“The end game for content ownership is the end game for content.”

I don’t know how many times I have to point this out but I’ll try again.

Humans have been creating “content” since time immemorial. Lots and lots of it.

And, about the same time we started to figure out agriculture we invented writing. Then it became easier to create content. We shared that content without IP laws. Agriculture spread, but also so did the stories we told around the fire in the evening, they were expanded, added to and shared. All without IP laws. We built things like pyramids and temples then because we could communicate things like mathematics and architecture. All without IP laws.

We invented stuff, lots of stuff. From simple plows to what’s arguably the first analog computer in antiquity — the Greeks, if you need to ask. We figured out that the world was round without having to go into space to actually look at it. We developed laws, wrote and duplicated scrolls of fiction, non-fiction, histories and plays, all without IP laws.

A small group of weirdos called The Hebrews wrote down their stories, the basis of an insignificant collection of those stories we call The Bible. All without IP laws. Another fella came along, not quite agreeing with his religious peers. sought to reform things and was executed for it because the authorities couldn’t figure out another way to deal with non-violent dissent and Christianity was born from the stories told about him. Another guy came along who didn’t like how Christians and Jews were applying their faiths in his area, wrote it all down and Islam was born. All without IP laws. (For which Jews, Christians, Muslims, followers of the Buddha, Sikhs, Jains, Hindus, followers of Confucius and and countless other faiths and variations are very, very grateful.)
Ancient Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Persians, Chinese and others developed many goods and products, many methods of doing things and wrote about them making them available to others and that was shared. All without IP laws.
Music, plays, stories, dances, instruments, naval architecture and the basis for everything we do today were first developed without IP laws and freely shared. All without IP laws. The telescope appeared. Without IP laws.

The point is that “content” not only existed but it flourished in the absence of what we call IP laws for the simple fact that we humans are an intelligent, curious, creative and endlessly communicative species. We share. It’s part of our DNA, if you will.

Our civilization arose from sharing not from hiding behind IP laws.

It’s argued that IP laws arose to ensure creative people were paid for their work. To an extent I’ll agree with that though if you look carefully at it that wasn’t the main goal of copyright and patent laws though they have that effect IF the creative person is smart enough to hold onto their patent or copyright. Maybe.

It certainly wasn’t created for the use of mega corporations with tons of money to spend on legislators or political parties to ensure that what, till now, has been somewhat useful in our human quest to share become walled gardens behind legal razor wire so we can’t share it and they can continue to earn money off the creations of others. Who they then move heaven and earth to actually PAY.

Finally, isn’t the point of “content” to share it? Isn’t the point of invention to share a solution to a problem that’s been bugging the hell out of the person who invented it to share it?

To rent it, to charge for access to a theatre or multiplex to watch it, to stuff it full of ads in the hope of paying for it, to perhaps get paid for the invention along the way, to lend it, to charge rents for access to it, to lend it? In short to SHARE it?

Why create a story when you can’t tell it? Why create a lawn mower if you can’t show it to someone and sell them one? (Or exchange it for that really, really fertile ram you’ve got so my sheep can “be fruitful and multiply”.)

There are already criminal laws in place to deal with the vendors of counterfeit and potentially dangerous pharmaceuticals. There are military and security rules in place to govern the supply lines to those organizations. If someone or a group of someones is breaking those rules court martial them, criminally charge them or properly supervise them. (Or for some items stop the stupidity of lowest bid price rules, you get what you pay for, right?)
Just what, precisely, don’t you get about this? And just what exactly don’t you get about the uncomfortable fact, for you, that for something like 200,000 years since humans first put stick to clay tablet and invented writing the vast majority of this has occurred without IP laws?

And now, tell me, just what do SOPA and PIPA do to enhance that sharing? Free or for profit? Or enhance security supply lines? Nothing, that’s what. My best guess is that it will make it, temporarily, harder until we humans, inventive and creative as we are get around it. Rest assured, we (as a species) will.

And all of this for two, relatively and economically speaking, two very small industries. Call it what you will, bail out or welfare or protectionism. It’s all the same in the end.

FOOL.