Where Does the UFC Stand on SOPA?
by Motmaitre on Jan 19, 2012 8:32 AM EST
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PrintThere have been many mighty showdowns in the annals of martial arts. Bruce Lee vs. Chuck Norris. Gina Carano vs. Cris 'Cyborg' Santos. Kyu the Blackfly vs. Kimbo Spice. These great confrontations stirred our blood and thrilled us with the sense that something enduring and worthwhile was at stake. In recent days, the Internet has been convulsed with a similar confrontation as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its misbegotten sibling, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), wended their way through the US legislature.
These laws were drafted to give righteous authorities the power to smite Internet content pirates. Its proponents were primarily media companies ostensibly motivated by the desire to protect their revenue streams. Opposition to the bills has surged, culminating in a historic blackout of websites like Wikipedia and Reddit, who went dark in protest at the excessively draconian measures enshrined in the bill. Google and Facebook too stood with the armies of light, drawing lines in the sand defending a man's fundamental right to publish silly videos on YouTube.
It looks like for now, the pro-PIPA brigades have been beaten back by the surge of public opposition. No doubt they will regroup and relaunch. What I think is interesting from an MMA fan's perspective is that in this war, the UFC pitched its camp firmly in the Pro-PIPA tent. This is a list of the companies sponsoring the reviled legislation. The UFC is on Page 4.
The UFC is not present on this roll call of infamy for nothing. Their heavy hand of anti-piracy Kung-fu has infiltrated even MMA Mania. Just today, a reader of the site put up a highlights video to stir up and pique the interest of MMA fans everywhere- something you would imagine the UFC would want. Alas, like a spinning tornado kick that penetrates your guard, the UFC swiftly deployed the DMCA Monkey Paw technique, causing YouTube to take down the video 'due to a copyright claim by the UFC'.
I’ve noticed that when I want to view past MMA fights, to build and deepen my interest in UFC fighters and MMA in general, old UFC fight videos are very hard to find. YouTube has been purged of them by the jackbooted copyright police. Fight videos from Strikeforce, K-1 and other promotions however, are all over the place and widely accessible. As a fan, this is frustrating for me, and builds hostile feeling towards the UFC.
This phenomenon is symptomatic of the short-sightedness of media companies. When I was a young grasshopper before the digital era, we used to make ‘pirated’ mixtapes of our favorite songs. Was this illegal? Strictly speaking, perhaps. But it gave the artistes airplay, deepened our fan loyalty, built their brands, got more people listening to their music and inevitably drove legit sales.
As a martial arts fan, I’m more likely to pay for PPV or live streaming if I’m excited about the fighters on the card. Part of building this excitement is watching their past fights, assessing their styles, etc. If I can’t find these videos, there’s nothing to build interest. And without these videos, new fans have nothing to excite them about the sport. Where would awareness of the UFC and its fighter roster be without the tidal wave of fan-created highlight reels? Imagine an MMA Mania without these action clips, highlight gifs, etc. This would not only degrade the fan experience, it would cost the UFC millions in free publicity.
In the Internet age, having free content out there being discovered, shared and commented on is just part of viral marketing and brand-building. It actually drives sales of the legit product. Also, those who can’t afford the legit product won’t pay for it anyway, so it is better and more media-savvy to think of ‘piracy’ as a two-tier freemium strategy. By coming out in support of heavy-handed legislation like SOPA, the UFC is defending outdated and self-harming business models relied upon by a media industry blindsided by and afraid of change. Dana White, shame on you.
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like I posted in the other thread, good post. You Kyu fucking queer.
I went 0-2 against Phasebook. Why do I feel that I am just padding his record?" Next time I won’t pick a guy whose best weapon is a somersault against a real bad guy like Scarface.
Check out what I've been drinking lately
yea good post for sure mot, there are some heavy hitters on that list of companies
like the pic Choro posted in the other thread, they are all a bunch of ridiculously rich bastards and its bullshit they are trying to lay this nonsense on us. People need to realize that this extends much further then just taking down illegal pirating websites, there is actually no telling what this bill passing could do to our right to access and disseminate knowledge via the internet. The truth of the matter is not even these SOPA bastards know what will happen if the bill is passed (which it won’t be) the internet is a beast that either has to be free and open or completely regulated …there is no middle ground.
