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US Voters: Censorship is a Bigger Problem Than Piracy

In the wake of the online protests against the pending PIPA and SOPA anti-piracy bills, Rasmussen asked US voters what their opinion is on the issue.

Should the public worry more about piracy or Internet censorship?

censoredThrough a telephone survey voters were asked the following question.

“Which is a bigger problem, that some people download movies online without paying for them or that the government will censor Internet content?”

As it turns out, the majority (71%) is more worried about censorship.

That doesn’t mean that voters believe that piracy is fine though, as two thirds of the respondents agreed to a statement that piracy is theft.

However, if politicians claim to represent the people, they might take note of the result above.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002639684444 Ryan Smith

    That’s how it is. Let’s get our priorities straight!

    How much money is being wasted on preventing file-sharing without any legitimate indication of harm being caused to the economy? More harm is cause by this new version of war on drugs/terror.

  • JaredLeeLoughner

    Control of the internet was never about kids downloading movies.
    There is a danger we might see how the world turns, and come for them in the night.

    • Mwhahaha

      I agree, that it’s not about kids DL-ing, but it is all about commodification.

      It’s about how every single page or click can earn someone money somewhere.

      One day they hope all that will be left is pages from the top ten or so content providers, feeding us the same trash as we get on tv. This will be surrounded with pay-walls, ads everywhere, and total scrutiny of every comment anyone ever makes.

      Whether this is anyone’s specific intention or not, it *is* where we are headed, all in the guise of fictional lost sales.

  • Anonymous

    so 66% have been brainwashed
    sad :(

    but still good to see that they won’t accept censorship.

    • http://twitter.com/twistedpc twistedpc

      check out http://www.djamac.com He is the newest and hottest dj to come out of america!

  • anon

    Give me a steam equivalent for movies and music in europe and I’m in.
    What, doesn’t exist? Oh hi, piratebay. (Spotify doesn’t count)

    • Peen

      I used to have Netflix which is a legal movie streaming site for a monthly fee. But I cancelled the subscription because they don’t offer a decent amount of movies or tv shows and what they do offer is either old or stv crap. Anything decent you want they want to send you dvds.

  • http://twitter.com/twistedpc twistedpc

    check out http://www.djamac.com He is the newest and hottest dj to come out of america!

    • Anonymous

      Spamming asshole

  • Pingback: Wish the government would listen to the people | Kalex's Tome

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  • Chaz

    Censorship is censorship, whichever way you look at it. Aggressive and repressive acts are just that, FBI note, acts of pure aggression and repression. The survey should have asked, do people accept aggressive policing in particular of the internet!

  • Alyssa Blindy

    Sorry copyright folk. We’re not ready for censorship yet. You better put more Binaural beats into the music for use of “programming” the public to be okay with it. Muahahahahahahahaha. Shiffle.

  • Pingback: US Voters: Censorship is a Bigger Problem Than Piracy | U Torrent Free Download

  • http://twitter.com/sedov57 Sedov

    In this case the majority is smart.

  • Pingback: The Moral Battle Between Pirates and Copyright Lobbyists | TorrentFreak

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  • http://hdmikabel.narod2.ru/ ?????? HDMI

    The losses due to piracy are highly exaggerated by the media.
    Often someone will often still buy a legal copy of media if they like it and it’s fairly priced.
    Those who never do won’t anyway or at best will buy a used copy so no money profit is really lost.

  • Michael sömnes

    I’d like to point out the moral implications of considering how piracy, or filesharing in general, has opened up a whole new creative brand of business opportunities.
    You just need to be smart enough to see them, instead of clinging to old ways, adapt to modernisation. Apple did, they’re doing pretty good as far as I know.

    Let’s take a look at the evolution of the internet…

    1. Information sharing. People have the means to get smarter.
    2. Piracy…people figure out how to share things with friends (May or may not lead to more sales, or a friend tired of accepting crap songs/movies/information)
    3. Downloading mp3′s.. Oh look, a business opportunity!
    4. Oh, I know. Let’s make an mp3 player and call it iPod! Huge profit.
    5. Oh, video piracy? Let’s make something called iPad. Huge profit.

    Can you even imagine how much profit this has generated?
    Imagine artists getting a cut out of that!
    Anyway, imagine these lobbyists being the very same people, making profit in a controlled way, whichever turn of events occur, instead of the actual creator.

    Cut the middlehands, we’ve got a whole internet to spread our information, artistry and services, we don’t need a record company any more except for marketing purposes which can in clever ways be achieved single-handedly.

    But then again, a country founded upon bribery (read: lobbyism) will retain it’s corruption behind curtains for as long as it wants.

  • Pingback: The Moral Battle Between Pirates and Copyright Lobbyists | U Torrent Free Download

  • Artistic1

    Big business=Big Brother? Big Business now–Government censorship next? What we are doing is exactly what the repressive regimes of China, N, Korea, etc. are doing in the name of “security”, only we are setting the stage by allowing big business to set the precedence. We need to put a stop to the erosion of our intellectual freedoms.

    I am an artist. That said, I strongly feel that copyright laws—but worse, the interpretation of those copyright laws are becoming too repressive and are hurting rather than aiding innovation. (This is related to the above paragraph–don’t worry, i”m getting there) Copyright laws were instigated to protect the creators in order that they may profit from their work. It was not created to ban anything that may remotely resemble that work. ALL creativity is based–to one degree or another, on something else, put together in a novel way. Derivative works do not harm the originator unless they are being sold as the original work–or is substantially the same as a new work (in other words plagarism). How similar has become more and more restrictive over time. Unfortunately, the legal interpretation or “derivative”, or “substantial” has become far too restrictive–thanks to big companies like Disney. You don’t dare publish anything even remotely similar to a Disney work–even legitimately new works. How is it they were allowed to expand copyright coverage to include public domain fairy tales? It should only cover their specific work, but that’s not how the courts are interpreting it. If a work even vaguely looks or sounds similar Disney is killing it. Just the threat of a lawsuit by big corporations such as Disney is killing innovative work. Most people simply don’t have the resources to fight them. Worse, people who orignally create the stories, film scripts, artworks, etc. are being forbidden from using their own works if they become even marginally involved with these corporations. We would never allow this kind of censorship if it was being conducted in the name of the government (and to an extent it most certainly is being done in the name of government), we need to stop it from being done in the name of big business.

    Perhaps we need to boycott Hollywood and big-named producers? I know, it will hurt to be without our music, our tv and our movies. But how else to get across to these greedy little b__st__rds that they are suing–and hurting their own customer base? That it is their own business practices that are hurting their bottom line? How many tv shows are illegally streamed or downloaded because their websites don’t have the most recent shows offered–or don’t provide the opportunity to watch the older shows? How many are “pirated” because people can’t get those stations which offer them? Instead of seeing this as a problem, they should be seeing it as an opportunity. Most of us don’t mind ads in order to view free content. Just like tv. These coroporations are being idiots and we need to show them that. We pay for cable and we pay for Hulu and we pay for Netflix, but we’re obviously still not satisfied. Instead of suing us they should find out why and sieze the opportunity.

    Moreover, why can’t they see that file-sharing or illicit streaming benefits them in the long- (and short-) run? I can’t tell you how many new musicians, shows and films I’ve started to legitimately enjoy (meaning I pay) because I was first exposed to them on a website or other so-called illegal venue. Free advertising! They should be overjoyed!

    WE are their customer base. WE are the government. WE need to stop this insanity! We do have the power.

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