
Spain Gets its Own SOPA-Style Anti-Piracy Law For Shutting Down Websites - johnpaultitlow
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/spain_sopa_law_shut_down_websites.php#.TwH0EtZRzfg.hackernews
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TomOfTTB
I’ve been saying this for a while now and it’s only getting truer: the SOPA
war is being lost because the people fighting against it have let hatred for
their intellectual opponents compromise their case.

Rather than treat the other side as misguided everyone insists on treating
them as evil. Using force as the only tool rather than trying to convince
people.

Look at all the people who are STILL attacking GoDaddy! The point of a boycott
is to give the company a chance to be in good standing again if they do what
you want. If you then continue to attack after they’ve given in you remove any
incentive for other companies to bend to your demands. This is very basic
logic.

While on the other side the Media Companies are offering nothing but
incentives. Read the last couple of paragraphs of the article. The Media
Companies are rewarding Spain with all kinds of investments that they were
holding up until the law gets passed.

I honestly think the media companies are going to give up on SOPA but only for
PR reasons. They’ll then slip each individual component into other legislation
so it goes virtually unnoticed. That’s what they did in Spain in that the SEL
was a general law aimed at stimulus to maintain the economy not specifically
about media (translate the “critics” section of this page:
<http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_de_Econom%C3%ADa_Sostenible>).

But that’s the problem with forcing people rather than convincing them.
Eventually you have to look away and that’s when they go back to doing exactly
what you tried to stop.

~~~
nextparadigms
Yes, as a long term strategy, that's definitely needed. And I also think we
should write something like the Bill of Rights for the Internet.

But, for now, with so little time left, I think it's much more important to
send the message that _any_ politician who supports SOPA can kiss goodbye to
their political career. The same goes for companies supporting it - massive
short term and long term boycotts.

~~~
TomOfTTB
I don't see how this strategy could work. The reality is most people don't
care about SOPA or even understand the consequences of it. No politician is
going to get thrown out because of it (especially not with Media Companies
money behind them allowing them to run ads on Abortion, Gay Marriage, and a
bunch of other hedge issues that large portions of people actually do care
about)

I mean, lets be honest here. The media companies can pump way more money into
the system then SOPA opposers can take out with a boycott. If that weren't the
case this battle would have been won long ago.

The only way you win this fight is by getting enough normal people to care
about SOPA and that isn't accomplished through boycotts. It's accomplished by
talking to people outside the insular tech community.

------
narag
The article contains numerous inaccuracies.

Statistics that Spain has a special problem of piracy are known to be
fabricated by RIAA's cousin.

BTW, the formed head of that organization is on trial for massive corruption.

The complain is not about a judge closing a website. That was always possible.
Instead the law allows an _administrative_ comission to close a web without a
judge approving it, thus the outrage.

P2P as such, without profit, is simply legal. On the other hand, in Spain
until today, an illegal "tax" (forbidden by EU Supreme Court recently) was
applied to any hardware with the excuse that it can store protected works.

~~~
lemming
_Statistics that Spain has a special problem of piracy are known to be
fabricated by RIAA's cousin._

But are also supported by a 15 minute conversation with anyone who lives here
- piracy is utterly rampant to a degree I've never seen anywhere else. I was
shocked when I came here.

~~~
narag
Oh, please, if you accept that stats are fabricated, how can you defend such
an anecdotic "evidence"? That's been a lie that everybody has come to believe
after mass media has been uncritically funneling SGAE's propaganda.

~~~
lemming
I didn't say I accept that the stats are fabricated - I don't know. I'm quite
sure that the SGAE are totally corrupt, but equally I'm sure that piracy is
rampant here to a degree I have never seen anywhere else (I've lived in Spain
for 6 years BTW). My friends never buy any music and generally joke about how
much they pirate. I know a lot of people from different walks of life and this
is totally widespread in my experience. You can write it off as anecdotal if
you like (or you could provide some stats to the contrary) but I'm sure it's
true.

