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As a writer, though thankfully, not a starving one as I have a lovely sugar daddy (thanks, Eric), I hold a deeply personal view that artists should be paid for their work. Oh, I know, for many truly talented individuals it springs forth unbidden, something they would be doing no matter what. However, simply because it is as natural as breathing does not negate the fact that it is still work. I am a big believer in royalty checks, advances and compensation in all its forms as these things lead to other things that I am also in favor of like housing, food and clothing (especially shoes, you can wear them even if you did have beer battered onion rings the night before). With this in mind, we come to Musical Monday and the Tale of Lester Chambers..
When I first saw the posting about Lester Chambers on Facebook, I couldn’t place the name. Upon Googling him I found I did know him, although had you told me the names of his songs I still wouldn’t have been able to place him. Once I played The Chambers Brothers hit, Time Has Come Today, I was shocked to discover it is one of those iconic songs that everyone has heard. It is a Vietnam War Era anthem.
The reason you are likely to recognize it is that it has been used in over one hundred films, commercials and television shows. It has been licensed in each of these cases, however, Lester and his brothers never saw any money in these deals.
I’ll let Lester tell this in his own words. Please note, this guy has been fighting to get what is legitimately owed to him since 1994 and things are STILL being drawn out.
A Letter from Lester Chambers
FROM: LESTER CHAMBERS
DATE: June 30, 2000
TO: Courtney Love
Dear Ms. Love,
Just read your article “Courtney Love Does the Math” [ www.rapstation.com/swapmeet/love.html ] and I would like to make you aware of my plight as a recording artist. My brothers and I recorded over 30 albums as THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS from 1960-1977.
In 1972, we were dropped from Columbia Records after recording 6 albums with them and until 1994 did not receive a penny in royalties because we were still paying on our last album, “OH MY GOD,” which showed on the books as costing over $60,000 for 5 days in the recording studio in 1972. Did you ever read a book called “HIT MEN”? The first 125 pages deals with Clive Davis’ embezzlement of artists funds on Columbia. Need I say more?
Not only did we not get royalties, even though our hit song “TIME HAS COME TODAY” has been used in over 30 films (COMNG HOME, PLATOON, CASUALTIES OF WAR, ETC.) and television shows (right now ABC is using it as their promo for next season’s shows), but Columbia never paid into our pension fund with AFTRA. We joined AFTRA in 1965, when we were the house band on “SHINDIG” and as of 1994 had only 1 year vested into our pension. Of course, we didn’t get any medical insurance, either.
In 1994, along with Sam Moore (SAM & DAVE), Jackie Wilson’s estate, Carl Gardner (COASTERS), Bill Pinkney (DRIFTERS), Curtis Mayfield, etc., we are suing all of the major record companies for pension embezzlement. It has been 6 years and these companies drag us along ,stalling in releasing any documents. At last count, my wife researched that CHAMBERS BROTHERS product is on over 125 compilation albums that we have never received any licensing fees from.
Besides the 6 albums we did on Columbia, we recorded 5 albums with Vault (now owned and currently on the internet from licensing agreements from RHINO RECORDS), 5 with Vanguard (also on the net), 2 with Folkways (also on the net) and 2 with Proverb and 2 with Avco Embassy, THAT WE NEVER RECEIVED A PENNY IN ROYALTIES FROM ANY OF THESE COMPANIES!!!! We have been getting screwed for over thirty years and now with our product on the Internet, we are getting screwed again!!! Last month, Carl Gardner (Coasters), Bill Pinkney (Drifters) who, by the way, will be celebrating his 75th birthday in August, Tony Silvester (Main Ingredient) and myself filed a lawsuit against MP3.com.
We would greatly appreciate any involvement from you regarding fighting these pirates. By the way I noticed you used the word “sharecroppers” several times in this article. Before escaping rural Mississippi in 1953, my father at 75, along with my 13 brothers and sisters were dirt poor sharecroppers on land owned by the head of the local KKK. We grew up learning to sing gospel tunes, while picking cotton in the fields.
Sincerely,
Lester Chambers
Since this letter was written, Mr. Chambers has faced medical problems which went untreated as he lacked health insurance and was recently homeless until Yoko Ono stepped in to help him get a rental. Earlier this month, in another effort to build awareness and force the record companies to release the funds owed him, Chambers created a Facebook page and released the following photo.
