Bill Maher and panel discuss SOPA and PIPA

[ButcherGod]

Dear US Government, Don't touch my fucking internet, and quit trying to tun it into another one of your failed economical agenda's. it's the last free place in the world, don't fuck with it.

[spacer125]

85% of Megaupload traffic was legit.

The majority of charges were money laundering.

[TheBrettBretterson]

Movies, TV shows and games nowadays aren't hard copies like they used to be. now it's all just digital information. You cannot give people a place like the internet where the free exchange of digital information is the foundation and expect people to not share their media. Media companies need to make smarter products that people would still be willing to buy. I've purchased a ton of stuff off Steam because there are good products with a clever interface at reasonable prices.

[valcrist666]

wao bill i did not espect you of all people to be so wao i got stuned sopa is just another way for control bill did you see your public no cheers nothing read the law youll see what we anti sopa peeps mean

[67crow76]

Bill Maher is generally quite funny and well informed but here he's just annoying as hell. It's not about being able to steal stuff. Most people understand that if you put something in you'll get something out, that is if you buy movies and music you'll get movies and music. Sometimes it's even out of respect for the artist. The people that pirate stuff just don't understand this. SOPA was akin to curing dandruff via decapitation and it was a threat to freedom on the Internet.

[NDusk]

Actually, this wouldn't stop piracy. People would just go back to the old filesharing clients, like eMule. You know what would limit piracy? A movie-like version of steam, where you can pay to download high-quality movies in an efficient way and at a decent price. Right now piracy isn't just free, it's also faster and more efficient, while it should be the other way round.

[grownman455]

The entertainers now can't even come close to the entertainers of the 80s and 90s. Plus the reality tv stars are beating out some of the actors and actresses now days. Maybe the entertainment industry should try hiring people with real talent first then complain. Kim Karadashain gets more coverage than any real actress or actor. That should tell the entertainment industry maybe they are not as good at what they do as they think they are.

[paulism1984]

Actors and musicians are putting themselves out there in the public, facebook users put their information out there in the public. Facebook sells our information to advertisers and the advertisers by ad space from illegal downloading or streaming sites. The musicians and actors are mad because they're losing money, but facebook users aren't mad that they're not getting paid for being used and involved in this business model? We should be paid for giving out information, valuable information.

[kalimul]

Look it's fine and dandy if they want to stop piracy, BUT if they wanna do it by spying people and taking away some of their rights it's just f*cking ignorant and malicious. So f*ck you Bill Maher.

[TheMercenary]

He's on the wrong side of the fence on this issue. Is it really a terrible thing that the uber rich take a hit once in awhile to keep them motivated and working hard?

[rushbo500]

FREE SHIT IS WHAT LIBERALS WANT.

[htiberian]

They said the same thing when the VCR was invented. These Record companies and film companies need to face the fact that it is not a multi-million dollar industry anymore. I never bought his movie; I waited until it was on TV before I watched it. And I would rather pay $2 than $10 for an album online, but if I can't, I will certainly steal it.

[tharock220]

What's odd is liberals would call any big corporation greedy for opposing piracy due to the costs. Bill Maher does it....nothing. BTW, he's 100% right here about the piracy problem but wrong about how to fix it.

[Triangulove]

Bill should be thankful more people saw his documentary this way. I mean he makes enough money doing real time and stand up. How greed can one be? Come on bill.

[ProdigyBigBoss89]

Sopa/Pipa = ?

In the end it's not going to stop anything. Those that download will find a way, just like they did before. And Streaming, forget about it. And pages like Wikipedia and Facebook DON'T NEED SOPA on their asses.

Besides. People make millions for making retarded movies and records while the rest of the world get jobs and get a mear 100th of that sum. Wanna get money for honest pay in reality? Get a real effin job! People obviously ain't gonna be payin' for shit.

[mrwhiterain69]

If you plant a seed which removes our rights, it will only grow and be miss used by the bastards in Washington.

[Anon12356]

SOPA/PIPA wouldn't even stop piracy.

[Ashrey89]

i downloaded religulous.. but its only cause i love it.

[Benardus22]

Bill is normally so well informed. He's kinda ill informed here and only out for his personal agenda. Hey Bill if people couldn't illegally download your movie, they sure as hell wouldn't buy it. Just because someone pirates something doesn't mean your instantly missing out on a consumer. That's a little thing they keep forgetting when making those HUGE claims about AMAZING amounts of money being lost to pirating.

[mistersumthing]

@Benardus22 that's irrelevant, it's illegal. that's why they get shut down

[lloydgar01]

ok, here's how it works:

1. we ban piracy. the only safe and legal option is to buy or rent the movie/music/book etc.

2. price competition DRAMATICALLY decreases due to hundreds of free sites shutting down. the price is now in the middle mens' ball court: the record company/publisher etc.

3. prices dramatically increase because now that the free versions of the media are gone and competition is dramatically low, these large nostril-bruising corperations can afford to hike the price up.

[Tessathedog]

This is the arrogance of the Media-people. They really believe, that everyone, who watches a pirated Movie would buy it on DVD, when the Sites wouldn't exist anymore. Yeah right!

