only way this is going to change is through a major company
It's definitely not going to happen if major companies don't support it, but if Google (which would really rather pocket the tons of money it has to spend policing YouTube) isn't in a position to say "this sucks, and we'll stand by that in court", no major company is. What's become abundantly clear through the SOPA/PIPA business, IMO, is that tech companies alone are simply not capable of pushing their views through to lawmakers ahead of the views of media conglomerates. The latter are just too entrenched and too rich, and lawmakers are too uncritical of them and often fail to understand the new realities of these intertubes. SOPA/PIPA got temporarily shelved not because tech companies protested; they were doing so as hard as they could, and nobody listened. SOPA and PIPA got shelved because tech companies poked their customers, and vast numbers of individual people realized something was going on and started yelling at their elected representatives.
That's why I think it's so critical for people to get informed about copyright, understand the issues at stake, and protest. We've all been pretty much indoctrinated by media companies' view of copyright since we were old enough to sit in front of a television; every video and every DVD we watch starts with dire warnings about the evils of piracy. Most mainstream media don't make any sustained critical noises about copyright abuse because they have a vested interest themselves. The broad lack of awareness about copyright abuse is understandable, but if it doesn't change, organizations who may be willing to challenge these awful laws won't have a chance of getting heard.
That's part of what I like about the OTW - they don't just stand by their opinion, they also try to get people informed that these issues matter to fans as well. Which I feel is tremendously important, because they won't get anywhere if the people whose rights they want to defend aren't fully aware of what those rights even are and how they're being violated by current copyright policing. (In fact, I feel very motivated to go do some OTW work right now. *runs off to start translating*)
no subject
It's definitely not going to happen if major companies don't support it, but if Google (which would really rather pocket the tons of money it has to spend policing YouTube) isn't in a position to say "this sucks, and we'll stand by that in court", no major company is. What's become abundantly clear through the SOPA/PIPA business, IMO, is that tech companies alone are simply not capable of pushing their views through to lawmakers ahead of the views of media conglomerates. The latter are just too entrenched and too rich, and lawmakers are too uncritical of them and often fail to understand the new realities of these intertubes. SOPA/PIPA got temporarily shelved not because tech companies protested; they were doing so as hard as they could, and nobody listened. SOPA and PIPA got shelved because tech companies poked their customers, and vast numbers of individual people realized something was going on and started yelling at their elected representatives.
That's why I think it's so critical for people to get informed about copyright, understand the issues at stake, and protest. We've all been pretty much indoctrinated by media companies' view of copyright since we were old enough to sit in front of a television; every video and every DVD we watch starts with dire warnings about the evils of piracy. Most mainstream media don't make any sustained critical noises about copyright abuse because they have a vested interest themselves. The broad lack of awareness about copyright abuse is understandable, but if it doesn't change, organizations who may be willing to challenge these awful laws won't have a chance of getting heard.
That's part of what I like about the OTW - they don't just stand by their opinion, they also try to get people informed that these issues matter to fans as well. Which I feel is tremendously important, because they won't get anywhere if the people whose rights they want to defend aren't fully aware of what those rights even are and how they're being violated by current copyright policing. (In fact, I feel very motivated to go do some OTW work right now. *runs off to start translating*)