PIPA, SOPA
So I'm a little late on the uptake, despite wikipedia going offline the night before home-I-cannot-do was due, but I really don't understand SOPA and PIPA. The pirates have changed the way people engage in media so fully and thoroughly that cracking down on them after more than a decade of successful operation is likely to hurt rather than help the producers of said IP.
I don't buy anything I can't preview anymore - drama series, movies, books etc. In the past it used to be that we'd rent these things from the video store, or borrow them from the library, involving lots of wasted time travelling and searching by hand. By making these freely available on the net, albeit in terrible video quality, lets me judge whether this is a piece of IP I would like to own. It raises the quality of material that goes out into the market. By banning its availability on the internet for free, you're letting inferior goods get sold due to ignorance. Do we really want to backtrack in our pursuit of knowledge and art?
I've bought many a DVD and novel box set because I'd gotten hold of one part of the series for free and enjoyed it so thoroughly that I decided owning a physical copy was a must, given how fleeting and changeable the internet is. Had I not been given this full preview, and only a movie title or a book synopsis, I'd never have bothered spending money on something I might eventually throw out. I'd never have had access to TV shows in foreign countries and gotten addicted so thoroughly that every new bit of merchandise for it must eventually end up in my bedroom.
The internet lets me buy for keeps, and in this information-overloaded, space-scarce world, that is something most valuable indeed.
I don't buy anything I can't preview anymore - drama series, movies, books etc. In the past it used to be that we'd rent these things from the video store, or borrow them from the library, involving lots of wasted time travelling and searching by hand. By making these freely available on the net, albeit in terrible video quality, lets me judge whether this is a piece of IP I would like to own. It raises the quality of material that goes out into the market. By banning its availability on the internet for free, you're letting inferior goods get sold due to ignorance. Do we really want to backtrack in our pursuit of knowledge and art?
I've bought many a DVD and novel box set because I'd gotten hold of one part of the series for free and enjoyed it so thoroughly that I decided owning a physical copy was a must, given how fleeting and changeable the internet is. Had I not been given this full preview, and only a movie title or a book synopsis, I'd never have bothered spending money on something I might eventually throw out. I'd never have had access to TV shows in foreign countries and gotten addicted so thoroughly that every new bit of merchandise for it must eventually end up in my bedroom.
The internet lets me buy for keeps, and in this information-overloaded, space-scarce world, that is something most valuable indeed.