SOPA: The Ugly, The Ugly and The Ugly

The first thing that becomes abundantly clear when you devote and entire week to different perspectives on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is that you could have just as easily devoted two weeks, a month, a few months to the subject. This is not because the subject is particularly difficult to grasp, but because of its manifold implications. And that isn’t just to say that everybody has an opinion; it goes deeper than that. It seems as if people respond to this legislation on a guttural level, which I suspect is both a product of the subject matter and (for lack of a better phrase) “the times.”

At its core, SOPA is simple. Rights holders are losing money because of piracy and are attempting to slam an act down the public’s throat to address this. Rights holders have failed to adapt to the new digital marketplace in ways that can ensure their profitability, have been consistently a step or two or three or four…behind innovation and are playing catch-up with the same myopic arrogance and fury that made them fall behind in the first place. SOPA is the latest, loudest yell of protest in a battle that has (probably needlessly) been waged since the beginning of the Internet.

Despite all the anxiety from major rights holders, they still have a lot of money and money buys votes. So, taking advantage of an American political system that seems to have given up any pretense of not being firmly clamped in the money clip of the corporate pocket, a large group of rights holders combined their power and decided to buy themselves an act. Now here is why politicians make the big bucks – performing their sacred duties as public speakers for hire, a bipartisan coalition took this legislation and began the process of covering a short-sighted, sloppy act with broad anti-piracy, pro-business rhetoric, weaving in something about “foreign piracy” to make it sound patriotic and trying to move the whole thing through the system before anybody noticed. And that’s how the sausage gets made.

Well, this time things were a bit different. And to spot the difference, you need look no further than the pieces we have put up this week. Casual consumers understand the entertainment industry more than any other industry because they are so clearly a part of it. If I don’t like this thing, it dies! If I buy this thing, it lives! And it’s not a matter of functionality, it’s a matter of taste. What I think and what I feel and what I care about drive the industry more than any other. So it doesn’t matter if the general public probably understands the entertainment industry from a business perspective just as poorly as it understands any other business, they understand their part in it. And this makes them feel entitled. I like this thing. I used to have to do X to get it. Now I do Y and it is better. Progress. Don’t ever make me go back to X. This is why I don’t know a single person under the age of 25 who has not stolen things online.

SOPA is dealing with a subject matter with which people feel entitled in a unique way. Changing the way we interact with online content is an incredibly difficult task whether the change is ultimately better or worse for the consumer. We have to be sold in either direction. And SOPA is far from winning people over. This is one area in which policy cannot be forced, it has to be proven effective and it has to prove that it will make people’s lives better.

This is where we can pull back and look at the other issue of “the time” facing SOPA’s advocates. We are coming out of the most populist year in recent history. Populist sentiment is so strong in the zeitgeist that for months, people camped out in the center of almost every major city in the Western World doing their best to make something productive out of inchoate rage at a variety of institutions they felt had failed them. It took organized state-condoned violence, the scale of which has not been seen in decades, to move these people back to their homes. Broadly stated, this is bad time to mess with things to which people feel entitled.

People are taking SOPA personally. Like so many steps made by copyright holders in the past, this one is too ill-conceived and too behind the times. One gets the sense that, one way or the other, they have already lost this exchange.

-JO

Tags: copyright ownership, Internet legislation, online content, online piracy, SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act

Four Reasons Why Usenet Still Might Be Thriving

When Jared Scott approached us to write a piece about the rumors of Usenet‘s death being greatly exaggerated, we were surprised. We assumed (like most do) that the Internet discussion group, which rose to prominence in the 80′s, was on its last legs. All we had read about Usenet lately were high-profile decommissions and obituaries penned by tech nerds. Perhaps there is more to the story. We decided to give Jared a chance to enlighten us. Here is what he had to say:

If you’re like many people, you may not know too much about Usenet.

Older tech geeks would tell you about the time they first logged into Usenet and about the Wild West atmosphere that pervaded the new online world. It was the first place where you could discuss your ideas with others around the world on just about any topic under the sun. In many ways, Usenet was the original social network.

Then along came the World Wide Web, which was ironically announced on Usenet. The Web took center stage and became the place people flocked to discuss their ideas.

But just as Usenet’s light began to dim, free enterprise stepped in to secure the foundation. The new age of Usenet was ushered in. Premium commercial grade server farms were built to replace the lesser equipped university and Internet provider servers. This injection of capital created the strong, powerful backbone that allows Usenet to move more than nine Terabytes of data every single day.

The modern Usenet is thriving in today’s fast-paced world because of several factors.

1. Usenet is Easier

Downloading anything from Usenet used to be an incredibly complex process. Files would be split into multiple parts and compressed so as not to surpass the maximum message size. Then when you downloaded the file, it would have to be put back together. Unfortunately, all the pieces weren’t always there. This made downloading from Usenet a cumbersome and often error-filled event.

Many modern Usenet providers now offer users a simple all-in-one solution. And the best newsreaders today are able to reassemble files and fix any errors without you lifting a finger. Downloading a file is now as simple as point and click.

2. Usenet is Safer

Online security is an issue that is important to us all. There are constant threats facing you when you download. Some Usenet providers ease those worries by protecting others from stealing your private information. The best providers use a 256 bit SSL encryption technology to keep others out of your personal space. When you access Usenet with this security, it forms a direct channel between you and the server. This tunnel keeps prying eyes out, a level of encryption the same as what is offered by most onlinefinancial institutions.

3. Modern Usenet is Faster

Usenet is now hosted on a large network of commercial-grade servers located all over the world. You can connect directly to a server from your home and get the content you want quickly.

Say you were riding a bike but had to carry five other people on it while you peddled. I bet you wouldn’t make it anywhere very quickly. How much faster would you get somewhere if you just had to peddle yourself?

Usenet provides direct download. You are not sharing any connections or uploading anything yourself. You don’t have to carry anybody else and you are able to max out your Internet connection. Depending on how fast your Internet connection is, you can download a very large file in a just a few minutes.

4. Usenet Continues to Grow

The modern Usenet is a vast collection of content that is always growing.  Usenet servers used to have low retention times (100-200 days), which meant that older posts were always being deleted from the server. Today, many Usenet servers are storing posts indefinitely. Retention times at their best are over 1,000 days and continuing to grow. Now, the amount of material on Usenet is mind boggling. With more than 800 Terabytes of posts, it’s safe to say that you can find literally anything you are looking for.

32 years ago, Usenet started as a way to share information. Today, it continues to do just that, better than ever. The modern Usenet has adapted to meet the needs of a new generation of tech users. It is faster, safer, bigger, and easier than its predecessor. And it continues to be a unique and powerful player in the online world.

Jared Scott is the Manager of Public Outreach for Binverse Usenet. He spends his time online spreading awareness about the benefits of Usenet.

What is your history with Usenet? Are you convinced it can still be relevant? We would like to hear from you. Tweet us at @tattletech.

Tags: History, Servers, SSL, Uploading and downloading, Usenet, World Wide Web