This is an artist whose work has touched all our lives and has colored our shared society. He's simply asking to be paid for the work he did. Why is this a problem?
Our artists, no matter what the medium: paint, song, poetry, are a treasure to this country. This is not a man asking for charity. This is an individual demanding their fair due. Sadly, time is on the recording company’s side, keep dragging things out and they’ll have only the heirs to deal with. Mr. Chambers is seventy-two, will he ever see things put right?
Please share Lester Chamber’s story, help him make this a viral phenomena, help him collect what is his. If you’d like to assist with his living and legal expenses you can do so through the organization Sweet Relief which is helping artists such as The Chamber Brothers:
You can find Lester Chambers under the Support By Artist Tab. Please share this post or Lester’s Facebook photo with as many people as possible.
Thank you in advance, my friends!
Brothers: Lester, Joe, Willie and George with drummer Brian Keenan. Incidentally, one of the first interracial bands, in addition to their other notable attributes.
As a postscript, the online site Wikipedia lists the following as just some of the times the song has been used.
“The song has appeared in many films. Director Hal Ashby used all 11:06 as the backdrop to the climactic scene when Captain Robert Hyde “comes home” to an unfaithful wife in the 1978 Academy Award winning film Coming Home.
Other films it has also been used in include:
- Babylon Pink (1979)
- Bad Dreams (1988)
- Casualities of War (1989)
- The Doors (1991)
- Crooklyn (1994)
- Girl, Interrupted (1999)
- Remember the Titans (2000)
- Riding the Bullet (2004)
- Edison Force (2005)
- Nearing Grace (2005)
- The Zodiac (2006)
- Neal Cassady (2007)
- Talk to Me (2007)
- Homefront (Video Game-2011
The song has also appeared on television episodes
- Theme tune used for the time-travel series Seven Days produced by UPN from 1998-2001
- CSI- Crime Scene Investigation– “Ellie” (2001)
- Supernatural– “Everybody Loves a Clown (2006)
- My Name Is Earl– “Monkeys in Space” (2006)
The song was also the title of the first episode of the third season of Grey’s Anatomy.
It was also featured in the 13-episode miniseries by Stephen King titled Kingdom Hospital.
A shortened version was used as a theme song for the fourth season of Early Edition.
It is the current theme song for the PBS series American Experience.
The song was also featured in the final mission of the video game, Home Front, which was developed by THQ and Kaos Studios.”
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“The Internet is clearly about more than sports scores and email now. It’s a place where we can conduct our democracy and get very large amounts of data to very large numbers of people. ” ~Frank James
There are times when the Internet, and the world in general, can seem like a dark and lonely place. It’s filled with perverts and rip-offs and porn. Oh my! (It’s important that you say those last two sentences a la Wizard of Oz, “Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my!” It’s just more fun that way.) No seriously, we warn our children about the dangers of the Internet, we send warnings to our friends (the ones with PC’s, anyway) cautioning them against opening emails with the virus du jour and shake our heads over Facebook’s latest change and how it affects our privacy. (Then we proceed to post every detail of our day. Hmm.) However, I’m talking about the kind of cyber activity that gives me the warm fuzzies.
Perverts and rip-offs and porn! Oh My!
These past couple of years and especially the last two weeks have me looking at the Internet with fresh eyes. There’s a whole lot of good going on here. (Now, you can hum along with the tune of Herman’s Hermits “I’m Into Something Good”. ) Some of the things that are making me sit up and take notice are little things important only to me, some are germane locally, while others have seriously been newsworthy. (When I typed that last bit, the term “Sponge-worthy” floated through my brain. Spontaneous giggles ensued.) You all know I am profoundly grateful for the old friends the Web has brought back into my life and I use many web-based applications to stay in contact with all my favorite peeps. The amazing thing is I’m not just keeping up with current friends, I’m actually making new ones.
It’s a little weird, but there are people I’ve only met through email or blogging and I now consider them friends. A case in point is my fellow blogger, Jessica. She blogs on a variety of fun subjects. I never know what she’ll post on: recipes, hip new products, a movie or book review. She makes me feel so caught up. You should check her out. We’ve start emailing back and forth beyond the blogs and supporting each other’s efforts. It’s been very cool. Then there are bloggers I follow and who visit my blog from India, Great Britain, Israel and Canada, among other places. It makes the world seem so small and friendly.
