Wikipedia is staging a black- out protest to oppose the SOPA and PIPA bills.
Any correlation?
BBC news has a good interview that is worth watching, and or, reading at...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16604990
Most people would agree that pirating is wrong. So, as one individual who uses the internet and also offers a personalized form of information, currently for free, I would love to see a list of pirating sites that have caused all this hooplah.
I try to give credit where credit is due and put links to websites where I have found information that I have used. This, then, serves to place accountability on me and the website where I have gathered information.
One way that people can make money, on the internet, is through advertising. I was approached by a very large and wealthy on- line e- commerce company and asked to create a little advertisement for them. In the self- crafted ad, I was required to put a link to their website... in two different places.
In return, I was offered a $30 voucher to spend in any of their on- line stores.
Well, I decided to do the ad, just to see how it would go, what I would learn, and if I would do it again.
I put my best foot forward; created what I thought was a very good artistic ad; was rewarded by a few good words of compliment; and sent a voucher via email for $30. I did not use the voucher because, at that time, I did not have a separate mailbox address to send the item to and I did not know how much money I would be on the hook for with shipping costs, which were my expense.
A few months later, the same company asked me to do another one. This time they were offering $20. I said, 'Last time you offered me $30.' Response- 'Okay, you can have $30.'
After thinking about it for a few days, I decided not to do it.
A short time later, this same company, that is now moving toward being a multi- billion dollar company, contacted me and asked if I would like to have a button placed on my blog so my readers could just click it and enter their world of shopping.
I asked what the incentive would be, for me, if I were to agree to this.
'Well, some of our bloggers are asking if we could do this for them and they want it,' was the response.
That was a rather weak answer. I declined the offer.
Why would I advertise for someone who is supremely wealthy and successful if they are not paying me to bring more attention, vis- a- vis, business to them?
Was it a business transaction I was being offered?
Was the company asking for a favor?
Was the company thinking that their great wealth would make me desire to have their logo on my blog just so people could see who was attracted to my site?
I can only guess at the reasons why... motive often remains hidden. An interesting thing has happened, repeatedly, since that first offer from the multi- million dollar company. Many small and larger companies have also contacted me, hoping to place an ad on my blog. Not one of these other companies offered any remuneration. When I asked questions about remuneration, more than one of these companies used 'belittling' verbiage to try to put me in my place?; let me know I'm really not that important?; bully me into saying 'yes.'
I cannot know what they are thinking when they give me an offer...
'Look, here's a blog with no ads and almost no followers... she'd be an easy mark. Send her a request.'
'This person hasn't even had anyone offer to place an ad on their blog. We can get this for nothing.'
I'm only surmising... I don't know what people think when they email their offers to me... but I do know one thing...
a law is a double- edged sword of justice...
one edge is meant to protect the innocent- those who cannot protect themselves;
... and the other edge is meant to punish wrongdoers who are benefiting from their own wrongful actions.
Jimmy Wales- '...we should come together in a peaceful, thoughtful way to craft legislation that actually carves out the real problems here and avoids burdening everybody else. For me, one of the biggest issues here is the question of 'follow the money.' If we can look into 'who are these major criminal pirates? How are they profiting and so forth... Go after the money... don't go after freedom of speech...'
Michael O'Leary- '...everybody who plays a part in the internet has a responsibility in making it safe and legitimate.' 'There are literally tens of millions of American workers who are harmed by piracy and they deserve some of the attention and response that they're, frankly, not getting in this debate.'
Here is a possible solution- "Find the people who stole what wasn't theirs, require them to make financial restitution and give this financial restitution money to the people from whom it was stolen."
Don't tie everything up in court, for years, paying lawyers endlessly, so that there is no money left for the ones who did the work but didn't get the pay. That would be piracy of a similar nature.
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