Copyright used to be a tool to protect the artists. Over the past few decades, major corporations have bought our representatives off via their lobbying arms. Copyright has been perverted to the point where it no longer serves to protect artists, and instead is used to grant perpetual monopolies to major corporations. Copyright is killing innovation. When copyright expires, there are whole new businesses and industries waiting at the gates in their multitudes to take that IP and derive, create, and advance new works based on what is now in the public domain.

We don't get to see that in the U.S much anymore, because every time major bodies of work that megacorporations have a financial interest are coming into the public domain, they take a wad of cash and purchase a copyright extension from our representatives, just like you or I would go to the grocery store to grab a gallon of milk.

But it doesn't stop there. These major corporations really will stop at nothing to secure their money, and they don't give a rats ass if our freedom of expression and the creation of new jobs and industries burn in flames as long as it means they 'get theirs'. That is why these major companies write bills (yes, Disney wrote SOPA, not our representatives) like SOPA and PIPA that essentially scorch the Earth in an attempt to take out whoever they see as looting their coffers.

I do not forgive them for this. They are doing massive damage. I am no longer sympathetic to their claims to their own IP. I'm long past that, because of the way they have behaved and the damage they are constantly trying to do.

I am intrinsically opposed to copyright and IP law as it stands now. I support piracy as an expression of freedom in the face of corporations that are attacking it. I really no longer care about people like Al Franken's concern for protecting the IP of entities as it is defined by current law.

International criminals. C'mon, Al. This was a huge disappointment.

The language of the bill was vague, very broad, and required only judicial oversight for extreme action. It could easily be abused, and it was written to limit recourse. To suggest that so many are reading it wrong is offensive.