[MD] SOPA and PIPA

[Ian Glendinning]

Hooray.
The balanced voice of reason, Horse.
Ian

On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Horse <horse at darkstar.uk.net> wrote:
> Hi All
>
> Interesting link regarding SOPA/PIPA:
>
> http://go.theregister.com/i/sct-mid33/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/19/sopa_is_gone_are_you_happy_now/
>
> The rise and defeat of SOPA/PIPA seems to revolve an initially badly thought
> out threat to destroy the internet as it now operates countered by lots of
> screaming and shouting
> Instead of using reason and persuasion on both sides what we see are,
> basically, threats and name-calling.
>
> Here's a quote from the article:
>
> "Even an open-source revolutionary like Marc Fleury groks this, writing in
> support of SOPA:
>
> Increasingly the western world relies on IP to make a living. Since we
> produce less "real world" goods and more "digital world" goods we open
> ourselves to piracy. If we are to move to an information based economy there
> needs to be a limit to the infringement of IP.
>
> You or I may disagree, but it would be useful if we were to do so through
> thoughtful conversation, rather than 140-character bursts of indignation,
> self-censorship of websites, etc."
>
>
> Why do we want (or need) to move to an information based economy?!? Is this
> a real need or is it a created need - i.e. created by those that stand to
> profit by it to the detriment of those that don't.
> It seems to me that the main recipients of the benefits of an information
> based economy are those that do the least in order to gain the most.
> Here's an example:
> Musicians are the artists that create a 'consumable product' - i.e. music.
> The vast majority of musicians get little more than a tiny fraction of the
> proceeds of their endeavours and yet a multi-billion dollar industry
> revolves around what they produce. Most artists don't even own the IP that
> is being fought over in SOPA/PIPA.
>
> IP, like money, has a place in the world but it is not the be-all and
> end-all of existence. A balanced economy - one that has both real world and
> digital world good - makes more sense than an economy based solely or mainly
> on one or the other.
>
> Horse
>
>
>
> --
>
> "Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
> deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
> — Frank Zappa
>
>
> Moq_Discuss mailing list
> Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
> Archives:
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
> http://moq.org/md/archives.html