[TumshieX]

The thing I always wonder when someone like Bill says "look at all the money we lost" is how much worse of he is financially now. Is he worried about maybe losing his home, getting sick and not being able to afford treatment? If he had kids, would he have to worry about their future? Food? Shelter?

If the answer is "no" to those, then maybe it's better to just let people who don't have a lot of money watch the stuff they want to. I can "steal" it or not watch at all, same thing for you.

[executableapplet]

I didn't even "rob" Bill Maher, as much as I respect him, but I bet I would have to suffer because he lost a projected amount from his wallet. I'd probably still buy the damn thing, after I've already watched it. It's not STEALING, it's Trying before Buying.

[weejockpoopongmcplop]

Bill is still crying over the $200 he would have got if all the people who illegally downloaded his comedy documentary had paid for it.

[Hayleyfire929]

Bill should read the bill (derpderp). It reaks of predatory capitalism; it's too obviously an anti-competitive and monopolistic effort on behalf of Hollywood.

[nadiab420]

Granholm is my girl. Proud that she was my governor.

[Funnysterste]

we want free shit and the billionairs want more money...

[Kurzula5150]

@Funnysterste Got your shit straight dude.

[pleaseunhelpme]

we still "want free shit", not necessarily from hollywood. these bills threaten content from creative artists all over the world who are not doing it for profit, but just want to express their ideas and be heard/ seen on video sharing sites like youtube or megaupload.

[terrinyc29]

Caucasian looting is racist in a backwards way. Kind of like saying white people don't LOOT or STEAL in the Blacks do or other minorities.

Bill, every race sits in front of the computer and downloads shit that doesn't belong to them.

[whyamimrpink78]

@terrinyc29 Maher is a liberal so he can't be racist. Haven't you learned that by now?

[terrinyc29]

@whyamimrpink78 I was not saying he's racist, honestly I could care less if he was. I just hated how he put his words.

When Katrina happened articles from the AP would publish stories and pictures of blacks with food and supplies and write they looted the goods. Then a picture of a white person with the same goods would say they found them. When he said Caucasian looting it reminded me of that.

Racism is not the issue here, a false sense of Superiority is.....

[zilbiol]

caucasian theft? sounds pretty racist. SOPA was a text book overkill solution, there can be too much of a good thing, if you push something to it's "logical conclusion" you begin to infringe on other good things, megaupload was actually innovating ways to cut out the middle man, the record labels, and allow artists to make 90% of the money directly from advertising and other content with megabox until it was shut down

[ChiefRepublic]

@zilbiol Most of the content on megaupload was copyrighted material belonging to the entertainment industry. The reason why megaupload got bulldozed by the FBI is because they were not quick enough to take down DMCA'd content because they were paying out users rewards in proporiton to downloads. Now Fileserve, Filesonic and a few smaller filehosts have panicked and removed their affiliation scheme. I'm all for filesharing but I can understand why they got angry.

[Nyquirk]

@zilbiol I agree. Since the birth of the label most artists make their coin on the front end. Their royalty is usually around 10% and the other 90% of the revenue goes to the cost of pressing and distributing the tunes and of course huge profits for the label. If I cut into even 25% of Sony or BMI's revenue stream I don't feel bad. AOL gets money of rthe advertising on the pirate websites that is carrying the content pirated from Warner and it's subsidiaries. How are they losing huge profits?

[IIDocSavageII]

I haven't read it, but i support it. wow bill, so intellectual.

[thejobloshow]

Copyright infringement is not theft, it's infringement. How do you steal something that has no scarcity? What Hollywood doesn't tell is that intellectual property is really an intellectual monopoly and it stifles innovation. If you support taxing inheritance, you must understand how out of control our copyright laws are today.

[lewisbesteu]

ITS BECAUSE WE AINT MADE OF MONEY

[TheAffyman]

I'm english so I don't know who ant of those people were but I love those three on the left that guy with the gay backcomb can fuck off.

[Arth102]

2:50: "... The effort of everyday people to actually impact democracy"

Last time I checked the essence of democracy was that everyday people have an impact on how the country is ruled… Well I guess that's news in America where money speaks higher than everything else, and corruption is a tolerated part of how the political system works (i.e. lobbyists).

[Hytonen]

It's fine that I cant pirate stuff but.. I just dont like cencorship.

[lazyperfectionist1]

Bill, so what if you didn't make as much money with Religulous as you otherwise would have? You still raked in a fuck-ton and you're still making money hand over fist and you know it, so stop complaining.

[partytilldawn91]

yeah, like its not enough to have the government fucking us and stealing OUR money, now they want to be controlling the internet also? nu-uh man!... of course ''I STILL WANT MY FREE SHIT'' -___- and Bill I admire you and all but if it wasn't for ''piracy'' most of the fans you have wouldn't know shit about you.

[overman926]

It's a sad world when art becomes a commodity.

[simon199418]

well u know if they block everything they will be making more money but not many people will be sharring stuff online therefore the spreading of content will decrease and the internet as a whole will slowly stop bringing the whole world together, piracy is a must for the internet to survive morons

[AEVautomatic]

The "moral dimension" would be you inflating your value with outdated laws. Comedy is worthless. Your worthless for anything more than a laugh. Should be valued to reflect that. If you don't want people watching videos of you for free stop making them.

[AEVautomatic]

No one has stolen anything from you.