There is the whole library aspect of the web. I can be writing and need a synonym, a definition or a quotation and it is quite literally at my fingertips. The research that once upon a time would have involved precious hours is now reduced to a quick trip down Cyber Google Lane. While I still do some research the old-fashioned way, they’re called books, children, I can do a lot of the heavy lifting from my computer. Doing research from my laptop has the added bonus of working with my schedule (quite often in the wee hours of the night) as opposed to say the public library’s more limiting hours, what with budget cuts and all.
I get a great deal of my news from online as well. Seems everywhere I turn there are interesting articles or informative videos to peruse. Yes, one does need to mindful that one does not allow one’s entire day to sucked away by the siren song of the computer. All things in moderation, right? I also love that the news can be and frequently is targeted just for me. (You mean, you made this whole Internet, just for little ol’ me? Aw, shucks, you shouldn’t have.) For example, I can go to my local Pleasanton Patch online newspaper and find out what’s happening in my neck of the woods. You probably have one in your area if you are in the U.S.. The Patch will tell me what’s happening with local events, community needs, city issues, my friend Cameron even writes on our schools.
More than friends and social niceties, information and news, the last few months culminating in the past two weeks have been very illuminating in terms of what the Internet can do. First, we watched in amazement at the Internet coordinated and driven revolution in Egypt and marveled at the impact social networking is making throughout the Middle East. Then at home, there was SOPA and PIPA which had everyone online in an uproar (and rightly so). These two innocent sounding acronyms inspired the now famous Internet blackout of January 18th and a blog rant by yours truly. For now these bills have been shelved. Apparently things just got too hot in Washington. (Everyone, remember the words to “Hot in the City” by Billy Idol? Sorry, this is rapidly becoming a sing along blog.) I’m sure it was my piece that made the difference, right? Okay, maybe not.
Still, even with the whole SOPA/PIPA extravaganza, last week’s Komengate surprised me. It took just one news cycle and Komen was back pedaling. Which is good, because I thought they were flipping out of their collective pink minds. Where do they think women without health coverage go for care of the female persuasion? I mean, that’s where I went for annual exams, birth control and the occasional girl problem (don’t worry, male readers, I’ll spare you the gory details) in my twenties. Those were the years when I was off my parents’ insurance but hadn’t quite gotten a good enough job to have my own. Come to think of it, even when I had insurance it didn’t cover women’s care very well. I still had to turn to Planned Parenthood. They were a lifesaver.
In these days of unlimited campaign spending (gosh, thanks, Supreme Court) and aggressively active PAC’s, are we finding there might actually be an avenue to get the voice of the people through? That there may be a way we can react quickly enough, disseminate information in such a way as to shine a light on our issues and our needs? Do the people have a bullhorn, cyberly speaking? Goodness, I don’t know, that makes me positively, well, hopeful.
A warmer, fuzzier Internet? I dig it.
“The Internet is like alcohol in some sense. It accentuates what you would do anyway. If you want to be a loner, you can be more alone. If you want to connect, it makes it easier to connect.” ~Esther Dyson
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Warning, it’s my blog so you are getting my opinion. I make no pretensions at being impartial, I don’t get paid for that. Heck, I don’t get paid at all. I do try very hard to be fair and I do not wish to be unkind. You want another opinion, fine, but this one is mine.
I use Facebook a fair amount. I say “fair amount”, my better half would probably characterize that as a lot. As per often, I disagree. I’d say I go in spurts. A couple of times a week I’ll post three or four things in a day, then I won’t post for a few days. I do make a point to spend a few minutes on Facebook each day. I like seeing what my friends are doing. And when I say “friends” I really mean friends. If I haven’t actually met you then I don’t accept your friend request. It’s nothing personal; I’m just funny that way. I won’t “like” a page either unless it’s something that I actually know and like.
So when I go on Facebook it really is to catch up on friends, especially those that are far away. It’s wonderful that in a few clicks I can see what Sarah-from-college’s daughter Sheridan is up to, I can laugh at what funny status my friend Kathryn posted this time and don’t get me started on Caroline’s hilarious pictures and cartoons. Not to mention, I love seeing photos of everyone’s kids and vacations. It makes you seem closer. I miss you, guys.
The other day I posted a little blurb on Newt Gingrich. It pictured Newt (not a bad shot either) and then under it read, “Family Values- Using daughters from your first wife to convince everyone that your second wife is lying about your third wife”. I know, funny, right? I was looking at it as the photo equivalent of a political cartoon. It makes an observation. It expresses a point of view. To me being able to express one’s self is a classic hallmark of American society. I can post this about a presidential candidate and still sleep soundly at night knowing that I won’t be hauled off by the secret police in the wee hours of the morning. Neither will my family. That’s an amazing, wonderful thing about this country.
