SOPA

[Teuthida]

[Typhoid]

Nice knowing ya, Teuth.
That little clip will land you more years in prison than the guy who killed him did.

[KillerGremlin]

The RIAA has finally figured out how to beat the Internet. It's all about money, and squashing competing content. When SOPA passes, or some other form of the bill, it will be impossible to launch a website.

You will have Youtube for videos. And Facebook for social media. Any other site that tries to host videos will be sued and shut down for copyright. And once you restrict the Internet to one video website, you will have massive censorship. No more videos showing police brutality, no videos challenging the government.

The most offensive thing about SOPA is that it is setting the US government up to police the globe. Today, Megaupload was shut down. In one poof 4% of the Internet disappeared. If that isn't scary I don't know what is.

Congress and the RIAA are quickly realizing that you can no longer profit selling music and movies. So now they are going to sell culture. If SOPA passes, the Internet will be sanctioned, blacklisted, and shut down. You aren't going to have any more culture, creativity, or freedom.

Want to host a new blog or website? Nope! Copyright infringement! SOPA! You want to put your band's music on a website? NOPE! Sony music is going to sue you! You have to host it on Youtube, and pay Sony money. Don't worry though, when we channel the Internet down to 100 websites, it will be a better place.

If this sounds like crazy conspiracy talk, it really isn't. Look at what happened to Megaupload today. And that happened without SOPA.

I always said that technology always wins....I hope that holds up this time around.

[Typhoid]

I think the only thing this will do for the music industry is destroy record labels. Bands can still put their music on the internet without getting sued, if they don't belong to a label. If they own their own shit, they can do whatever they want with it. If ANYTHING, this is the worst business move those mega-companies could hope for.

because if I have the choice of signing with Sony, and having them take my money for distributing it on the internet, and also paying to put it there;
and
Hosting it myself and not risk getting sued by anyone considering I'm not signed to a label

I think I'd go with option B, and I'm pretty sure most others would, too.
What's the point of signing to a record label, when pressing records is becoming obsolete. It's all about putting it on the internet. Digital copies. I don't need a record label to put my video or song up. I can do that for myself.

[KillerGremlin]

There are just scary implications with SOPA. Rumor on the street is that SOPA is a guaranteed failure. However, SOPA is going to be attached to the end of some "Stop Online Child Pornography Act" that congress will be unable to vote against (because who is going to vote against stopping child porn).

Ultimately you figure this is going to get passed at some point. SOPA is less interesting to 99% of Americans than the Kardashians.

A part of me feels like this country deserves what it has coming. 80% of the lazy fucks in this country don't vote. So this is what you get. Congress with an all time disapproval rating, and this SOPA bill that is going to end the Internet as we know it.

I guess my new hope is that Canada or Sweden declares war on the United States when we try to police the Internet on the other side of the world.

Again: conspiracy talk?

In one fell swoop, the FBI shut down 4% of the Internet's bandwidth today. Megaupload is gone. People had money tied into that website. Megaupload was also DMCA compliant, and removed content when it was reported. Megaupload is no different than any other vehicle that can be used for illegal activity. Youtube for illegal content. The radio for illegal content. Anything really.

But the worst fact? The big bust was in New Zealand. So now we have the United States Global Police Force shoving their policy in other countries over copyright. It's going to get ugly before it gets better.

Let me just say:

AMERICA IS COMING TO YOUR COUNTRY TO BUST YOUR COPYRIGHT LAWS AND ARREST YO ASS! BETTER WATCH OUT RUSSIA!

[Typhoid]

I agree 100% that the US trying to Police the planet is pretty fucked up. I mean, it doesn't matter if copyright laws in the US are being broken - because they're being broken in a different country where those laws might not even apply.

How can they not grasp that fucking concept. Jesus.


That would be like strolling into another country and being like "Hey, all those married queer people you have here, yeah - we're making all of those marriages null and void despite the fact it's not our right, and it's your country. Alright. God Bless America."


Edit: Germy, I didn't really mean that record labels have NO value (if this passes). I can still see a lot of people going to a record label if they need the money to record and produce and all that - but in the age of everyone having some type of music editor, and most people believing in their own inherent musical ability - I can just see a lot more people saying "Fuck it", and trying to do it themselves. Sort of like how everyone knows at least 6 people attempting to be a DJ/"Music Producer" because they bought a Mac that had Garageband or something. (I'm not omitting the people who actually take it seriously and put money into it.) But it's so easy to just do it yourself and put it up yourself for them, that everyone is doing it these days. I can see that happening to other genres of music in the future, where the market gets flooded with independent basement bands who'd rather not risk getting sued (or something, I don't know. I'm mostly ramble-ranting.)

[The Germanator]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I think the only thing this will do for the music industry is destroy record labels. Bands can still put their music on the internet without getting sued, if they don't belong to a label. If they own their own shit, they can do whatever they want with it. If ANYTHING, this is the worst business move those mega-companies could hope for.

because if I have the choice of signing with Sony, and having them take my money for distributing it on the internet, and also paying to put it there;
and
Hosting it myself and not risk getting sued by anyone considering I'm not signed to a label

I think I'd go with option B, and I'm pretty sure most others would, too.
What's the point of signing to a record label, when pressing records is becoming obsolete. It's all about putting it on the internet. Digital copies. I don't need a record label to put my video or song up. I can do that for myself.

You're right on some of this, but you can't completely diminish a record label's clout. We're actually self-releasing our next album and I'm excited about doing in that way, but there's some hardship that comes with it.

The main thing a record label can do, whether or not you're still physically printing CDs or not, is having money upfront and the experience to make that money work. A label can pay an advance for recording, press, radio plugging, videos, advertising, etc without the band having to pay this cost up front. Of course that means they recoup those costs before the band sees anything, but those things have a ton of value, and if the label doesn't make that money back then it's their problem, not yours.

With self-releasing, of course you can just upload your stuff and hope for the best, but without paying for some of that stuff (press most importantly), it's going to be tough. Of course Radiohead can do it, they don't need press to remind people to buy their music at any cost, but it's tougher when you're say...The Spinto Band.

That said, I'm excited about the self-release prospect. We've gotta put some of our money upfront, but it also means money will be going directly to us when someone buys it from us online, and theoretically we make that money right back and hope to profit on touring/merch/commercials, whatever.

Anyway, this is kind of just an off-topic music industry rant, but I still say that you can't completely disregard labels. They still can be useful in situations.