The Internet After SOPA Passes

As you all may know by now, today is the day big websites like Wikipedia and Reddit will black out to potest against the SOPA law. Countless blogs are participating too, and while I'm not blacking out my blog, I will post about this.

SOPA in a nutshell
Basically the Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA in short) is a bill meant to stop copyright infringement on the internet. It says that if you use someone else's content, you can get imprisoned. Yes, that CD you downloaded? That can get you into jail. But the thing about SOPA that threatens us so much is that when a site is suspected of copyright infringement, the US government has the rights to shut that website down. An added bonus is also that the owners of big community sites are responsible for the content of their customers.

If you want to know more about what SOPA entails, I would recommend you to read the Wikipedia article.

So, if the SOPA law passes, what will happen?
This is the part I love. If SOPA really will be the law they pretend it will, this will happen to our internet.

• Blogger will shut down. Cause you know, we use pictures that aren't ours. 
• Wikipedia will shut down. They take away from encyclopaedia sales, down it goes!
• Youtube will shut down. Youtubers love to use music that isn't theirs.
• Facebook will shut down. You never know what someone is sharing over there.
• Twitter will shut down. Linking to content that isn't yours? Boo!
• *Insert all of your favourite sites* will shut down.

Man, this looks like some kind of dystopian novel, doesn't it?

Let's face reality guys
But, come on. You remember the last episode of the US government VS. Piracy drama? I'm talking about their fight against the Pirate Bay here. I bet this is a defeat they don't want to think about. Because, you know, the Pirate Bay is still up and running. And it's probably doing better than ever, with all of their media coverage. They can act like little children here, and think they can shut us all down, but to be honest, they never will.

First, because shutting down every social media site will cause an outrage. There are literally billions of people that use Facebook and/or Twitter every single day. Do you want to be that person that tells them they will lose their accounts?

But most of all, it's just impossible. If you can't shut down some little server with two guys keeping it running in Sweden, you can't shut down the friggin whole internet.

What will really happen
That depends on if it passes or not. I suspect everyone will chicken out on the last moment. This is just way too much for the USA to keep up with.

But if it does pass, I think Sweden will suddenly have a massive influx of immigration. A lot of geeky people carrying electronic devices. I wonder what they will do over there.


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The New Internet Pirates: Ebook Downloading

Yesterday in an article on The High Low, there has been stated that "One in every three people who download e-books on their digital readers do so illegally". Even though this statement at first seems shocking, I personally can't see this problem so black and white as a lot of authors and publishers do.

Don't throw rocks at me just yet. Downloading ebooks is illegal. You shouldn't do it. However, is this as much as a problem as this article implies? And why do so many people turn to illegal downloading?

I investigated the sources of this article a little further, coming to an article on the Telegraph site, which states: "One in eight women over 35 who own such devices admit to having downloaded an unlicensed e-book". Let's think about that. That means that 12,5% of females over 35 that own a ereader admit that they have downloaded at least one illegal ebook. There is absolutely no proof or further investigation about the behaviour of those who pirate. Do they just download one? Or all of them? If you take, for example, that they might have given in to downloading a book, maybe 3 times now on average. On estimate, I think about every owner of an ereader has about 100 books on it. Legal books. So, now 3% of those books are illegal, spread over 12,5% of ladies out there, we come to this conclusion: about 0,375% of all ebooks owned by women over 35 are illegal.

Look at that number again. Seems a lot less intimidating than it was on first sight.

In an age where music piracy is the order of the day, the pirating of books seems an impending thread to the publishing world. It doesn't feel like "stealing" on the internet. I will admit that I download songs. I actually never feel sorry for that, because if I wouldn't download them, I would listen them on Youtube, which is free but perfectly legal.

I think that one of the reasons that ebooks are getting pirated, and will continue to be so, is that the price of many ebooks is still too high. You just don't want to pay the same price for a few pixels, as you will for a beautiful hardback edition you can actually hold. Not trying to defend anyone here, I try to understand their motives.

It's too harsh to simply state: "That's ONE-THIRD of our sales flying out the window" (as said by a lovely lady on Twitter). There is no proof at all for being it 33% of all sales. I understand it's hard for authors to see their hard work being used without them getting any reward for it. However, the side of me that always thinks the cup is half-full wants them to look at it this way: if they're pirating it, it's worth pirating. There are people who want to read it. Readers are interested in your book. And if they really enjoyed it, they will buy a real copy, because you're awesome and they want to support you.

It might be naive to suggest that every pirateer will buy your book after downloading it, but I think this does happen. The problem is, you can't stop internet piracy. The music industry tried this and see what happened to them. After countless lawsuits The Pirate Bay is still up and running and probably doing better than ever.

Will ebook piracy become a problem? Definitely. Should we all start a massive witch-hunt for those who have downloaded one book in their lifetime? Please don't. There will always be enough book lovers to actually buy the book. I know I will.

I'm curious to see what you guys all think about this subject! Leave a comment below (: