WEBVTT - TechStuff Gets on a SOPA Box 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:17.520 tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hi kids, 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.480 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:22.279 and I'm an editor at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:25.440 Sitting across from me as always a senior writer, Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.800 Oh better far to live and die under the brave 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.280 black flag. I fly then play a sanctimonious part with 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:36.720 a pirate head and a pirate heart. Nicely done, Thank you. 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:41.599 So today we are going to talk about something that 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.320 has made the news recently as of the recording of 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:46.120 this podcast. Of course, we don't know exactly what it's 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:48.239 going to publish, so it might be old news by then. 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:53.840 But the uh, the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOAPA. Yes, 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:56.480 we had a few, quite a few people asking us 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:58.920 if we were going to talk about that, and as 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.360 a matter of fact, initially we were thinking that maybe not, because, um, 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.160 sometimes when Jonathan talks about these topics, he gets a 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:10.440 little in my head that threatens to explode every time 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:12.679 I talk about this type of stuff. And and much 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.000 as much as I like pushing him, to the limit. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.080 In that regard, I don't want to see what happens 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.600 if it actually finally does. Yeah. And I've also given 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.040 up caffeine the week that we're recording this podcast, So 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:28.080 that's a I'm already I'm predisposed to being cranky. But 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:31.160 soapa Stop Online Piracy Act. It's made a lot of 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:37.040 news because, um, well because there are some potential consequences 0:01:37.080 --> 0:01:40.440 that that may not be intended consequences, but people are 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:44.200 worried this act may go a long way to breaking 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:48.160 the Internet. That's kind of like the extreme view, right. Yeah, 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.760 So we're going to talk about what this act is, 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:54.320 what it's supposed to target and uh, and reasons why 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.000 some people are worried that it may be really bad 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.880 news for even for people who have no intention to 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:07.200 pirate content or to distribute pirated content. Uh and uh 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:11.160 and yeah, that's that's its purpose essentially is to cut 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:17.639 down on acts of intellectual property piracy over the Internet, 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:23.920 and it's specifically targeting piracy that's generated from from entities 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.760 outside the jurisdiction of the United States. That's the main 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.200 that's the main goal of this legislation. Uh. If you 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:35.520 don't read the Act, you might not realize exactly how 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.480 it's targeting this. Uh, let me read the purpose of 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.200 this act. This is actually the purpose. And it was 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.640 introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, who is 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:48.440 a Texas Republican. Yeah, Republican from Texas. Well, I mean 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.920 he's from Texas. Of course he's Republican. Uh. That's a 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:57.000 that's a joke. That's a joke. Uh. Texas is, however, 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:01.480 thought of often as a conservative state. And he introduces 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:04.799 and I should have had this has bipartisan support. Yes, 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:06.840 So even though I say Republican and I made some 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.600 jokes there, there are people on both sides of the 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.680 aisle supporting this legislation. So I don't mean to say 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.639 that this is a Republican cause versus a Democrat cause. 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:18.960 In fact, there are several people who are on the 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.240 very conservative side of the aisle who are very much 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.240 opposed to this legislation. So I want to make that clear. 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:27.119 This is not I was. I was making a joke. 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:29.600 I don't want to take sides here. Yeah. That That's 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.920 one of the funny things about this particular um proposed 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:38.760 legislation is that it has bipartisan support, and bipartisan opposition. 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:44.880 So the purpose of it is to promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.120 and innovation by combating the theft of US property and 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:55.000 for other purpose. Uh So here's the stick. The sticking 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:58.000 point here is that the the legislation is at least 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.560 supposed to promote prosperity, but the people who oppose it 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:04.960 say that it does exactly the opposite, that it's going 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:09.720 to stifle innovation and it's going to stifle entrepreneurship. And 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.960 it's really just a a love letter served up to 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:19.160 copyright holders and intellectual property owners. So organizations like the 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:23.880 the Motion Picture Association of America um SO, that would 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:27.000 be a big one, or the Recording Industry Association of 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.039 America that's another big one. So you've got these these 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:35.480 big organizations that have a very strong vested interest in 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:42.560 um in maintaining copyright and pursuing actions against copyright infringement 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.160 and there, and there's a limited amount that you can 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:50.440 do if the the person or entity that is violating 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.679 your copyright is not within the jurisdiction of the United States. 