todotvnews.com Television & Entertainment Business News
The #1 source on Latin American Markets (Google Analytics – March 2012)
and Fileserve cancelled their file exchange services, QuickSilverScreen shut down and Uploaded.to stopped recieven US files.
ting everything and everyone, whoever decides to attempt to fill BTJunkie’s shoes will certainly have to be very brave. ttv
Closer to our region there’s Cuevana, which is facing multiple charges filed against the company; and Taringa!, an Argentine site that’s currently in the line of fire.
Connected Documental
THE FUTURE. It’s happened before; shutting down major sites such as Megaupload and Napster simply promotes the appearance of new options that try to fill the void. Someone will certainly come along and take over the space left by BTJunkie. Yet, there’s a catch, since this time things are more complicated. With laws such as PIPA, SOPA and ACTA spreading all over the globe, and the FBI investiga-
SOPA/PIPA: AN EXPENSIVE DISTRACTION By Stephanie Biscomb
38/TTV PREVIEW
Twitter: @sbiscomb sbiscomb@todotv.tv
In January, several online sites protested the US’ SOPA and PIPA bills by either blacking out their content or making the site black for 24 hours. Wikipedia, reddit, Mozilla and even Google voiced their disagreement with these two projects which intend to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites. The bills are meant to control which sites appear on search engines and the web itself, a fact that many people consider to be a form of censorship, and rightfully so. The major issue here is not the sites which are actually breaking the law. The problem is that several sites can be accused of doing so -and will therefore face legal consequences- without being guilty. The bills enable shutting down sites or barring search engines from linking to those sites before checking if they are in fact conducting illegal business. And if that wasn’t enough, it won’t even be that much of an issue for those web sites that really are infracting the law. Those who would actually be affected by the laws are sites with user generated content or, in other words, any social media site. This last point is evident to anyone who knows a thing or two about technology. Yet the US House of Representatives -and those organizations making efforts to ensure both laws are passed- seem to be quite clueless. The diversity of opinions on both sides isn’t helping either. The fact that controversial sites such as Cuevana and Taringa have joined the protest is just ridiculous and only gives people more reasons to support the bills. And the fact that the president of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Chris Dodd, described the blackout as a “dangerous gimmick designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals” only promotes more protest against the bills. It’s time to face the truth: SOPA and PIPA don’t help fight piracy. They simply grant the US authorities the power to control and manage the internet to do with it as they please, in the same way they do in China. International TV and cinema desperately need new laws to minimize piracy, wherever it may happen. Considering the massive efforts it would entail to actually fight piracy, it’s even a tad insulting that the government is using it as the excuse in its agenda to control the country’s communication. Bills such as SOPA and PIPA are a mere waste of time and a way to prevent people from questioning what is really important.