Two of my Facebook friends got into a commenting match with each other. You’ve all seen them. It happens. I’ve entered the fray a few times myself on things that struck me. Frankly, I like when this happens. It is always nice to see people stretch their brains. I mean, that’s what they are there for, brains, that is, to be used. Naturally, as today we live in a society of polarizing forces, my friends came at the topic from widely divergent points of view.
Though I know they publicly posted using their real names, and even photos, and so aren’t ashamed of their opinions, they are not YOUR Facebook friends. Ergo, to protect the innocent, let’s give them aliases. One friend came from a very liberal slant, similar to myself. Let’s call her, Libby the Liberal. The other friend came from a more conservative, republican point of view. We’ll name her, Connie the Conservative. Okay, everyone still with me? Excellent. Let’s get down to brass tacks.
Connie commented on my post that we had previously had an adulterous president but that he had still been supported. To which Libby replied this was true but that Clinton hadn’t run on a platform including protecting “traditional marriage” or “family values”. Libby went on to say that you could be a real lying, cheating S.O.B. yet still be qualified to be president. Her language was more colorful that what I’ve used here. Connie came back to that with a post agreeing Clinton had been elected “without a stand on values” and wasn’t it nice to have a civil conversation. I’m pretty sure that last bit was sarcasm, what do you think? Libby came back with several posts that apologized for any offense her salty talk might have caused and proceeded to eloquently outline some of her frustrations with the conservative wing of our political parties and her perception of the hypocrisies therein. I’m paraphrasing, of course.
Which brings us mostly current to today’s blog post. I say “mostly”, I’ll explain in a bit. There’s a status update.
Here’s the thing. I find Libby and Connie to be amazingly representative of the divide that exists in this country. Quite frankly, it’s a situation doing great harm to our nation.
Much of America is divided into two primary groups. When I Googled the definitions for Conservative and Liberal, this is what I got.
con·serv·a·tive/kənˈsərvətiv/
Adjective: Holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in politics or religion.
Noun: A person who is averse to change and holds to traditional values and attitudes, typically in politics.
Synonyms: traditional, orthodox, unchanging, stable, inflexible
lib·er·al/ˈlib(ə)rəl/
Adjective: Open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.
Noun: A person of liberal views.
Synonyms: generous, bounteous, lavish, bountiful, free
To be fair I should mention initially the only synonym I could find for “conservative” was Tory. I had to search again to find the ones that I used. And before anyone starts shouting about my liberal bias let me just say: 1.) You bet your ass I’m biased, and so are you. Everyone is. 2.) I rejected many really ugly synonyms. You don’t believe me? Just Google the word yourself.
Back to our friends Connie & Libby and how they are symptomatic of America today.
These two women have an enormous amount in common, and not just that they are both friends with me. For starters I would wager both of these women would describe family as one of their top priorities. Both of them are happily married. Both are devoted mothers- good mothers. Both are extremely articulate and intelligent. Both have what I would call successful careers. Funny factoid, I met both of these women through my former life in Stampin’ Up! (before you ask, yes, I am still a demonstrator, it’s not my top focus these days). Connie led a business builders Yahoo site for about twelve of us all trying to take our teams to the next level. It helped me. At one point I was the #23 Demonstrator of the Year. Girlfriend Connie knows her stuff. Libby was a mutual friend of a college friend and I met her as one of my customers. So, they’re both crafty and artistic. Told you they were a lot alike. Both are educated. Libby has her PhD. I don’t know Connie’s level of education but based on her intelligence and writing ability I’d say she has some college if not an actual four-year degree. Oh yeah, one more thing, both love their country deeply.
The differences? Well, those are small, yet profound. Libby is an atheist. While Connie is a devout Christian. I’m guessing Born Again or Evangelical, but we’ve never formally discussed it. (This is based on her FB posts.) Clearly, Libby is a democrat and Connie is a republican. One is for gay marriage, the other against. One believes abortion should be safe and legal, the other does not. One believes in a smaller government and the other believes in a smaller government.
