Network News And How They Discussed Yesterday's SOPA Blackout Story »

For the last day or so, I’ve been providing roundup coverage for Current about things related to SOPA. But one of the things I found most interesting, was how the networks’ nightly news programs approached coverage:

While the story did have play today on the cable news networks (CNN has a whole bunch of segments up on its website), each major network devoted at least 30 seconds to it. Actually, 32 seconds. CBS spent 32 seconds on its evening broadcast (CBS doesn’t post segments online, but this segment runs at 9:41 until 10:13 — you’re welcome), with anchor Scott Pelley succinctly explaining the two sides: how studios believe SOPA prevents piracy of movies and music and how Internet companies say SOPA limits free speech. Interestingly, he added that CBS News’s parent company, CBS Corporation, is a part of a coalition supporting the bill. The other two network anchors spent more time on the piece, however, ABC News, which is owned by Disney, did not mention its parent company. NBC News, owned by Comcast and General Electric, 51 percent and 49 percent respectively, briefly mentioned it.

ABC World News with Diane Sawyer’s piece is a minute and forty-three seconds, also gives the two-side story a look, but then brings in a whiz-kid to explain how someone can get illegal content if they really wanted. Yes, they really got a 15-year-old to find Mission Impossible (in movie theaters now!) and of course he does. End: “Finding a way to stop that (getting illegal content) will please everyone? May well be mission impossible.”

NBC News with Brian Williams talks about old versus new media and adroitly mentions the company he works for (though not actually naming the company) is one of the old media folk. The piece gives ample time to both arguments and spends two minutes and twenty three minutes on the story, talking to not only proponents of both sides, but also explains the effect of the blackout on Congress from one of its reporters.

Just remember that this is not over, and studios/labels/cable providers (owners of the very networks where millions get their information) have very, very deep pockets to influence our representatives.

New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal writes about today’s blackout and SOPA

We’re (sic) written about these issues in detail on the editorial page and will have more to say on the subject. With patience and political courage, the two sides could find middle ground. Requiring court orders in lieu of pre-emptive strikes against sites suspected of wrongdoing would go a long way

But the fact is, Google and Wikipedia did everyone a big service, and the swift reaction of lawmakers was gratifying. Now, if Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Rubio would pay as much attention to the Occupy protesters and the pain of the middle class, the country would be even better off.

Different tone than the WSJ editorial. Read the rest at the NYT.

Not surprisingly the WSJ editorial board supports SOPA »

The Internet has been a tremendous engine for commercial and democratic exchange, but that makes it all the more important to police the abusers who hijack its architecture. SOPA merely adapts the current avenues of legal recourse for infringement and counterfeiting to new realities. Without rights that protect the creativity and innovation that bring fresh ideas and products to market, there will be far fewer ideas and products to steal.

Not *really* Wikipedia blackout. Don't worry kids (and journos). »

The mobile version of Wikipedia, which draws millions of page requests a day, will remain up and running, says Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia.

Cached versions of Wikipedia web pages, or stored versions of the site, also are likely to be available, he said, depending on the operations of the other Web companies that archive the site.

Ad World Stuck in the Middle on SOPA

Digiday’s Brian Morrissey takes a look at why the ad world has remained neutral in discussing SOPA:

That’s because advertisers and ad agencies are still caught between two worlds. They are loath to pick a fight with the big media companies backing SOPA. Many advertisers themselves have a dog in the fight of IP theft, so you’ll find big brands like Ford, Johnson & Johnson, Nike and others listed as SOPA supporters. To these companies, SOPA is important to protecting their businesses. And spoken or not, it is another salvo by the media and entertainment industries at Silicon Valley for profiting from intellectual-property theft. Rupert Murdoch himself took to Twitter, ironically enough, to give voice to this.

Read the rest here.

“In the last few days, we have seen countless comments on various forms of social media and received many email messages, both pro and con on this issue. While the D’Addario family is committed to protecting its trademarks and family name, that commitment does not take priority over our respect for the U.S. Constitution and our right to free speech under the First Amendment.”

D’Addario & Company, Inc. founder Jim D’Addario • Discussing his company’s perceived support of SOPA, as a result of having been placed on an alleged list of supporters of the act. D’Addario (which makes great guitar strings that sound really good with Cm7 chords) has dealt with numerous counterfeiting issues in the past (“7 out of 10 sets of D’Addario strings sold in Chinese music stores are fakes!”), and when his company signed onto a list asking for further help in fighting against counterfeiting, his company did not assume the result would be SOPA. We spotted his letter because he cited our defense of the companies on a list distributed by the Chamber of Commerce, but we think — again — it’s worth pointing out that when D’Addario and other companies signed onto the list, they were asking for something far different than SOPA. Protest with care. source (via • follow)

It’s interesting how guitar strings (as well as guitar makers Fender and Gibson) are becoming a part of this story.

And for the record, if you like the sound of a Cm7 chord with D’Addario strings, you should really try a Bm11 or Asus13 chord- you really hear the brightness of the strings.

There's a list floating around about SOPA supporters. It's out of date. »

shortformblog:

The list is above. But note this TechDirt article, where multiple companies (including Gibson Guitar, D’Addario and Petzl America) disputed their spot on said list, with Petzl America writing a lengthy blog post noting how an association with the Chamber of Commerce got them on the list. Many of these companies fought for stronger counterfeiting laws involving rogue Web sites, not something like SOPA, which is a whole ‘nother ball of wax altogether. Stop spreading this list. It’s unfair to the companies associated with it.

(via shortformblog)

AllThingsD rationalizes that President Obama "would likely veto any version of SOPA or PIPA that reaches his desk. »

1. The administration supports an open Internet: “not vetoing the bill now would be a major policy shift.”

2. The president acknowledged the importance of Facebook and Twitter during the past year’s changes in the Middle East and North Africa. 

3. Last month, “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at a conference on Internet freedom in The Hague,… said that governments can do so ‘without compromising the global network, its dynamism or our principles.’”

4. SOPA puts ‘the government at odds with a project it has funded, the Onion Router (a.k.a. TOR), created by U.S. Naval Researchers” which “is meant to circumvent actions that block access to such content.” 

Under SOPA, the problem might be that people in more repressive countries, like China, can use TOR to anonymize traffic and thus bypass technical measures that prevent the free flow of information. The language in the bill is vague enough that TOR could be made illegal.

5. Obama’s promises - in an election year, he cannot go back on his promise to have a ‘free and open Internet.’

Early last month, Obama promised to veto a Congressional resolution that would overturn net neutrality rules that the Federal Communications Commission put in place earlier this year, and which was to take effect on Nov. 20. (The Senate saved him the trouble by voting against the resolution.)

Click through to read Arik Hesseldahl’s post. It’s a calming one, for sure.

“In countries whose judicial systems are less independent and where legal defense for bloggers is rare, abuse of copyright law to stifle activism is much easier. The Russian government last year used a crackdown on software piracy as an excuse to confiscate activists’ computers. The Chinese government used copyright claims to crack down on critics of the 2008 Beijing Olympics who sometimes used modified images of the Olympic mascots in their critiques.
“In China ‘copyright’ is one of many excuses to crack down on political movements,” a Chinese blogger, Isaac Mao, told us. “If a new law like SOPA is introduced in the U.S., the Chinese government and official media will use it to support their version of ‘anti-piracy.’”

Ivan Sigal and Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN.com (via markcoatney)

(via markcoatney)