Quite right
The history or regulation and legislation has been a story of disastrous unforeseen and unintended consequences. Every time you change regulation, you change behavior, and very often the result is worse than the original situation. It’s like the old saying of the cure being worse than the disease. It makes more sense to embrace change and adapt to it than to blindly fight it.
Good points and statements the both of ya.
This will hit close to home for many of us that get our primary MMA related news from Masnia. MMAMania.com is one of many web sites owned by Vox Media, which owns the SB Nation brand of sports community sites and blogs. if you are an American citizen, get off your ass and support the opposition to SOPA by telling your Congressmen to oppose this bill. One way to do that would be using this form from Google. It wont take but a minute or two of your precious time.
Show no mercy; for you shall receive none
I get all of my MMA news from Mania so that would be a huge blow, I honestly did not know it was connected in such a way thanks for pointing that out
I agree that Americans need to start contacting Congressmen, people don’t think it helps but it truly does, there’s already a bunch jumping ship because of the backlash the bill has received the past couple days. On a side note, this bill adversely affects Canada as well, as a University of Ottawa law professor put it, “The long arm of U.S. law reaches out to Canada with SOPA”. The only thing we can really do is take to social media and spread awareness about the issue, which a lot of people on my Facebook have been doing.
by Blunt n' Beer on Jan 19, 2012 8:21 PM EST up reply actions
The only thing we can really do is take to social media and spread awareness about the issue, which a lot of people on my Facebook have been doing.
Well thats a start but I would much rather suggest actually taking the time to write a letter to your local Congressman. Obviously these idiots arent in touch with the INterent, so they could careless what people are tweeting.
Show no mercy; for you shall receive none
They do care what people are tweeting
This bill would just be the first step in controlling the masses . We’ve been for fed fake news by corporate media outlets . Now with the internet we have a voice and they wanna take it away .
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by randallhumpfreeze on Jan 20, 2012 12:54 AM EST up reply actions
Great post Mot, I'm with you 100%
This SOPA stuff is complete bullshit in my opinion.
A pinner ain't never hurt nobody!
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by randallhumpfreeze on Jan 19, 2012 4:20 PM EST reply actions
FREEDOM
Rampant piracy is a small price to pay for a free and uncensored internet
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by randallhumpfreeze on Jan 19, 2012 4:27 PM EST reply actions
Posted this in Edge's Post Too
I think this is relevant to the conversation, this isn’t the first time Universal, Disney ect, have tried to legislate technology citing copyright infringement. http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=betamaxcase
I throw people through windows.
by The Defenestrator on Jan 19, 2012 6:14 PM EST reply actions
you know something else not alot of people bring up
Almost every disney cartoon (especially the classics) are ripped off . So disney can take a story thats been around for 100’s of years but now they wanna bitch about infringement ? Disney’s whole corporation is based off of someone else’s shit ! It’s all classic literature thats been repackaged .
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by randallhumpfreeze on Jan 19, 2012 8:10 PM EST up reply actions
Not only has the UFC stamped out all traces of its fights on the web
but you can’t even view more than a quarter of its fight library @ UFC.tv at any one time. How you do you build the brand when you can’t watch a favorite fighter’s past fights or even the classics of the sport?
piratebay
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by randallhumpfreeze on Jan 19, 2012 8:27 PM EST up reply actions
yeah, that's what makes NO sense at all
It’s not like the UFC is trying to build their DVD sales. They know streaming media is the only viable way of disseminating their product after the PPV is over. But if they’re not even offering to sell it to you, what’s the point of keeping it off the “air”. How do they profit by locking their fight library in a proverbial dark vault??? I can totally understand them cracking down on pirated live streams of PPVs or even recent ones that there’s still an immediate demand for, but after a month or so nobody would be willing to pay for this stuff and keeping it off the air just prevents free advertising that could generate interest in future PPVs. This aspect of their business model makes no sense.
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SHame on Dana indeed. Unfortunately I couldn't bring myself to boycott the UFC. Just not possible.
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I can't say I'm surprised the UFC is standing behind this bill.
After all, they have had an aggressive campaign to fight online piracy and streaming of their events. Unfortunately, I think they are so determined to win this battle, they would get behind any bill that supports their cause…even if its an ambiguous and drastically changes the shift of power between media producers, distributors and consumers.
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