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:59.360 So if there's someone in China who has has a 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:03.039 server arm that is just holding copies of various movies 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.800 on it for people to download, either for free or 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:08.920 for a very low fee. Uh, there's not a whole 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:12.480 lot you can do as the copyright holder to stop 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:14.680 that because it's over in China. What are you gonna 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:16.840 I mean, you can bring it up and try and 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:22.600 put some pressure on on the the whole situation, but 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:25.159 you don't have a whole you don't have a stick 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:28.120 to hold right, you don't have any threat. So this 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:32.400 is meant to be an act that gives copyright holders 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.000 a little bit of recourse when this sort of stuff 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:39.320 happens um and that it's similar to This is a 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.200 House bill, but it's similar to one that was introduced 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.320 in the Senate UH earlier this year called the Protect 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:52.479 I P Bill, which was actually put on hold for 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:56.680 a while by Senator Ron Wyden who was concerned that 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:02.120 the bill in the Senate would intentionally muzzle people and 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.080 that it would it would hamper free speech, and that 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:09.360 he felt that it was ultimately unconstitutional, and so he's 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:11.479 been he's been holding back on it so that it 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.960 hasn't it passed out of the committee, but it hasn't 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:18.520 been voted on by the Senate itself. At least as 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.880 the recording of this podcast. And just in case you're thinking, oh, 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:26.200 protect I P, that's simple. No. Protect IP is also 0:06:26.480 --> 0:06:30.680 an acronym. It's stands for preventing real online threats to 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:36.360 economic creativity and theft of intellectual property protect ip uh. 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.640 And it's essentially a rewrite of an earlier piece of 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:44.520 legislation called Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act or QUIKA, 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:49.480 which failed to pass. Why is that because it didn't 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:51.520 have a snazzy acronym that you can pronounce. All right, 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.040 quakes just doesn't doesn't help. This was actually said. Here's 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:59.640 what Widen had to say on about protect IP said. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.760 I understand and agree with the goal of the legislation 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.200 to protect intellectual property and combat commerce and counterfeit goods. 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:08.600 But I am not willing to muzzle speech and stifle 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.920 innovation and economic growth to achieve this objective at the 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:16.520 expense of legitimate commerce. PIPE as prescription, takes an overreaching 0:07:16.520 --> 0:07:19.080 approach to policing the Internet when a more balanced and 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.680 targeted approach would be more effective. The collateral damage of 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.040 this approach is speech, innovation, and the very integrity of 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.880 the Internet. So that's pretty interesting to hear. Uh A 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.080 politicians say that. We hear that from people who are 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.240 big players in technology. We hear that from people like 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.760 Eric Schmidt from Google has said similar things to this 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.360 sort of legislation. And a lot of these companies have 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.040 also been involved in the forming of this legislation in 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:50.040 a in an attempt to head off any potential problems 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:54.080 because a lot of these companies they recognize the problems 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.840 that copyright holders face, and we should make that clear 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:02.080 to the complaint that the copyright holders have that their 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.880 work is being stolen and distributed freely with no way 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.920 for them to to make money from their the sale 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.800 of their property or distribution of their property. That is 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:16.360 a legitimate problem. Yes, piracy is a problem. How big 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:21.080 a problem it is that is up for debate now. 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:26.160 The justification that various politicians and organizations have used to 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:31.640 formulate this legislation states that, uh, there's an estimate here 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.560 of how much money was lost per year due to 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.120 intellectual property theft and counterfeiting, which is one and thirty 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.120 five billion dollars in revenue. I don't know how they 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.720 came up with that number, because the government accounting office 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.400 just earlier this year released a report that said it's 0:08:49.480 --> 0:08:54.360 essentially impossible to put a figure on the loss from 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.640 piracy because there's just not you don't have all the 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:02.560 facts straight. Well, Jonathan and I, I've had this discussion before, UM, 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:04.880 and this is one of the oldest I would say 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.000 it's one of the oldest arguments in the software industry 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:13.240 because people talk about UM. The old standby in this 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:17.640 conversation is, uh, well, it's Adobe Photoshop. That's an expensive 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:20.720 piece of software, and it's gotten more expensive over time 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:23.960 and people are known. And then there are many pieces 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.600 of software like this UM, you know, where it is 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:33.160 an extremely useful tool, but the average person doesn't want 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.800 to go and spend you know, six hundred, eight hundred thousand, 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:42.319 twelve hundred dollars for a piece of creativity software. They 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:44.600 don't have that in their budget. It's expensive. In some 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:48.000 cases it's it's as expensive as a computer itself or 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:52.000 more expensive computer, depending on the machine you're using UM. 