SOPA is an attempted transfer of wealth from the Internet Industry to the Entertainment Industry. The entertainment industry has out-lobbied the Internet industry.
SOPA will be incredibly destructive to a _vast_ range of internet properties, and it's not clear how effective it will be long term in protecting the entertainment industry.
Re: Game of Thrones on BItTorrent - Everything is available on Bit Torrent. People with money are typically honest, and turn to Torrenting only because they have no other avenues to purchase these things honestly.
[edit]: I used to think that Torrenting was unethical/immoral in addition to being illegal. Now that I pay for pretty much 100% of everything I watch - I think Torrenting plays an important role in motivating rights holders to make their material both competitive and broadly available. $50/Season for GameOfThrones is fine, as long as it's available (a) in a format I can download onto my MacBook Air, and (b) on a timely basis. HBO would have close to zero motivation to make this content available in downloadable format on a timely basis if there weren't alternatives.
I think you are misrepresenting the power structure here. If it weren't for people downloading music for free off the internet, we would never have managed to get $0.99/tracks on iTunes in DRM free format - no motivation for the Music Industry to do so.
Remember - Consumers are _customers_ - all we really want is to be able to read/play/listen/purchase the content that is created in a format compatible with the tools/systems that we use.
SOPA will be incredibly destructive to a _vast_ range of internet properties, and it's not clear how effective it will be long term in protecting the entertainment industry.
Re: Game of Thrones on BItTorrent - Everything is available on Bit Torrent. People with money are typically honest, and turn to Torrenting only because they have no other avenues to purchase these things honestly.
[edit]: I used to think that Torrenting was unethical/immoral in addition to being illegal. Now that I pay for pretty much 100% of everything I watch - I think Torrenting plays an important role in motivating rights holders to make their material both competitive and broadly available. $50/Season for GameOfThrones is fine, as long as it's available (a) in a format I can download onto my MacBook Air, and (b) on a timely basis. HBO would have close to zero motivation to make this content available in downloadable format on a timely basis if there weren't alternatives.