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-------------------- Just to reiterate what I predicted earlier today... I believe that Chris Jericho's purpose will be to attack CM Punk, as Jericho will cost Punk the title at Royal Rumble 2012 to give Dolph Ziggler a very brief WWE Title reign. Then, the Rock will be an unannounced "surprise" entrant into the Royal Rumble match itself and WIN the Wrestlemania 28 #1 contendership... Then, John Cena will defeat Dolph Ziggler possibly at the Elimination Chamber Pay Per View to set up Rock vs. John Cena for the WWE Title at Wrestlemania 28 to add a "sense of urgency" to the match after Survivor Series 2011's numbers were disappointing. You dig? Getting off this subject for the moment... After I wrote ASK TITO on Saturday, several of you sent questions to me about my thoughts and feelings on the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that is currently being discussed in Congress (coded H.R. 3261). From all that I've read on this bill, it's basically a new mechanism to allow the Justice Department as well as intellectual property owners to seek court orders against websites accused of "enabling or facilitating copyright infringement". In other words, websites like YouTube.com will likely not have ANY movie/TV video clips as well as audio songs to listen to that aren't approved by the intellectual property owner. The bill appears to eliminate internet ad companies from placing ads on websites accused of copyright infringement, prohibits search engines from linking to sites in violation, and also requires internet service providers (ISP's) to block access to websites in violation. The bill (uh oh WWE Pay Per View fans) would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted material as a crime, punishable for 5 years worth of jailtime. This bill would make any streaming of copyright material illegal, which thus makes foreign streamers in violation of U.S. Law. Although I haven't seen any outright support by the WWE for this act to pass and be signed into law, I'm sure the WWE is for it. After all, they have a nasty problem right now with streaming of Pay Per Views that would make them interested if U.S. Laws get enforced or not. That, and it makes their job of enforcing their already existing tough copyright enforcement policies much easier. In fairness to the WWE, they've been tough on protecting WWE copyrighted material. The mothership, LordsofPain.net, is NOT allowed to have any WWE media contect whatsoever because of a Media/Legal inquiry not to do so. If you've been with LoP since 1998, you'll know that LoP during 1998-1999 had tons of WWF media in screenshot pictures, wrestler themes, and videos of matches from the events. Once WWE got bigger, they began to squash use of intellectual property. They basically told us to stop posting it, and as you can see to this day, LoP does not host WWE copyrighted materials. Sure, there are WWE Videos on YouTube.com and Daily Motion. But WWE has taken many matches down and appears very protective of recent Pay Per View shows. The videos that are there either the WWE doesn't care about many of the older clips there or having some material out htere to increase your scope as a wrestling fan isn't bad. Either way, they enforce their own internal policies across the internet. And the bigger you are, as LoP.net is, the louder the copyright issue. My answer, in short, is that the WWE has basically been in SOPA practice for years now. Other media divisions among Viacom, Time Warner, etc. have not and now they're playing catch-up. But as far as the WWE goes... I wouldn't worry about it affecting your pro wrestling fix because the WWE did their job in this instance... They didn't need a new law to protect what was already rightfully theirs. By the way, I find this video about SOPA quite fascinating... CONTACT MR. TITO - Email: [email protected] - Twitter: @titowrestling - Join LoPForums.com: Feedback Thread BLOG is TITO Archive on LoPForums.com © Mr. Tito 1998 - 2011
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