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:53.760 And the thing is they say, well, you know what, 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:57.600 if it had been priced within my price range, I 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.600 would have bought it, but instead they jacked up the 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.400 cost of the software so much that it was out 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.040 of my price range. I couldn't afford it, So it 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.480 serves them right that I downloaded in an illegal copy 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.200 of it and I'm and I'm using it. UM. On 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.720 the other hand, the company that produces this software, UM 0:10:14.960 --> 0:10:17.599 will say, well, you know what, we wouldn't have to 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:19.360 jack up the price of the software so much if 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:22.320 people wouldn't stop stealing it. We're trying to make our revenue. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:26.280 We're trying to provide value for our shareholders, and we 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:29.440 can't do that if we're not selling copies of our software. 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:31.160 And if we can't sell as many copies of our 0:10:31.160 --> 0:10:33.559 software at that price, we're gonna have to raise the 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:38.160 price a hundred dollars. And and the thing is, Jonathan 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.480 and I think, uh, you know, if we've talked about 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:41.839 it several times, but I think both of us sort 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.240 of see, Um, this is a situation that you can't 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:49.120 really tell. I mean, the thing is, would the people 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.679 who are downloading illegal copies of the software really pay 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:54.760 for it if it were seventy five dollars or where 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:56.240 they go? You know what, I really don't want to 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:59.520 pay the seventy five dollars either. Yeah. The way so 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.280 bad to finds the value of something is they say, 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.440 the total retail value may be shown by evidence of 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:10.840 the total retail price that persons receiving the reproductions, distributions, 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:15.720 or public performances constitutent constituting, sorry, the offense would have 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:19.720 paid to receive such reproductions, distributions, or public performances lawfully. 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:22.760 So in other words, this this applies to all sorts 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.520 of stuff, not just software. So let's say that you 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:31.400 go to a site that has um lots of movies 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.400 on it, like movies that are available for you to 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:38.080 watch via streaming, and it's an illegal movie site and 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:41.000 you watch it. Essentially, they would say that the total 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.760 retail value for that experience would be the cost of 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.959 a movie ticket multiplied by however many people streamed that film. 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:52.840 So the the argument is that the the copyright holder 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.880 is is robbed of that much money. Now that's where 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.319 the problem comes in because there's a counter art that 0:12:00.400 --> 0:12:04.440 states some of these people would never have paid to 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.679 see the movie period, They never would have bothered to 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.360 buy the tickets. So, in other words, the the copyright 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:14.800 holder would not have received that money, whether the people 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:19.240 pirted it or not, right, because that's that's not a 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:23.440 ticket sale so that was an argument that came up 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.600 a lot when m x Men's X Men Origins Wolverine 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.120 came out. I don't know if everyone on listening knows this, 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:34.240 but there was a big deal when X Men Origins 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:38.200 Wolverine was getting closer and closer to distribution, that is, 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:40.959 it was going to be in theaters. Before he got 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.920 to theaters, there was an elaked release of the film 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.840 that hit the Internet, and there were various pirate sites 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.720 that hosted the file so that people could access it 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:55.200 and watch the movie, and a lot of people did 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:57.839 a lot of people did that, and there were not 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.360 very many many ticket sales for the film, like the 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:05.760 essentially Wolverine bombed. Bombed might be a harsh term, but 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.800 did not perform as well as as the the company 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:16.200 had expected. And so there's a question and is the 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:20.360 is the pirated version to blame for the lack of 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.959 ticket sales or would the people who pirated that version, 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.240 would they have not bothered to go see the movie 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.080 in the first place, which means that the movie would 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.400 have bombed anyway. And you can't answer that question. And 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.679 that was the Government Accounting Offices point. When they release 0:13:34.760 --> 0:13:38.000 the report, they said, there's no way to answer this question. 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.520 So there is no way to give an actual monetary 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:45.320 value to the losses that a group or an industry 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.880 might encounter as a result of piracy. And if there's 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.160 no way that you can put a figure to that, 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:57.720 then you can't justify. Uh. So you can't justify some 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.959 of the punishments that are meeted out by the by 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:08.160 by the government against people who violate the copyright laws. Uh. 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:12.080 You can't justify that the the intensity of those punishments 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.280 based on these figures because the figures are based on nothing. 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.480 There's not there's no basis for it. So you end 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:25.000 up having people punished with ridiculous fines or potentially years 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.800 in jail for things that the whole justification for the 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:33.280 punishment is based on on voodoo numbers like these numbers 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.800 that don't really mean anything. Yeah, the truth is probably 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:39.200 somewhere in between all of these things. Like if the 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:42.480 if the company reduces the price of its product, you know, 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:47.520 by X number of dollars, and um, the the person 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.920 who uh is actually you know, going to purchase the product, 0:14:53.560 --> 0:14:55.960 you know they do actually have the money to do that, 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:59.600 then I think some of them will pony up the 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.360 money for or the software or the c D or 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.080 the movie ticket. But and I think it's somewhere in between. 