I already stated why SOPA can be a good thing. The intentions with SOPA is that they only use it against confirmed cases of sites willfully posting and profiting from copyright materials they have no right to share. The "pro-sopa" officials LAUGH at the thought that SOPA would be used to take down Google or YouTube, because that is NOT what they plan to use it for.
So, SOPA can help make it harder for illegal videos and music streaming. This will possible cause more people to purchase these products legally, giving more profits to the creators,and allowing them to lower their prices. They may also work with a distributor to offer more in-home legal streaming options through the internet at fair prices.
Netflix is actually primed for a takeover, and has all of the systems in place to make this happen. If a large corporation like Redbox tookover Netflix, and worked out a deal to become a distributor of New Releases 1 week before they came available on DVD for $3.00 or $4.00, they may have something that works.
Thats just spitballing. It should also help the overall economy, because instead of people staying home to stream movies, they go out to the movies more, so new jobs are being created. How many theaters closed down and jobs lost in the entertainment industry over the last few years? A ton. Movie studios are PISSED about pirates, so they raise their prices to make it a social stigma to download and stream illegally.
You raise good points, but do you think that this would actually stop pirating on the internet? Pirating has done great things for the music industry. Instead of manufactured bands/musicians that have the marketing power of a large record label (who are completely screwing the musicians out of royalties) being some of the only ones that can become massively popular, it gives others a chance. They just have to be good. It gives smaller bands/musicians a chance rather than it just being a massive monopoly for few.
Pirating also encourages people to listen to a larger range of music and spend more at festivals and shows. It increased a lot of competition and inspiration, due to so much music being easily available to musicians. Thank piracy for the huge diversity in music these days.
It also encourages bands to tour more (this is were a lot of musicians are turning to make money), which stimulates economies. Did you know, unless you are with specific record labels (Sony, Warner etc.), you won't be played on most commercial radio stations? This is because record labels have made deals with the stations and are after royalties (which they have screwed many musicians out of).
I find it pretty bad that DVDs and blurays still have higher quality audio than a standard CD still. After recordings are mixed and mastered, it must be dithered to 44.1khz 16bit (lowered in quality) to put it on a CD. SACD (Super Audio CDs) were created in 1999, with much higher quality. But practically nothing was released on it and isn't being used to this day. Before piracy, CDs were a lot more expensive (in Australia anyway), probably because if the price is set too high, people will just download it.
The profit margin was/is too high with CDs to use anything else. CDs are pieces of junk with junk quality. This is a reason why vinyl has actually increased in sales since the piracy boom. If record labels embraced a new format, to make it worthwhile to buy music, people would buy. They are not providing enough value.
If most people started using legal streaming, wouldn't that still result in people staying home and not going to the cinema? I would think less would go out to the cinemas because they will have less money to spend after streaming costs (the streaming money is sent out of the users economy unless the streaming service is from their country or the movie is from their country). Local video rental stores will suffer even more due to this. Production costs are also reducing due to advances in technology for both film and music.
We should be moving forward, not trying to desperately hold onto the past in my opinion. Adapt or perish.
The reason I do not agree with SOPA is only because it is a form of censorship. It's not about being able to pirate anything you want.
