Di Sciascio photography » Photography by Alessandro and Lisette Di Sciascio

…and the other politicians still supporting those bills or even THE IDEA of these bills.

Dear Mr. Dodd,

I’ve never used my blog for anything other than showing my photography.  I’m not an activist, I don’t have strong political leanings one way or another.  I’m informed, I’m curious, and I’m pissed.

Based on the latest reporting it appears that those two bills are dead in the water.  My letter might seem therefore unnecessary.  I’m afraid it’s not.  If the interview I just saw with you on CNN is recent then this letter is not, in fact, unnecessary.

Let’s get one thing out of the way very quickly.  I DO NOT SUPPORT PIRACY.  I buy my software, I obtain all the music I listen to through legal channels, I do the same with movies.  I have no sympathy for foreign or domestic sites that steal artists’ IP.  Heck, I’m a professional photographer.  I’m always dealing with the prospect of people using my images without permission, what I do IS all IP, so no… I’m no enemy of IP.

That said, the MPAA and the RIAA need to wake up.  They need to start doing THEIR part to combat piracy.  The next time their lobbyists call you and ask you to start working on SOPA 2.0 or PIPA Plus Deluxe, you need to tell them to tell their employer that it’s 2012, not 1959 … it’s no longer the day of towns with one movie theater showing one movie or of record stores full of vinyl.

A few years ago we had to deal with the loud crying of the RIAA …. “Napster is eating our lunch!” … and for the longest time they resisted changing with the times.  People no longer want to go to music stores and browse through racks of CDs hoping to find the one containing that one song they like, and then be forced to pay for 17 other songs they don’t.  Eventually the RIAA must have been dunked enough times to wake up and we can now download our music, by the song through services such as iTunes, Amazon etc.  Suddenly their cries diminished.  Sure there are still some diehard thieves who download songs illegally, but the average well meaning citizen can now do what they’ve been wanting to do, legally.

Now let me give you two examples where the sobbing MPAA and RIAA need to get with the times and STOP forcing their customers to break the law.

1.  As I mentioned I’m a photographer.  I mostly photograph weddings.  Many of my clients ask for a dvd with a slideshow with photos from their wedding set to music.  They want currently popular music, their first dance song…  you know, how strange of them, huh?  So I have the images, I have the software to create the slideshow with the music, no biggie right?  WRONG.  You would think I could go on iTunes and buy the three songs… maybe even at a premium price “for listening $0.99 for using in a non-commercially-sold-video reproduced in no more than 3 copies $9.99″ or something like that.  Ha ha ha!!!  That would make sense, wouldn’t it?  So yeah… that’s NOT how it works.  You can find webpages with tens of thousands of words that explain how it works.  it’s archaic, ridiculously complicated and astonishingly expensive.  Heck if I want to use a song on my website… you know the way EVERY freakin’ photographer out there is doing it…  even more complicated… I have to estimate the traffic to the site…  weigh my newborn…  you get the picture.  The result is that someone like me has to tell their clients “I’m sorry but I can’t do that for you” … which is ridiculous and heartbreaking, and someone like many of my competitors just does it in violation of the RIAA’s rules.

2.  The CNN interview of you that triggered my writing this reported dramatically how foreign pirate sites allow American consumers to illegally download movies that are still playing in theaters like WAR HORSE… and of course we’re supposed to only want to spank the foreign pirate site and the American consumers that are downloading them.  That might satisfy you but it doesn’t satisfy me.  We CLEARLY have the technology to distribute the movies electronically.  So my question is very simple… if I want to watch WAR HORSE today, on my TV at home rather than schlepping to the theater, how can I do so legally?  If the various movie studios had not created a cartel, called the MPAA, I might have a solution today because maybe Warner Brothers would try to get a leg up on Sony and say “screw the old-time release dates from the 80s… it’s 2012 I’m gonna let my customers go to the theater OR watch at home”  (yes of course they would also have to update how box-office numbers are calculated… include the downloads… yes computers can add, it’s OK, really, no need to fear the future).

In conclusion, Mr. Dodd… yes defend the interests of the RIAA and the MPAA… but only by following the principle of HELPING THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES.  Until they get with the program and move into the 2000′s please focus your attention on other more worthy lobbyists.

Thank you,

Alessandro Di Sciascio