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.440 Some of the people are still going to pirate and 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:11.600 some of the company's profits are still not going to 0:15:11.600 --> 0:15:15.200 be realized. So some it would affect some, but it's 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:17.400 no there's really, as Jonathan said, no way to tell 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:21.040 exactly how many. It's not going to be. Yeah, there's 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:25.800 an issue of greed here that is affecting every player 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.680 in this in this scenario, right, So there's there's the 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.160 greed on the part of the consumer who feels that 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:36.160 he or she has the right to access some content what, 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:38.640 no matter what its price point or it's or its 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:43.160 availability in that person's market. So you've got a sense 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.000 of entitlement on the on the part of the consumer, 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.320 which is bad. You know, there's there's nothing that entitles 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.880 a consumer to someone else's intellectual property. I mean that 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.280 you aren't entitled to that, but there's this perception of 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.520 entitlement that if it's out there, I should have access 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.120 to it, and if h if the thing that's blocking 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.920 my access is that it's too expensive, then I should 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.000 just be able to take it. Uh, there's a weird 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.560 kind of justification that goes on in a person's mind. 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:13.040 But then you also have the the greed on the 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:17.960 part of the copyright owners where they want to see 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:22.960 every single penny come in from every instance that their 0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:27.080 product is viewed or consumed or whatever. Uh, even if 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:31.160 there's no evidence to suggest that those that that, even 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:33.560 if there was no piracy, that that money would be 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:38.480 pouring in. So they want dollars that just don't exist. Um, yeah, 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.280 this is this is a complicated issue. Now let's talk 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.520 about what SOPA actually does. Yeah, I was gonna say, 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:47.600 because SOPA is not necessarily an act that is going 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:53.760 to uh impose punitive monetary damages. These uh, the actions 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.600 that are taken will actually be quite different for the 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.040 most part the most there there are some some things 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:06.560 further in the act about streaming video or streaming streaming content, 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:09.159 are allowing content to be accessible that you know, you 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.600 don't own the copyright to. There are some elements that 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:14.960 are added into the language towards the end of the 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:16.600 act and most of it has to do with things 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:20.320 like housing motion pictures on a on a site, that 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.320 kind of stuff. But again, it's it's taking aim at 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:26.520 foreign sites, because of course, if it's a company that's overseas, 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:29.439 uh is outside of the jurisdiction of the United States government. 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.119 So how do you target these sites. Well, you do 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:37.480 it by cutting off access and cutting off financial support. 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:41.560 That's what this this act really does. And it gives 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.480 a lot of power and I mean a lot of 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.080 power to the copyright holders, which is one of the 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.320 reasons why people are up in arms about this. So 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:54.120 in general, what happens is, let's say that you are 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:58.080 the head of a corporation, a vast corporation, has lots 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:02.360 and lots of intellectual property, and you discover that there 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:07.240 is some site hosted in China, let's say that is 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.720 uh AS that's got either duplicates of your product or 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.639 is uh pirated copies of your product out and available 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:20.000 for people to download for a small fee. So they're 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:23.800 undercutting you illegally, and they're selling your content for less 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.239 than what you sell it for and yours, and you 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:30.119 feel your sales are suffering as a result. What you 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.480 could do is you could target I s p S 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:38.280 Internet service providers in the United States and tell them, hey, 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:43.320 the site over there is they're they're violating my my 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:47.919 intellectual property rights, and I need you to remove this 0:18:48.080 --> 0:18:51.480 site from your donate domain name service so that no 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.400 one can access it from the United States. And it's 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.280 very specific, it's for US directed sites, So in other words, 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.840 you're cutting off the path way to get to that website. 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.080 It will you know, you if you were to type 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.520 in the address in your browser, it wouldn't recognize it 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:10.480 as a valid address because of being removed from the 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:14.600 donain domain name service in the US, which some people 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.040 argue breaks the Internet because it means that the the 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.760 servers are not going to be identical across the globe. 