does any of you have any idea if the SOPA project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more which is the reason of the today's wikipedia blackout, may have some consequences on the existence of WTM ? Could any movie studio sue WTM for using pictures from their productions ? What about a black banner on WTM ?
I think movie studios could already sue WTM (although if they would be succesful is another matter), which is one of the reasons why we insist that people only upload shots taken from original DVD's. This way we hope that it is visible that we love our movies and pay for it, instead of being just a bunch of pirates.
I see no difference in principle. When you buy a dvd, its usage is strictly restricted to its watching in a private way (public projections are forbidden for example). Grabbing images and publish it on internet is probably forbidden.
Of course it is clearly visible that we love movies :)
Companies could already sue WTM. But if SOPA gets passed.. they won't even have to, they can just order the site shut down, funding removed, etc without even a hint of what looks like a trial.
Second, the wording of these laws are so flawed.. it's goals to surpress 'downloading' fail in all kinds of manners and will only destabalize the whole net. (like really.. remove www.thepiratebay.com from the DNS.. the site still has an IP, those who want to get there will anyhow) It will outlaw pretty much any user generated content and more importantly the websites who provide it as those sites will be made responsible for what their users post.. the costs of such policing are far too high and as such websites will shut down.
It marks users posting things if viewed enough as criminals.. it's a felony, you'd get a criminal record and a possible 5 year jail sentence.. for what? Singing a song from your favorite artist, putting it on youtube and getting a measely 2500 views or so.
If this gets passed the entertainment industry, which is really in all things considered a small part of the US economy will break down and destroy pretty much the current workings of the internet which holds a far far larger piece of the whole pie. The entertainment industry is clining to businessmodels from decades ago and instead of trying to be creative and find a business model that works in this day and age they try and cling to get their way in any way possible.. by bulldozing over all of us. Or as the Oatmeal stated yesterday: "It's like trying to catch a lion that has escaped the zoo by putting a flamethrower on a nest of kittens, and Kitten BBQ = bad!"