. As my friend Steve put it, “When your Dad owns the PA system, you get to be the lead singer.” That is certainly the case with SOPA. Most everyone is gathering their information from tech and internet companies. The hyperbole, fear, and misinformation that are being spread is strong and widespread. You hear phrases like “end of our liberties”, “breaking the internet”, and “violates the first amendment.” There is very little healthy dialogue going on. It’s all coming from one side of the table. There’s a reason that this bill had strong bi-partisan support. It was a good bill. The idea is a necessary one. If you grant a copyright holder exclusive rights, but there is no way to enforce them, the rights may as well not exist. The truth is, distributing pirated content is a CRIME. And it should be treated like a CRIME, which means it should be enforced.
Free speech is not being taken away. This bill does not block ANYTHING that is not an illegal activity. Your liberties are not being taken away. No one is at liberty to participate in criminal activity. This will not break the internet. Multiple forms of DNS blocking are already in place to combat things like phishing and child pornography. Opponents complain that it will take down popular sites like YouTube. That’s simply not true. It is in no one’s interest for sites like those to come down. Many content creators make money and market on YouTube, and as is always the case, the incentive is to make money. It’s this incentive that will always prevent rampant site blocking and funding cuts from payment providers. It’s in their interest to allow the site to exist (unless they are participating in illegal activity.)
A common criticism you will hear is that SOPA is the wrong approach because the music industry’s problem is not an enforcement problem, but rather a business model problem. The flaw in that argument is that these things aren’t mutually exclusive. There is a business model problem in the music industry. Slowly, because these things take time, this is changing. New rate negotiations and deals with startups reflect the music industries acknowledgement that people don’t want to “own” music anymore. They want to “access” it. In a perfect world, I think that all music should be accessible and free in the sense that you don’t pay for it individually. Soon we’ll pay for all our music in monthly service fees, or in fees built into things like our internet bill. Because of the changing way music is being consumed it’s much easier to regulate and track plays, which means that royalties can be paid out to creators in a non-title specific model. But the model is not the only solution. Enforcement is still key. If someone can get a product for free, your model doesn’t matter. The SOPA approach can’t be written off for this reason.
These doomsday copyright law predictions have been made over and over again through the years on all different pieces of legislation. They’ve all proven false, but this time it’s especially bad because of the way we consume our information. If Google, Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, or Wikipedia says something, we assume it’s accurate. They’ve convinced the very people the bill helps that it’s a bad idea.
It’s painfully ironic to watch my Twitter feed fill up with musicians, songwriters and artists who work at coffee shops and struggle to get gigs spreading anti-SOPA petitions and language. The reason that this is important for the music community is that all of our jobs depend on content. If you’re a songwriter struggling to get your songs recorded, it hurts you when labels cut their roster down and release less music. If you’re a musician, the same applies. If you’re an artist, it’s much much harder to get a record deal or publishing deal. The SOPA legislation is key to getting the music industry back on a healthy track. Think about where your information is coming from and look hard for the facts.
I’ve seen quite a few retweets of a quote that says, “Under SOPA you could get five years in prison for uploading a Michael Jackson song. One more than the doctor who killed him.” This type of statement is frustrating for a number of reasons. Foremost, this is ALREADY the law. For criminal copyright infringement, you can get up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, BUT criminal copyright offenders are people or companies who are egregiously distributing illegal content, like wholesalers.
Now hear me say that I’m a proponent for free speech and a free flow of information, and I believe there is a place for healthy debate in all this. There is no court precedent on many of these laws. We don’t know exactly how they would be interpreted. That being said, I believe the crafters of the bill have been very careful to protect startups and small blogs from secondary liability as well as ensuring the safe harbor provision and the DMCA still offer protection. Concerns should be voiced, but the problem is that rather than make these types of changes, the overwhelming cry is to throw the bill out. The bill is not bad.
This is a very good (and long) CNET debate with Mitch Glazier (VP of RIAA) and Larry Downes (CNET commentator). There is great dialogue about secondary liability and DNS blocking, two of the main concerns of SOPA’s opponents.
http://cnettv.cnet.com/ep-99-riaa-defends-sopa-fight-over-content/9742-1_53-50114357.html
“Quit whining about SOPA and PIPA. Where’s the public outrage over internet piracy?”
by Duff McKagan (Guns n’ Roses)
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2012/01/quit_whining_about_sopa_and_pi.php
On DNS blocking:
http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2011/11/15/dns-sopa-content-blocking-and-more/
