Did we win?

Now that both SOPA and PIPA are delayed, many people are declaring victory, dancing in the streets (teh Intertubes?) and the like, but did we really win?

It seems in this day and age of instant, well, everything, that there is a sense of completion here. We called the senators (well the Americans did anyways, as my blog title suggests, I am Canadian), we made our voices heard. They backed off on both SOPA and PIPA. However, the fight against this sort of legislation is far from over. For decades, the content industries have run roughshod over the internet, creating laws like the DCMA (Digital Copyright Millenium Act). The net has, however, given a few punches back. Bloodied their nose after the Net Neutrality, and gave them a kick in the butt with SOPA and PIPA, but the war is far from over.

Next time, they will approach it in a different way, and we must remain vigilant, or we risk loosing the one great innovation in our generation. The internet has created a way for people to connect in ways that our forefathers never dreamed was possible. We can communicate with people around the globe, who we have never actually met, instantaneously. But can this be maintained without destroying further innovation? Must it be regulated to protect innovators and prevent their ideas from being stolen?

This is the big question that the public needs to ask themselves. I believe that we can. The current laws are even too much in my opinion. Honestly, people can compete with pirates. You can compete with free. How? The answer is simple, and Mike Masnick from Techdirt said it best. You can compete with free by offering a better service, and by connecting with your audience.

So, by connecting with your fans (or audience) and offering a great service at a reasonable price, you can totally compete with free. However, this is a relatively new business model. The MPAA, RIAA and other content gateways don't like these models. They resist change and like their previous business models. The problem is the older models are based on scarecity. There are only a limited number of Discs available. In the digital age, that is a falsity. After all, you can make limitless copies of a file. The main issue here is that the content gateways want control. They want to control the flow of entertainment, they want to decide what to release and when.

The internet takes that control away from them. It gives it to the artists and content creators themselves, who can choose when, and how to release their content. The gateways are finding themselves increasingly obsolete.

So they are doing everything they can to protect themselves. The problem is, they are doing it at the expense of the public, at the expense of free speech. They will do everything they can to thrive in a world that does not need them.

We won this battle, but the war continues.