[rythie]

Yes. This is not about some geeks with a minor website, it's about a multi-trillion dollar [1] industry being sabotaged by some old school media companies that can't adapt to the new world. What's more, what they want to do won't even solve their problem.

[1] Ok, I don't know how big the internet industry, but no-one else seems to know either, and worldwide it's probably in that ballpark - and most likely everyone will be affected.

[jhancock]

This is not just about media companies. SOPA is part of a barrier to blockade anything that may violate any Intellectual Property. This includes selling pharmaceuticals from Canada, edge case property violations like a handbag that looks similar to Gucci's latest model, but doesn't use the brand name, electronics that may violate a patent in the manufacturing process but the end product is not similar to anything else on the market.

If you think its just the RIAA/MPAA pushing this agenda, look no further than the money flow and you see its the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that is the largest supporter. Downloading bittorrents is just the poster boy for this campaign.

[Newgy]

You cannot trademark or copyright a handbag, or other fashion design, in the United States. Your edge case doesn't exist.

[khafra]

Not legally. But with SOPA, Gucci could certainly get a website selling such handbags shut down for a long time, with a minimum of fuss or risk.

[jhancock]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent If SOPA goes through as some intend it, it won't matter if the "plaintiff" is correct or not about infringement of design or any other form of IP, there will be no plaintiff in the traditional sense, just a complaint and a web site that disappears.

[astrodust]

I've heard piracy costs the world economy 18 billion jobs and $200 trillion in lost revenue, so you're probably in the right ball-park.

[PakG1]

The usual way for calculating those numbers has faulty assumptions. It assumes that price of software pirated equals amount of revenue lost. It also assumes that if piracy were absolutely not possible, the customer would be willing and able to pay full price for the software. Both assumptions rest on shaky foundations.

[henrikschroder]

The most important point is that the money people "save" by not spending it on software or music or movies, gets spent somewhere else in the economy. For the media industry to get a few billion dollars more of revenue, other industries have to get a few billion dollars less of revenue, which in turn leads to a loss of jobs.

The amount of disposable income in a country doesn't magically increase whenever some actors on the market want it to.

[teyc]

The issue at hand isn't businesses being sabotaged, but rather , nobody wants the world to go back to ironcurtains being drawn and government has the monopoly on truth.

[fiesycal]

I'm just curious how bankers and the like value industries. Do they value them by the total sum of all company valuations, total sum of all company revenues or total sum of all company profits? Or something entirely different? If anyone in the industry knows could you enlighten me?

[daeken]

Whichever gets you the figure you want at the time. There's no real standard that's followed. The figures really only matter in context anyway; they mean nothing in a vacuum.

[rythie]

I think governments care about the amount of tax they generate, which is mostly the salary bill and the profit.