Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

[Dirtbag59]

Funny story about the other party thats claiming to loose money due to online piracy.

Hollywood accounting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hollywood accounting (also known as Hollywood bookkeeping)[1] refers to the opaque accounting methods used by the film, video and television industry to budget and record profits for film projects. Expenditures can be inflated to reduce or eliminate the reported profit of the project thereby reducing the amount which the corporation must pay in royalties or other profit-sharing agreements, as these are based on the net profit.

Hollywood Accounting: Darth Vader Not Getting Paid, Because Return Of The Jedi Still Isn't Profitable | Techdirt

“I get these occasional letters from Lucasfilm saying that we regret to inform you that as Return of the Jedi has never gone into profit, we’ve got nothing to send you. Now here we’re talking about one of the biggest releases of all time,” said Prowse. “I don’t want to look like I’m bitching about it,” he said, “but on the other hand, if there’s a pot of gold somewhere that I ought to be having a share of, I would like to see it.”

So basically they're claiming to loose money to online piracy when in reality these studios have been using accounting tricks for years to claim losses. Apparently the Enron shell company accounting trick is also pretty common in Hollywood.

Enron and Hollywood Accounting » Alex Hopmann’s Blog

One thought occured to me- the type of schemes that Enron used to do fake accounting to pump up their profits remind me of the kind of schemes that the Hollywood studios use (in reverse) to make sure that films never have a profit and thus they don’t have to pay out percentages to various folks who have a stake in the film. For those that aren’t familiar with it, having a percentage of the profit in a typical film has become a real joke since even films that rake in $100s of millions of dollars world-wide somehow always end up not making a profit. Strange that the studios keep paying for them when they never make any money?

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

Wikipedia to blackout all 3,847,673 English-language pages to protest PIPA - Yahoo! News

Good for them. Plus it's in Wales so not only do we get the full benefit of the blackout but we also still get to use Wiki. FTMFW!

[mlmpetert]

Matty is thewarpth going to be blacked out tomorrow??!?!?!?!??!!!

[mooby]

Originally Posted by mlmpetert

Matty is thewarpth going to be blacked out tomorrow??!?!?!?!??!!!

Yes, and only because you dared to ask. Had you not said anything nothing would've happened. See what you've done now?

[mlmpetert]

^ my bad

[diehard]

I needed Wikipedia at 12:04am 1/18/2012. And Google has electrical tape covering the doodle..

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by diehard

I needed Wikipedia at 12:04am 1/18/2012. And Google has electrical tape covering the doodle..

You can still view Wikipedia. Just search for whatever you want on Google and click the grey arrow box to the right of the Google search link. That should bring up a picture of the page with the words "Cached" and Similar near the top of the picture in blue letters. Click on Cached and you can view the page.

You'll have to go back to google to view other wikipedia pages as you can't use wiki's search feature but for the most part you can still use wikipedia.

So for example
'Til Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

vs the blackout link
'Til Death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At the same time keep in mind that the Wikipedia blackout is an example of what to expect should SOPA or PIPA pass and be made into a bill.

[CRedskinsRule]

From Wikipedia's statement page about the blackout:

Is it still possible to access Wikipedia in any way?

Yes. During the blackout, Wikipedia is accessible on mobile devices and smart phones. You can also view Wikipedia normally by disabling JavaScript in your browser, as explained on this Technical FAQ page. Our purpose here isn't to make it completely impossible for people to read Wikipedia, and it's okay for you to circumvent the blackout. We just want to make sure you see our message.

[NC_Skins]

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Sign the petition from google.

[mlmpetert]

Heard this on the radio this morning.

SOPA Sponsor Lamar Smith’s Campaign Website Violated Copyright Laws

I think rational people agree that something needs to be done to better enforce and control online piracy, however, the proposed law seems to give much more power then what’s actually needed. I don’t understand why people keep thinking giving more power to the federal govt is a good thing?

I have a good friend from Thailand that was on a visa while in America. She moved back to Thailand about 8 months ago and hates it partly because of internet there. She doesn’t have American internet, its severely restricted. Restriction is a bad thing.

[NC_Skins]

You know how they could do something about piracy? Make their product cheaper. When you overcharge for your product, people are going to steal it. Greedy ass movie companies should understand this. In fact, I find it one of the most ironic and hypocritical things ever for the movie industry to complain about theft and piracy yet it's entire foundation came from the theft of Louis Lumiere's invention.


Even now, the movie industry steals people's ideas and stories to cash in on them. They are no different than any other major corporation when it comes to squeezing the people for every cent they can while showing little to no morals in how they accomplish it.

Man Who Says DreamWorks Stole 'Kung Fu Panda' Wins Round in Court - THR, Esq.

Seems hollywood had no problems stealing from this man and making billions of dollars off him either.



Piracy Isn’t Killing The Movie Industry, Greed Is | TorrentFreak

The greed of the music studios hasn’t gone unnoticed by Paul Uniacke, head of the Video Ezy and Blockbuster video rental chains. “Studio greed is what’s holding back video-on-demand,” he said in response to the studios demands to pay huge sums of money upfront if they want to offer on-demand streams.



“Movie studios are still as arrogant as the music moguls were before digital downloads and piracy destroyed them. The only thing that’s protecting the movie studios (from more widespread illegal downloading) now is file size,” Uniacke added.

[Dirtbag59]

Another wiki trick. When you load the page keep hit the ESC key before the blackout page shows up. This way you can use the search bar and click on links.

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by NC_Skins

You know how they could do something about piracy? Make their product cheaper. When you overcharge for your product, people are going to steal it. Greedy ass movie companies should understand this. In fact, I find it one of the most ironic and hypocritical things ever for the movie industry to complain about theft and piracy yet it's entire foundation came from the theft of Louis Lumiere's invention.

This kind of sounds like the argument that girls who dress provocatively deserve to get raped.

Since you understand market pricing more so then those in charge at greedy ass movie companies, what would you recommend to the industry? Do you think they should be without the right to make the amount of money they do without fighting for legislation to crack down on piracy? Do you think people who steal entertainment products are less greedy then those who create them, if those who create them are “rich”?

Im all against SOPA, but it sounds like in addition to being against SOPA youre also against successful corporations?

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag59

Another wiki trick. When you load the page keep hit the ESC key before the blackout page shows up. This way you can use the search bar and click on links.

SOPA and PIPA pages also work without problem.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by NC_Skins

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Sign the petition from google.

Thanks for the link.

Signed and I hope everyone takes a second to do the same.

[JoeRedskin]

Originally Posted by NC_Skins

Even now, the movie industry steals people's ideas and stories to cash in on them. They are no different than any other major corporation when it comes to squeezing the people for every cent they can while showing little to no morals in how they accomplish it.

Man Who Says DreamWorks Stole 'Kung Fu Panda' Wins Round in Court - THR, Esq.

Seems hollywood had no problems stealing from this man and making billions of dollars off him either.

And then the other shoe dropped .... Kung Fu Panda Lawsuit
(A jury found for Dreamworks - i.e., the plaintiff had failed to show by a preponderance of the evidence that DreamWorks used Mr. Dunne's "Zen Panda" idea in developing Kung-Fo Po. Although it may yet remanded for a new trial, a jury of LA City citizens - not the judge, not the big evil corporation, not the screaming mob - after reviewing the evidence said "Nope - DreamWorks didn't steal the idea".)

The point being that there are laws to protect intellectual property. They are necessary and folks are able to avail themselves of it when they believe themselves wronged. Just b/c someone alleges an idea, however, was stolen doesn't make it so. It's that shocking "Rule of Law" thing again.

As for SOPA, I am in complete agreement with mlpertert.