SOPA Will Cripple The Internet: The Sad Story of Intellectual Property Lawsuits Against Veoh

 

I found this on the website Minglewing.com, which is founded by and run by the same man that started Veoh (Dmitry Shapiro).  He tells a sad story about how intellectual property (via DMCA, the current intellectual property law) lawsuits from big corporations ruined his business, his life and his resolve.  He then gives his opinion about the bils called SOPA and the bills like it.  This is a must read if you are to understand the real effects of Intellectual Property lawsuits by the big guys against the little guys.  This is Dmitry's entire post:

 

With all of the discussions going on about SOPA and PIPA, lots of people have reached out and asked me to write about my experience with UMG vs. Veoh. In Nov of 2004, while on my honeymoon, I had an idea : Let anyone broadcast video over the Internet. I believed that with the convergence of broadband, inexpensive video cameras, and editing software that shipped with everyday computers it was the right time to launch a service that would facilitate 'free speech' over video. When I got back from my honeymoon, I immediately transitioned out of the company that I had founded 4 years prior, Akonix Systems, and pursued building my vision. It took 8 months for us to raise the Series A round of venture capital, with dozens of potential investors passing, arguing that "no one was going to watch amateur video on the Internet". SERIOUSLY!

Why School Tuition Is So Expensive: A Lesson In Opportunity Cost

 

ORIGINAL ARTICLE BY DIEGO LUCERO


It’s the beginning of the year again, and students are filling the halls of universities and colleges across the United States.  Touted as essential to the “American Experience,” students are leaving their homes at the advisement of parents to pursue their educations.  It can be said that in today’s world, there is almost nothing more desired--or even needed--than an education that would adequately qualify us as participants in the “American Dream”.

This year though, things are different. 

We are in a prolonged recession.  Real unemployment is very high.  Deficit spending is at a record high.  Our national debt now exceeds our Gross Domestic Product.  Let’s not even talk about the interest our country owes against our national debt.  We have wars and rumors of wars.  Political discussion has become polarized and has been overtaken with evil intent.  It’s becoming difficult to be hopeful, as it is becoming more and more clear that the change that we desperately need may never actually come.

Success!! Congress Tables PIPA & SOPA For Now

 

I received this message in my email yesterday.  Success!  This message captures the excitement that results from a strong protest.  We were heard, and at least for this issue, things are changing back to the people's favor. Now if only we can do the same thing for the NDAA!!

From Tiffiniy Cheng at Fight For The Future:

Hi everyone! 

A big hurrah to you!!!!! We’ve won for now -- SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today -- the votes we’ve been scrambling to mobilize against have been cancelled. 

The largest online protest in history has fundamentally changed the game. You were heard.  

Stop SOPA/PIPA

Edgar the Exploiter: Minimum Wage Argument

 

Do you remember the post that I had put up some months ago, in an attempt to explain my life philosophy and my position on Unions?  Well, it turns out there is a better method of explaining how freed markets work, and why competition naturally leads to better and better conditions for employees over the course of time.  I found a video.

This particular video takes into account a few of the principles that I alluded to in my original post, and also included a few others that I, up until now, felt unable to explain sufficiently.  This video is titled: Edgar the Exploiter.




The reason why I like this video is because it visualizes the sometimes wordy and complicated dry economic theory.  I think it makes things much more clear than it was before.

NDAA: Indefinite Detention of US Citizens is NOW LAW

 

“We are not a country that runs prisons that locks people away without ever telling them why they’re there or what they’re charged with.”   ~Barack Obama, 2007 campaign trail. 

As we get further and further into the campaign season, it becomes more and more clear that most politicians  are not really as interested in our personal individual welfare as they claim.  Case in point: the NDAA.  What is the NDAA?  I'll let Jon Stewart provide some humorous insight:

The Daily Show
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The Daily Show
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Here is the link to the Mediaite's full story.

Is this the end of America?  The funny thing is, although Barack Obama once said that America "is not a country that  runs prisons that locks people away without ever telling them why they’re there or what they’re charged with”, he has actually signed the NDAA bill on the eve of 2012's New Year.  Which means IT IS NOW LAW.