Thoughts from a TV/Film Set Technician on SOPA and PIPA

Dear Rep. Elijah Cummings,

As a member of IATSE Local 829, a union representing artists and other trades within the film industry, I would like to express my outrage at some legislation currently being discussed in congress. The SOPA and PIPA bills seem obviously inappropriate to me as a journeyman within the industry, as is the support of my Union for the bills.  

We all know those six or so awkward months when a film is no longer in theaters, but also isn’t offered on DVD, HBO or Netflix yet. This may have, in the past, been a time that studios had to wait in order to “translate the tape to VHS”, or manufacture all those tapes or laserdiscs to be sold in stores - but now, the average High School student could copy and distribute the content from his bedroom in one evening.  

Hollywood, who has enjoyed mass-broadcasting of video in theaters to millions (mostly to sell sodas) wants to keep an embargo on their films, refusing to sell them directly to customers, sometimes making them wait for over six months before allowing the versions to go on sale in other channels. This is just one example of how Hollywood is stuck in old forms of distribution, and wants to bend the internet back into a darker age, towards it’s poor, antiquated business model.  

The internet is a place where information moves quickly and CAN be profited from immediately. As a civilization we have evolved to obtain the great ability to transmit information quickly - these few companies are ignoring that asset and think it should be inhibited in order to keep their business models profitable.  Rather than broadcast their entertainment over the new technology, finding exciting new ways to profit from it, they are wasting their time and money trying to stave-off the development of technology by lobbying you, so they can continue to profit from the way life was before the invention of the internet.  I’m appalled that they are wasting time, and holding back the future, let alone not using the advancements in technology to further their business and bring more jobs to my industry.

There is a grave misunderstanding here, and the fact is that in the long run, these bills will end up destroying jobs in my field and in the entertainment sector as a whole, rather than having them grow - which they should be doing.  Video has become so easy to transmit and that should HELP the entertainment industry! Why can't Hollywood use the technology, now readily available, to sell more of the films and TV shows I worked so hard on?

I have included some links below so that you can get a better sense of the actual problems with the bill, and the industry. These bills give far too much control to the hands of the government, allowing even subtle misinterpretation by a judge to cause calamities in the internet’s ability to link to itself.  

House takes Senate's bad Internet censorship bill, tries making it worse | Ars Technica

Before Solving a Problem, Make Sure You’ve Got The Right Problem | Tim O’Reilly

Scarcity Is A Shitty Business Model | Fred Wilson

Thanks for your time and I hope you well help us find another way to keep movie-making profitable while not destroying the very technology that could grow our industry.

Sincerely,

Michael Petruzzo - IATSE Local 829 - United Scenic Artists