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:23.760 You're gonna have servers in some places that will have 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:27.600 uh those those domain names in them and will have 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:29.960 the map to the proper ip address, but in the 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.080 United States they won't. Because some copyright holder has come 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:34.399 to the I s p s and said, we need 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:37.560 you to take this down. Under SOPA, the I s 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.520 P has five days to respond to that to that 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:46.520 request before the copyright owner can then pursue legal action 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.280 I actually get the courts involved. So in other words, 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:56.000 the copyright holder can threaten in a way threaten the 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:58.439 I s p S with legal action if they don't 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:05.000 remove access to that domain name. UM. And furthermore, the 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.720 I s p s if they if they comply with 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:13.440 the copyright holders actions or request or demand really uh, 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:18.600 they are immune from uh legal recourse. So in other words, 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.560 you as a user, if you rely on going to 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.400 a certain site and that site is removed, like there's 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.280 no way for you to access it from the United 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:31.960 States without doing a song and dance routine. Um, there's 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:36.320 no easy way to access that. You have no legal recourse. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.200 You can't sue the the I s P. You can't 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:43.600 sue the copyright holder because uh, this act builds that 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:48.679 protection in for those entities. So that is also something 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.640 that people who oppose the Act are very much up 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:55.240 in arms about. They say, well, if a copyright holder 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.240 comes up to an I s P and makes this demand, 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:02.479 and the demand doesn't have a whole lot of of 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.000 real foundation in fact to it, but the I s 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:07.720 P goes ahead and acts on it, there's no way 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:12.520 to you know, easily reverse that. Yeah right now. Uh. 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.080 Sites like I s p s have what they call 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:21.159 safe harbor, which means that if you are using you know, 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:26.159 really fast DSL dot net services to get to a 0:21:26.560 --> 0:21:31.120 site that has copyright infringement on it, or they're hosting 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:34.720 the servers there. You know, it's not the I S 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:37.920 p S fault. They're not required to police the content 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:39.800 of the Internet. It's kind of like can't be. They 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.080 can't be held responsible for what somebody else has on 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.240 their servers. It's kind of like owning a building and 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:48.040 someone in that building commits a crime. It's not the 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:52.240 building owner's fault that the crime was committed in the building. Yeah, 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:54.679 but this changes that, well, sort of changes that, and 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.600 that they they can come up to the building owner 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.359 and say you have to evict the tenant. Yeah, and 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:02.800 change all the locks, change lots and they can't come 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:05.760 back in. And it doesn't matter if you like it 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:09.240 or not. And if that say no. And if changing 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:11.320 the lock means you change the lock on a hallway 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:13.880 and anyone else who lives in that hallway also can't 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.520 get to their homes, that's another problem. And that we're 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:21.200 talking about removing an entire domain name. It may affect 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:24.200 other sites that or other web pages that have nothing 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:27.719 to do with piracy, have nothing, no intellectual property as 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:31.600 being violated, no counterfeitings going on, and those those pages 0:22:31.640 --> 0:22:36.280 will be affected too. So that's really that's another point 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:38.919 that the people who oppose this act say, you know, 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:40.920 if you do this, there are gonna be a lot 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:42.840 of there's gonna be a lot of friendly fire, a 0:22:42.840 --> 0:22:47.280 lot of casualties in the internet landscape, and it breaks. 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.160 That's where the breaking the Internet thing comes in. Many 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:53.320 of the companies that have spoken out, and there are 0:22:53.400 --> 0:22:58.720 quite a few of them who have expressed, um, more 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:02.840 than a little discomfort with the idea of SOPA going through. 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:05.760 Many of them have said, look, you know, we're we're 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:10.320 gonna be uh affected by this in an extremely negative way. 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:15.960 I mean we're talking we're talking about large companies like Google, Facebook, Um, 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:18.520 you know all sorts of places. Well, you think about it. 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:21.760 You have something like how how many people, uh we 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:24.000 when we did the episode on YouTube? You said, how 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:29.639 much video was uploaded every minute? Forty eight hours of 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:34.280 video every minute. Can you imagine the number of people 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:36.919 that would have to examine all that video to make 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:40.560 sure it doesn't have any kind of copyright violation? Now now, 0:23:40.600 --> 0:23:47.560 YouTube is known for complying with copyright infringement requests from 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:50.520 companies that own the property, and they'll say hey, you're 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:53.439 using this this person posted a video with our music 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:56.879 in it. Please remove the music and there and people 0:23:56.880 --> 0:24:00.000 will wonder why this video has no sound. It's because, 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:02.280 as YouTube has gone in, strip the sound out and 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:04.399 let the video up right and and under the d 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.040 m c A. That's where YouTube has safe harbor. Just 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:09.960 like you were saying before with the I s P s, 0:24:10.040 --> 0:24:13.760 YouTube also has safe harbor for user generated content. And 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:16.880