In the wake of SOPA/PIPA legislation and the resulting fallout, we thought we’d bring you a celebrity anti-piracy PSA today. If you haven’t heard about SOPA/PIPA before, they’re bills from the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate respectively that seek to prevent copyright infringement on websites (you can read more about them here). Although they are intended to protect artists, musicians, etc from unlawful distribution of their material, many have protested certain specifics in the legislation that could potentially limit freedom of speech and impinge on individual rights. Protesters were more than just sign-wavers as websites like Google, Wikipedia and popular comics site, The Oatmeal, all blacked-out their pages in response to the pending legislation. Things got even uglier after that, but it’s lucky for everyone that Jack Black is here to smooth everything over. Hit the jump to check out his anti-piracy PSA.
Although legislators took notice of the protests of SOPA/PIPA bills and began to backpedal, the very next day the FBI and U.S. Justice Department took down overseas content-sharing site, MegaUpload. Apparently the feds hadn’t been taking the protests as seriously as we thought. Enter hacktivist group Anonymous, who attacked websites for the U.S. Copyright office, Justice Department, the FBI, Universal Music, the Records Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Needless to say, this got everyone’s attention. But let’s just chill out, everybody. Jack Black is here to handle the situation in a way that only Jack Black can. Check out his anti-piracy PSA below. You can watch all our previous PSAs here.
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lol what a douche this guy is….
He’s just mad because nobody is pirating his crappy ass movies.
Uh…I’m pretty sure this was a joke. I highly doubt most serious PSAs would mention “rocket sauce”
And right up there with the rest of the protesting internet was…not Collider. You guys have one more disappointed reader named Chris.
Do you really think that a website that is completely focused on bringing you news about the entertainment industry could ever publicly oppose the MPAA and RIAA. Collider is merely a succubus on the nipple of the industry, and you don’t bite the nipple that feeds you.
You should look up the definition of a succubus.
*laughs* no, I really like succubus being there. I will never see Collider the same way again *laughs again*
Kurjak and Mike are clearly cheap jew bags that can’t afford to pay for movies/music…i hope the fbi tracks them down and send these penny pinchers to jail
That’s racist dude.
Piracy is a double-edged sword. On one hand a lot of the people who illegally download films and music are also the people who most often purchase those things en-mass. It opens the world up to a lot of information it wouldn’t otherwise have, especially overseas where a lot of these films/music aren’t readily available or people are WAY to poor to be able to go out and even buy it regardless.
There are of course going to be some losses in the industry as a result, but the reality is piracy can’t be stopped. Unless the government takes ownership of the internet and directs all information its impossible to stop piracy. And if you threw everyone in jail who pirated something then I’d say 80% of the country would be in jail.
Also I’m sure Jack Black is fine sitting on his 100 million dollar estate. I would say the people who stand to lose the most from piracy are smaller artists, because the few sales they would have otherwise gotten are lost to piracy.
COMPLETELY AGREE!!!!
Except, i believe that without Piracy, the smaller films wouldn’t get a look in at all. Cinema ticket prices and the amount of films released each month, far too many, and spending big bucks on a tiny film that no one really knows about, in a recession! No chance! So when it comes down the pipe for free, it can be viewed then if liked bought on dvd! Thats what I do.
Worlds fastest Indian, In Bruges, Big Lebowski, Children of Men, etc… Just for starters are some of the films that I saw for free, then loved and now proudly own in blu ray.
Yet, Transformers 2 etc… No way are they gettin my bucks for that rubbish!
Piracy should be accepted by studios as the modern day tool for people to use to view films. NOT showing a hundred trailers with all the good bits with heavy metal playing over it all. Studio bosses are outdated and need to wake up! Without Pirates, most films wouldn’t get a look in IMO.
great these douche bag celebrities wanna give away taxpayer dollars to everybody who wants free Xanax and Valium but when you are taking chump change out of their already well lined pockets they get in an uproar…hypocrites!!!!!
I really hate this guy…
“Stop online piracy!”
*falls face first into a mountain of cocaine*
what a prick!
STFU Fat Jack, a blasted sellout if ever there was one. I illegally download stuff and erase it after! I don’t sell it to anyone and usually invest in the high end product (blu-ray) such as NCIS LA and Breaking Bad. Jail us all for piracy? Yeah, that will be the day!
/epic facepalm
Okay:
A) This is clearly tongue-in-cheek.
B) This is over SIX YEARS OLD and has absolutely nothing to do with SOPA/PIPA.
C) Umm.. why is this news?
Why arent my comments showing up on this site after I post them???
Oh great, so now they show up! Must be the REPLY function not working.
Anyhow, Piracy can help films make money. Small films that slip under the radar, get watched for free, we become fans of it then buy it on bluray! FACT! Without it, I wouldnt even have heard of In Bruges, Worlds fastest Indian, Big Lebowski and Children of Men to name just a pinch. Now I own them, but saw them for free originally.
And TV shows/ Dexter, Breking Bad, Clone Wars etc… I cant view them in my country!!! At all!! Yet, now I see them via downloading, now I buy the box sets! Everyone I know does the same!