What the "Stop Online Piracy Act" could mean for us USA folks...?

[CensoredAlso]

I wrote a paper why thats a horrible idea. not to mention I'm still on dial up as well as many many other people. Internet will have to be a lot cheaper for that to work

Well I don't deny that. Sadly it wouldn't be the first time technological advancement was put on hold due to bad economies and greed.

 

[beaker]

Wait, there's still dial up? As in wreeeee arrrrrr krrrrztttzzzz awwwwwwnnnnnn?
I didn't even think dialup even existed logistically? Coulda swore they phased that out ages ago.

 

[Sgt Floyd]

Many rural, stuck-in-the-middle-of-nowhere places are not wired to have cable, and satellite is too expensive.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Story of America. The richest country in the world except that only a handful of people ever see the wealth.

 

[Drtooth]

Well it's like I usually try to buy dvds of movies I enjoyed...but whats the point anymore? New dvds still cost $20, and now have ZERO extras. Meanwhile I can download a beautiful blu ray rip that will play on my dvd, and i can load it with tons of hd behind the scenes featurettes, deleted scenes and interviews from youtube on dvdr.

That's because they're trying to force everyone to get blu-ray. I HATE Blu Ray just for that reason. Blu's only good for gadget doirks with too much disposable income. Why ruin the fun of those who can't afford the super HD TV to actually enjoy BR? Holding special features hostage to a premium edition is WHY no one's buying DVD's anymore.

Its like when anime companies waited a long time to release anime series on dvd, but then only put 2-3 per dvd and charged $25-$30...total scam. Some only have 1 episode for the same price. I'll admit, downloading is what collapsed the anime market...Best Buy used to have two long rows of anime, now Best Buy barely even carries any dvds overall.

But most companies wised up and moved everything online AND started selling cheaper season sets. The problem was always the licensing issues and the small market. And of course, some DVD's only had 2-3 episodes because the show only had 2-3 episodes.

That's why the future really needs to be online, where people are able to have more control over what they want to see. If the companies can find a way to make that work for the customer and for them that would be ideal.

Sure... that's what we want to think, but once the companies start getting control over the internet (it's coming), things will be just as rigid and unforgiving as television and other traditional forms of media. That's one of the reasons they're trying to kill piracy. So they can screw up the internet the way they screwed up the rest of the media. No longer will we have user generated content (in some cases, that's not necessarily a bad thing... Annoying Orange SUUUUUCKS!), and we'll probably have to pay a fortune for corruptible files we can't get refunds for.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Sure... that's what we want to think, but once the companies start getting control over the internet (it's coming), things will be just as rigid and unforgiving as television and other traditional forms of media. That's one of the reasons they're trying to kill piracy.

The bill hasn't been passed yet. And the Internet is very different from the older forms of media.

 

[Drtooth]

Bill nothing. They don't need that bill to pass to take over the internet.

The internet is still the wild west... it's virgin territory where free ideas can be easily spread. And it's big media's intent to crush that, with or without the government. They have their own lawyers and can sue anyone they want to even if the rules stay the same. Look at what happened to people who downloaded music. The recording industry was hurting because they had nothing to market but BAD hip hop with terrible one hit blunders. That was killing the industry more than downloads, people with one song on a 20 dollar CD. I've predicted they'd set their sights on television and movies one day... even mouth watering clips that get people INTO watching said movies and shows.

So far, they've kept a nice distance, bossing YT to take things down... but having their own sites to show things for free... the sweetheart Dish and Fox deal keeps hulu from putting up Fox shows next day. And that's what Hulu is all about. A place to catch up on new episodes if you missed them the next day or within a week and aren't lucky to have a DVR. I'm sure Comcast is doing the same to NBC shows. it's only a matter of time before you can't see new episodes at all, unless you buy premium memberships in everything.

Sure, I'd tend to think there will still be blogs and maybe fan sites and fan arts and stuff like that... but that will be it. I can totally see a future where user uploaded content is either completely done in with, or completely bought up by various companies, thus taking creations from creators and giving them a microscopic share of the profits.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I can totally see a future where user uploaded content is either completely done in with, or completely bought up by various companies, thus taking creations from creators and giving them a microscopic share of the profits.

At the risk of sounding like a bad Sci Fi TV movie, that's only one possible future.

 

[Drtooth]

Net heads would have to be ready for the fight of their lives for anything else. Hackers WILL come up with something else and something better if that actually happened... but if the history of media, and the FCC deregulation of the 90's have taught me anything it's that companies are hungry to own as many outlets as they can. They have big BIG plans for the internet... and I have to say, if they were smart, they'd include long lost stuff too (which they undoubtedly won't). I'm sure a lot of the internet will still be as is to an extent, but once they make the move to internet media for good, they'll control their own content the way they do for everything else. Some of that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but a lot of it is. Didn't Fox buy Myspace years ago when it was relevant? They can easily do that to anything.

 

[beaker]

Story of America. The richest country in the world except that only a handful of people ever see the wealth.

I saw a great image recently that showed four pictures: mass transit in China, Germany, and other countries...then it showed America with a ghetto looking Greyhound bus.

I think America deserves to be a laughing stock. We have no real modern mass transit by ground. China, an oppressive country with a zillion people, has futuristic mass transit. We hardly even make anything. We get led around by Arab countries
to invade countries for them, while China reaps natural resource profits

Hardly any native born non Hispanic Americans know more than one language.
Most people in Europe know two or more languages.

Our healthcare system, our education...America is one giant block of fail. Well we have freedom...err, for now.