Whoa, those of you paying attention just blinked and scratched your head. Gold star for you- that was not a type-o! Yep, turns out conservatives and liberals BOTH want smaller government. We just want it in different ways. We also want control, but over different things. Finally, we both trust people to be able to make their own decisions, but again, you guessed it, on different topics.
For example, conservatives would like smaller government in regards to funding of government programs and regulation of businesses and corporations. They would especially like lower taxes on businesses. They reason, correctly, many government programs are bloated and in need of an overhaul and audit. Trimmer programs would mean less expense which would lead in turn to lower taxes. They also reason that less regulation would allow businesses to innovate. This combined with lower taxes would allow companies to expand, thus creating jobs. They believe that people could do a better job deciding how to spend their tax dollars than the federal government does. Many government programs, they reason, are full of lazy free loaders who are taking advantage of the system. Private charities and churches should be trusted with many of the needs of the deserving poor. Conservatives argue that we should trust in the haves to take care of the have-nots. We should trust in businesses to make decisions that would build the economy and increase jobs. I am over simplifying, but hey, this is just a blog post.
Okay, so far, so good. I get the reasoning. I really do.
On the other side of the aisle are the liberals. They too, would like smaller government. They would like government out of their uteruses, out of their bedrooms and out of their homes. Sexual practices like oral and anal sex are no one’s business but the consenting adults involved. They believe people can do a better job deciding how to make love to their partner in life and, more importantly, who to choose as that partner. They believe people can do a better job deciding how to spend the days of their lives than the lawmakers can. It is not the government’s job to regulate a person’s morality based on one section of the population’s opinion. Liberals want government out of the church business, too. If you read the Framers’ writings, it’s pretty clear. Those guys were a radical bunch. They were serious about the whole separation of church and state. So are liberals. No prayer in schools, no creationism (or Intelligent Design) in science classrooms (I’ve got my eye on you, Kansas City School Board) and no Ten Commandments in front of courthouses. (That last one is mostly because I live in fear of #10. I always wanted a pony and it specifically says not to covet your neighbor’s donkey. They’re pretty close.) Again, I am over simplifying but it’s still just a blog post. Albeit, one of my longer ones.
Conservatives say we should trust businesses, the “job-creators”, to do what is best for the economy. Liberals know that businesses don’t work for the betterment of America, they work for profit and profit will always win. Conservatives say we should cut funding of public programs. Yes, there is bloat and waste and even free loaders but liberals still believe that government does have a role to play in the assistance of citizens who have fallen on hard times. Liberals do not trust the haves to care for the have-nots. I don’t know, blame it on education, we’ve learned too much history.
I am deliberately leaving off the whole Newt debacle. If he becomes the nominee, my blog will be all too easy. It’s written: the family values, the hypocrisy, the affairs (plural), the leaving of the wives (please note plural, again), the 84 ethics violation charges and more, so much more. You want him as your nominee? Go ahead, I double dog dare you.
So here we are, at an impasse. Two sides of a coin and never the twain shall meet. Is there a way clear?
Of course there is, there always is. The biggest thing is to keep talking. Things get rough, don’t yell, take a deep breath. Then try again. As I outlined above Libby and Connie have a lot in common. Actually they have more in common than they do apart. So do Liberals and Conservatives. Obviously, we are unified by three main things: our distrust in government to make the big decisions, our love of this country and our shared humanity and belief in the basic goodness of people. Hey, look, that’s actually four things!
You keep talking. Maybe we can’t change Washington overnight but we can get to know and value one another. Start at the local level. Maybe you begin humbly, voter registration, get more people involved in the process. Or maybe efforts to welcome home and reacclimate returning veterans. We all want to see them valued for their sacrifice and return to happy, fulfilling lives. Maybe there’s something environmental, I value clean air and water for my children. I figure Evangelicals have to value the earth if they believe that God created and touched everything in it. How can they then simply trash His work?
Most of all, we forgive and move forward. We keep looking for points of common ground. We keep looking for compromise, for opportunities to do real good. Liberals and conservatives may not see the world the same way but we have a country to run, children to raise and a tomorrow to see to. We don’t have the luxury of being petty or small.
I promised you a Facebook status. Libby is still my friend but Connie “de-friended” me although I had no part in the dialogue. I am sad to see her go but still, there’s a conversation to be had, children to raise and a tomorrow to see to.
You fear change, Connie? You fear the different? The unknown? Honey, life is change. Life is the unknown. Go out and try to tell the tide to stop if you like, but get out of my way. I have work to do. The world moves on and thinking you can keep things “the way they used to be” has never and will never happen.
