SOPA/PIPA HollyWood Business Trying To Double Cross You!

There has been a large debate about who is the right and who is the wrong when pirating CD/DVD's. Especially when SOPA and PIPA made it on the scene. Many were concerned with what they thought was a right, and who was actually stealing.

I have bought it to the table that this was indeed a trap, placed by the same companies that are claiming that we were actually stealing copyrighted movies and music.

I called into the ATS Live show this past weekend, and bought up the fact that there is a way to prevent this from happening. Quite simply, stop the distribution of CD/DVD rewriteable drives. I mean it seems simple enough. Though there are warning in the beginning of every movie, it takes $10.00 and a trip to a store in order to perform this so called illegal act.

I figured that I would do some digging, concerning these easily available CD/DVD's that can be burned, and find out who is mass producing them, and why they are so inexpensive.

One of the largest manufacturers of these discs is SONY. I am choosing SONY as they a known brand, and have a large base connected to selling and manufacturing the same DVD/CD's that they claim are stealing their product.

SONY (yes the one that sells the DVD's that copy their movies and music) are also affiliated with the MPAA which of course is the Motion Picture Association of America.

The Motion Picture Association of America

The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA), together with the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and MPAA's other subsidiaries and affiliates, serves as the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries in the United States and around the world. MPAA's members are the six major U.S. motion picture studios: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Paramount Pictures Corporation; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; Universal City Studios LLC; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. We are a proud champion of intellectual property rights, free and fair trade, innovative consumer choices, freedom of expression and the enduring power of movies to enrich and enhance people's lives.

MPAA's principal U.S. offices are located in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, California. We also have content protection teams in Chicago, Dallas and New York. The MPA, and other subsidiaries and affiliates of MPAA, have commercial and regional offices in Brussels, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Toronto. Along with our own subsidiaries and affiliates, we work with many content protection groups and other organizations in more than 30 countries around the world.

www.mpaa.org...


Here is a bit about how the MPAA began and a bit of history.

MPAA is an acronym for Motion Picture Association of America, which was originally titled the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association of America. It is an organization to which many of the major movie producing studios belong, including Buena Vista, Sony, Paramount, Fox, Warner Brothers, and Universal. The principle work of the organization is to control distribution of movies, work to combat illegal copying of films, and to administer film ratings.

The MPAA was founded in 1922, and the first president of the nonprofit trade association was former Postmaster General, Will H. Hays. Under his leadership, Hays created the Production Code, a group of standards that had to be met for a film to be considered appropriate material for a general audience. Some films prior to the advent of the code were downright racy, and inspired the wrath of many organizations across the country, including numerous religious groups. The code was abandoned in 1967 and replaced with the MPAA rating system, which has undergone numerous changes since it was first adopted.

The longest serving president of the trade association was Jack Valenti, who held the position from 1966-2004. Valenti is credited with most of the association’s changes that have occurred over time. He developed the rating system, and later revamped it to its current incarnation. He also saw the potential profit loss that might occur to film studios if files were shared on the Internet, and very successfully lobbied for the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes illegal various forms of copyright infringement via digital means.

www.wisegeek.com...


Now, I was curious about the MPA. Who are they? What do they do? Well SOPA/PIPA wasn't solely about movies and music, but about magazines and publications easily available and shared on the internet.

Here is a bit about the MPA. Known as the Association of Magazine Media. Though I was able to get some good info, the nitty gritty of it is member only based, but I will share what caught my eye. BTW MPA also stands for Music Publishers Association, which is also affiliated with SONY.

Here is a bit from the MPA site about SOPA/PIPA.

Recognizing the significant impact and harm piracy has on copyright dependent industries like magazines, movies, music, and clothing, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is once again pursuing legislation – supported by MPA – aimed at addressing the impact “rogue” sites are having on business within those industries. With the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) failing to advance in the 110th Congress, in May, Chairman Leahy introduced an updated version of COICA, known as the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Like COICA, PIPA would empower the Attorney General to seek a court order to shut down the domain name of a foreign infringing site that is “dedicated to” or has “no significant use” beyond copyright or trademark infringement. It also authorizes the Attorney General to direct U.S. based third-parties, including Internet Service Providers, payment processers, online advertising network providers, and search engines to take appropriate action to either prevent access to the site, or cease doing business with it. While providing immunity to websites that sold a product that turned out to be counterfeit, PIPA would allow a copyright or trademark holder to ask a judge to compel internet advertising agencies and financial services firms (i.e. MasterCard) to discontinue processing payments or providing services to the rogue sites. The bill unanimously passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in late May.

www.magazine.org... nuary+6%2c+2012#3

Now what part could the MPAA/MPA have in the bill, either past or present?

What is MPA-PAC?
MPA-PAC is the Magazine Publishers of America Political Action Committee. Its purpose is to raise money from the MPA community and make contributions to political committees and federal candidates for elected office. MPA-PAC is part of MPA’s government affairs program, which includes its day-to-day lobbying on Capitol Hill by MPA professional staff.

Continued below.....

If your still with me, you can see this isn't solely about SOPA and PIPA, but how close it came to passing, and who plays the largest part in the game that can so easily take away our internet freedoms, this may have just been a test, but knowing who is behind the funding, is a step further, because IMHO this will come around again.

Continued from above....

