I know it's way too early to be optimistic...

[oloriel]

(particularly in the light of the Megaupload arrests)
but either way I found this graphic (found via allamistako) quite intriguing.
What mainly intrigues me is that so many opponents showed up out of the blue after (I assume?) the Wikipedia Blackout. I mean, 15 Members of Congress appear to have changed camps according to that graphic, but where did the other 55 come from? From the realm of "I don't care", or maybe from "I didn't know", that's where...

I guess this once again shows my Nerd Bubble glasses - when the Blackout started, and all those links appeared to "Why SOPA/PIPA is harmful", I was thinking "Yeaaaaaaah we know it already". Except that apparently, many people, presumably including those 15 + 55 Members of Congress (or the people who phoned, mailed or messaged them) really didn't know already. Mental note: Really don't take common web knowledge for granted, it is still just as exotic as common sense is.

Along those lines I guess I might rant again about a line in the Stern magazine, concerning "the illustrious web community" and the plagiarism case around our ex-Minister of Defense: The old spiel how the very web community that brought Guttenberg down is itself all about violating copyright, ZOMG TEH DOUBLE STANDARDS.
Let me explain it again, idiots: TWO. DIFFERENT. KETTLES. OF. FISH.
Guttenberg's actions would be comparable to "the illustrious web community" if he'd scanned, pdf-ed and uploaded some (possibly absurdly expensive) Law Studies book, saying "Here, this is [Law Studies Book] by [Name of Author/Editor], enjoy, hope it helps with your exams, spread the word".
Instead, his actions are comparable to a member of the web community who uploaded a cracked version of - say - Dragon Age, saying "Here, this is a little game I programmed last weekend, enjoy, hope you like it, spread the word"...
which would result in scorn and a good take-down. As it did. No double standard there. THIS IS NOT A DIFFICULT CONCEPT. So why will you not understand it?

Oh right. Nerd Bubble. I forgot. :P

ETA: samtyr links to an interesting...campaign? Don't know what to call it. Interesting, anyway. And not hard to participate in (even though Crucible of Gold comes out in March ;)), really. So, worth considering?

Comments

[fusselbiene.livejournal.com]

Another thing: Let's assume for a second the campaign was really successful. Still, a lot of major labels and companies outside of the web bubble will never hear of it and probably attribute their decreasing sales to the increasing piracy - an argument to support even more of this lobbysponsored censormongering.

I know that the campaign does say you shouldn't download either, but since that doesn't hurt the companies financially, they either won't give a flying pope or - worst case scenario: They'll think the whole megaupload scared pirates enough to make them shy away from ilegal downloads.

Not sure if want, TBQH.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

That's why it should be linked around so often until they CAN'T not have heard about it. Note the effect of the Wikipedia Blackout. Everybody at least knows Wikipedia.

And Wikipedia's content is user-generated... hmmmm.

[fusselbiene.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia plays in a different league from people who stop buying/downloading books for a few weeks. Even if all the people who heard about the action would join and stop buying stuff for four weeks now - it just means they'll buy it four weeks later. The big players in question know that fully well.
I'm with you concerning the need to do something. I would just prefer actions that are a little better thought through than this one. Wikipedia blackout with a lot of information was such an action. Getting your book in April instead of March isn't.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

To be fair, the few books and songs I buy probably won't be noticed anyway.

The point in waiting until April is that that's a new quarter of the year. Even if the companies know that you may buy the book later, the end-of-quarter accounts will still look like crap. That is, if enough people who would usually buy loads of stuff participate. ^^

Of course it'd be more effective if Wikipedia, Google, Facebook and the like all blacked out for a while. Unfortunately, that'd also hurt a lot of people who are against SOPA/PIPA anyway...