Can you spot the liberal and the conservative? Yeah, me neither. Keep talking, ladies.
For the giggle factor I just had to include the info I found regarding sodomy laws- priceless… hmmm, a bit sad. Let me explain, folks, most “sodomy laws” actually include, amongst other things, provisions outlawing oral sex. Not oral sex, say, in public, oral sex at all. And before you cosmopolitan types get too smug and say, “Sure in North Carolina, Indiana, Georgia, but not here”. ( No offense to those states, although hey, you do still have the laws.) You might be surprised, fourteen states have yet to turn over existing sodomy laws. And then are the stupid laws that are just a waste of government time and energy. What if I said in Virginia you can’t have sex during the daytime, with a light on, or with socks on? In Florida, the only legal sexual position is the missionary position (I couldn’t find out if woman on top is allowed, but I have my suspicions). In Arizona it is illegal to have more than two dildos in a home. Drat, there go the Pleasure Parties. In California it is illegal for animals to mate within 1500 feet of a tavern, place of worship or a school. Hmm, I’m pretty sure no one told the squirrels. In Pennsylvania it is illegal to have over sixteen women live in a house together because that constitutes a brothel. However, up to one hundred twenty men can live together, without breaking the law. Thank The Flying Spaghetti Monster for 2003′s Lawrence v. Texas. We’re slowly, state by state, undoing these ridiculous laws.
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Happy Stop SOPA Day!!! Now, I don’t know if it will replace the Super Bowl as America’s most celebrated unofficial holiday but honestly, an awful lot of people took part in yesterday’s online blackout, yours truly included.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? How the Internet can change and mold our lives? One day you can see a reference to something, the equivalent of an electronic whisper and suddenly BAM! It becomes part of your life. The Web has brought us such gifts as (in some cases ones we’d prefer to take back) : Justin Bieber, eBay, Paypal (all the better to take your money, my pretty) and World of Warcraft.
I jumped into the SOPA foray only knowing a little about the topic and had my site blacked out yesterday like the good little freedom of speech supporter that I am. Today I sat down at my computer and decided to dive deeper.
So, what is the Senate’s SOPA bill and its more perkily monikered House’s little sister, PIPA?
I wondered if the issue would become more gray, you know, have some concrete pro’s and con’s. Often times one hears one side of the story and gets really gung-ho over voting someone off the island and then on closer examination one finds out they were just “edited to look evil”.
Let me reassure you so you can sleep tonight, this isn’t one of those times.
On the face of things, SOPA is a very good idea. Pirates are stealing copyrighted material and intellectual property. As a writer I am very in favor of people being compensated for the work they do. In fact, I enthusiastically encourage it. The argument that jobs need to be protected, market values maintained and revenue sheltered is also a cogent one. It seems eminently reasonable when there is theft occurring for someone in charge to decide to put a stop to it.
This is where we jump the track from a good idea to your proverbial hot mess.
The bill (specifically SOPA) operates on the idea that in order to deal with pirates, bit torrents and pharmaceutical knock-offs, who are primarily based in other countries and, ergo, beyond the practical reach of our federal government, one needs to remove them from two things: money and users. The bill would ban advertising networks from using and, more importantly, paying infringing sites. In theory this would cut the offending sites off from their revenue streams.
The bill would also give media content owners the right to block the domain names of any infringing site. That means the site would still exist but search engines would no longer list the site and when you typed in the domain name your ISP (Internet Service Provider) would no longer bring it up for you.
In this case the law also specifies for the criminalization of content/intellectual property infringers and is punishable with up to five years in prison per count. That one might be harder to directly go after the offending sites if the site owner is over seas.
The bill gets in trouble for two basic reasons. It seems that the authors did not think through the collateral damage. This would be all the ways the law can be abused that its authors did not anticipate. (Or perhaps they did, who knows?) The second reason is that as the bill is currently written it won’t work. It’s going to hurt American users and internet businesses far more than any damage it would do to the original pirates for whom the law was written.
The first problem is this whole blacklisting of infringing sites. As soon as the site is accused of infringement, the site is eligible to be blacklisted and subsequently blocked. This would be before any violation has been proven and through the blocking of the site to its users and its revenues the site owners would lose their best avenues of defending themselves from the charges. The blocking does not require a court order. Payment processors or content providers like Visa or YouTube don’t even need a letter to shut off a site’s resources. The lack of due process is alarming to say the least.
