#321 Email the President of My Company About SOPA/PIPA
I work for a company who is waging a fruitless war against online piracy. Months ago I sent an email voicing my dissenting opinion to the committee formed to spearhead this war. I didn’t hear a reply.
Last month I saw the president at the company holiday party and gave him my opinion in person. We weren’t able to talk too much about it in depth because, well, it was a holiday party.
Today, after riding the high of yesterday’s blackout, I decided to send another email more focused on SOPA. And I’d email the president directly. I’m not even sure if he’ll actually see it. But if he does, I wonder if it will anger him that some boob in Sector G is giving his opinion without even been asked.
I hesitated as making yourself heard in a large company is pretty fruitless, but if it happens, the attention you garner is usually negative. I sent it anyway:
To XXXXXX
Hello. My name is Gregory. I sent an email to the Anti-Piracy committee here at XXXX voicing my opposition to the companyâs âwar on piracy.â I heard no reply.
I also spoke with you briefly during last yearâs XXXX Holiday party on the same subject.
While I do immensely appreciate you taking the time to speak with me about the matter, unfortunately I donât feel like I was able to full express my opinion.
There are two parts to my opinion. First, instead of trying to fight a losing battle against piracy, XXXX should find ways to embrace it. Yes there will always be people who steal content. But if XXXX provided superior avenues of distributing their own content (HD streaming etc.) then consumers would flock to it in greater numbers than pirating. The early success of Hulu helps support this point.
I understand the question is how do companies generate revenue with enterprises like Hulu. That is a more difficult question but one that is worth exploring the full resources dedicated to the war on piracy. The war on piracy is like the war on drugs. You are trying to mop up the blood on the floor when really you should trying to sew up the wound.
The second part is XXXX open support of the SOPA/PIPA legislation.
The language in the bill gives the power of censorship under the guise of protecting Intellectual Property. We cannot allow this to happen. Under this bill, sites can be taken down for alleged copyright infringement WITHOUT DUE PROCESS. It is up to the sites to prove themselves innocent.
This does not only include putting up copyrighted material but linking to it as well. This means that Google search results could be censored. This could affect websites around the world.
Did you know that right now, XXXX.com right now could be taken down for copyright violations? Doing a quick search, I found this topic on XXXX.com which links to a music video. The music and video are both copyrighted. I could send in a complaint and shut down the site.
LINK REDACTED
It is for these reasons that some of the biggest online companies are actively voicing their opposition to SOPA/PIPA including Wikipedia, Wordpress, Google and reddit.
Yesterday, in a display of protest against SOPA/PIPA, these same companies chose to blackout their sites for a day. The result was immediate and powerful with many Senators changing their opinion on the bill:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/technology/web-protests-piracy-bill-and-2-key-senators-change-course.html?_r=1
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/pipa-support-collapses-with-13-new-opponents-in-senate.arsPlease consider help changing XXXX stance on this controversial bill. Thank you for your time.