Like his counterpart in the Senate, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) has also introduced rouge sites legislation. Following spring hearings on the issue, after several months of delay, Chairman Smith introduced his bill in late October with a hearing following shortly after. Like PIPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), is designed to shut down foreign websites committing copyright infringement by cutting off their funding and shrinking their U.S. audience. SOPA, however, has some key distinctions that have many parties, including prominent internet companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook, extremely concerned. They include a definition of rogue sites that critics deem to be “dangerously” overbroad, (defining a rogue site as merely “facilitating” copyright infringement) as well as limited due process considerations in the private right of action copyright and trademark holders have when asking payment processors and advertising networks to cut off funding for an offending site. In contrast to the unanimous approval of PIPA in the Senate, after 14 hours of an often acrimonious markup held shortly before the Christmas recess, and despite pushing strongly for passage, Chairman Smith pulled the bill from Committee consideration, delaying further action on the bill until later this month.

Despite the setback in the House for supporters of the bill, shortly before the Senate adjourned, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) indicated he would challenge the hold Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has on the bill, and make PIPA the first bill the Senate considers in 2012. With opinion on the bill at an all-time high, and advocates on both sides primed for the fight, the outcome is uncertain. If the bill wins passage, it could likely become the template the House follows; if the bill fails to gain enough votes to break the hold and advance, it may indicate that rouge sites legislation could have trouble advancing in 2012.

www.magazine.org... 012#3

Now on the same site.

What is MPA-PAC?
MPA-PAC is the Magazine Publishers of America Political Action Committee. Its purpose is to raise money from the MPA community and make contributions to political committees and federal candidates for elected office. MPA-PAC is part of MPA’s government affairs program, which includes its day-to-day lobbying on Capitol Hill by MPA professional staff.

Who is eligible to contribute to MPA-PAC?
Federal election laws prohibit candidates for federal office from receiving corporate campaign contributions. Therefore, PACs which contribute to candidates for federal office must not accept contributions from corporations. Contributions to MPA-PAC may only be solicited from the executives and administrative personnel (and their families) of MPA member companies (a term in federal election law known as the “restricted class”). The donations must be solicited only from this restricted class of individuals rather than the corporations.

www.magazine.org...

Now a little about "Restricted Class".
'RESTRICTED CLASS' COMMUNICATIONS

Perhaps the most important political tool available to corporations is the least understood and most underused. A corporation may use corporate treasury funds to communicate with its so-called restricted class of employees and shareholders "on any subject." The FEC's regulations explicitly allow communications expressly advocating the election or defeat of a clearly identified federal candidate. In other words, a corporation may:

attempt to persuade members of its restricted class to vote for or contribute to particular candidates,
(subject to certain restrictions) invite preferred candidates to appear in person before its restricted class to receive the corporation's endorsement and to seek votes, volunteers, and contributions, and operate telephone banks for the purpose of urging members of the restricted class to register and get out to vote for (oragainst) particular candidates.

library.findlaw.com...

Continued below......

Stopping rw CDs/DVDs wouldn't do much. People just play the movies or listen to the music on their computer, portable device or media device which is connected to the TV. They'd still get it in the digital form and transfer it among their associated devices like they do now. I'm not defending SOPA but you're thinking seems like it's a decade old.

Good post in general though, I like the information about the different groups behind the bills.

There is a simple way to find who is actually finding the way to follow the money, based on those that were backing this (SOPA/PIPA). Yes many came together to boycott sites who were behind it, but based on the above the boycotting needed to be to those that took contributions from these corporations.

They will try this again, and again. They figured that we would blame the sites, or corporations if they backed it, but this was a test to see if we were actually going to look at the men and women that are sitting and voting, based on how much they got, and how far they are willing to go.

Peace, NRE.

I create digital art and many times when I make a sale, I'll burn them to CD/DVD and mail hard copies to my customers. Some of my items can be up to 300MB per "kit," so to reserve space and free up room for new stuff, I create backups of the older items on disc for myself. They serve much more of a purpose than pirating movies. It takes 9 full DVDs to store all of my items that I have created over the years.

On top of that, I use external hard drives to store my stuff. Would you propose banning those, as well?

The only way pirating can be stopped is if people stop participating in sharing files.

I see where the conspiracy lies, though but removing CD/DVD media isn't the answer.

Originally posted by CoherentlyConfused
I create digital art and many times when I make a sale, I'll burn them to CD/DVD and mail hard copies to my customers. Some of my items can be up to 300MB per "kit," so to reserve space and free up room for new stuff, I create backups of the older items on disc for myself. They serve much more of a purpose than pirating movies. It takes 9 full DVDs to store all of my items that I have created over the years.

On top of that, I use external hard drives to store my stuff. Would you propose banning those, as well?

The only way pirating can be stopped is if people stop participating in sharing files.

I see where the conspiracy lies, though but removing CD/DVD media isn't the answer.

edit on 23-1-2012 by CoherentlyConfused because: (no reason given)

I like your avatar, did you make it?

Maybe I should not have assumed that people would see that I was being sarcastic about the DVD's... my bad.

What I was trying to show with that is that they are trying to use the same devices that many are using to get the movies/music, sell them to anyone and then complain. I am fully aware that we cannot live without CD/DVD's and still have a computer.

Just that people are convinced that eliminating one would help the other, but behind the scenes the fat cats are distracting the masses.

Peace, NRE.

Not to be minimalist. However your suggestion is similar to saying stop selling knives and that will stop all the stabbings.
I use CDs and rewritable to backup my own data.

I really dont want this thread to get lost because a few people did not read through the thread. So I will give this a bump.

Peace, NRE.

reply to post by NoRegretsEver

Maybe I should not have assumed that people would see that I was being sarcastic about the DVD's... my bad.

You're right, I didn't quite see that. I do see where the conspiracy lies, though. I can't find it (I believe there was a thread here with it somewhere) but I watched a video similar to what you're talking about.


reply to post by Epirus


Yes, I did make it.

The only way you will get people to stop stealing things is to make everything free.
Even then someone will take your stuff cause its more convenient than going all the way to the market to get it for free.