The reason so many smaller internet users, like myself, are concerned over SOPA has to do with this domain name blocking. For instance, if someone using a WordPress blog were to be blocked for infringement and they had the word “wordpress” in their domain name then all other WordPress users with the word “wordpress” in their sites’ names would also be blocked. Likewise with Blogspot or any of the other blogging sites. Even individuals in direct sales (Stampin’ Up!, Mary Kay, Cookie Lee, Tuperware, etc.) with company websites would be affected. If one of their fellow consultants or the parent company was accused and had their site blocked then all sites with similar roots to their domain names would share that fate. It could become very widespread, very quickly. ( Mind you, I’ve purchased my domain name so I don’t have WordPress in my address anymore but still, the point remains.)
There are many sites on the Web that are a conglomeration of smaller users. For example Flicker in photos, Vimeo in user made videos and Etsy in home-made crafts. If a few of their users or even only one were to be guilty, or just accused, of infringement it could effectively put the whole site out of business.
The next problem is we human beings are awfully frail creatures and easily led into temptation. In today’s media world we have just a few companies that control an awful lot of the media content: movies, music, all of our news and this bleeds into the Web. For example I found this scenario laid out on the Huffington Post’s website:
“Google could easily take it upon itself to delist every viral video site on the internet with a “good faith belief” that they’re hosting copyrighted material. Leaving YouTube as the only major video portal … Comcast (an ISP) owns NBC (a content provider). Think they might have an interest in shuttering some rival domains? Under SOPA, they can do it without even asking for permission.”
Sites that do not necessarily infringe on copyrights but instead provide “A reasonable threat to established American corporations” would also be under siege. For example, say you’d like to sell your tires on Craig’s List but Goodrich is concerned that this interferes with their business model. They can shut down Craig’s List.
Next we look at Twitter, Facebook, all the social networking sites out there. Suppose you referenced a joke or one liner from a television show or popular movie, or you put up a picture or video from your favorite band? Or if you tweeted, your blog posts, a site indexed by Google, whatever, pick your flavor. If you don’t have the proper authorization Facebook, or whichever site, would be legally obligated to take it down.
Or let’s say you figured out a clever way to get around SOPA- yea you! So naturally, you decide to tell your friends how to do it,too. SOPA has an “anti-circumvention” clause. Even if what you posted doesn’t violate any copyrights, if you are telling people how to get around SOPA then it is considered legally to be just as bad. Again, Facebook or whoever would have to take it down. If they did not they would be subject to a government “enjoinment” and would be shut down. All of these sites would have to monitor and control all of our content. (Of course, they’re mining it all now anyhow for product placement but at least they aren’t editing us, too.)
The thing which really fries my brain cells about SOPA is that it’s ri-donk-culous on two big issues. In the US, the MPAA, and RIAA already have laws in place to request that infringing material be taken down. Hello, we’ve all seen enough “video removed” messages to know that it works just fine. Why do we need more redundant laws? Then there are the pirates that this law is actually supposed to be aimed at. I hate to compliment the bad guys in this story but it seems to me they’ve done a pretty good job avoiding everything the movie studios and other media content owners have thrown at them. Do you think they are even worried about this latest proposed piece of paper?
Still confused? Undecided? So far, in my humble opinion, this is the best video (yeah, click there) explaining what SOPA and PIPA are and how they will affect life as we know it. It does a very good job of breaking down the proposed legislation and its practical applications and effects. Believe me, I didn’t even list them all. The whole security implications have me bamboozled so I left those out. That doesn’t mean they don’t scare me.
The unintended reality of this bill’s passage would a stifling of cultural communication, technological innovation and intellectual expression. I know the Internet communities were a little tickled with yesterday’s results and I agree, go team! However, if you look at who is for this bill: Motion Picture Association, Recording Association, all the pharmaceuticals, the U.S. chamber of Commerce and just about every media player you can think of. AND then you look at who is against it: American Library Association, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, FB, all online bloggers, Mozilla, Wikipedia and so many others. On both sides are ranged huge amounts of money, talent and human power. This isn’t over. We have until the vote on January 24th to make our voices heard. You want to count? Speak the heck up! And by speak up I mean email or call your U.S. House of Representative or your U.S. Senator. Do it everyday. I like my Internet the way it is, thank you very much.
And that’s my two cents.
Life after SOPA
