Teacher, Blogger, Entrepreneur and activist Steve Blank hits it out of the ball park, past Team Rocket, into space, and right into the Source Wall with this piece on why the movie industry can't innovate and why SOPA is their solution. He also has takeaway bullet points at the end, which removes my need to write them, and further increases my respect for a fellow Steve with an awesome name.
Its a great, simple article that looks at movie and media history and shows how regulation is often a tool to avoid competition – and how our current SOPA stupidity has a lot of historical precedent.
Go read it. The money quote is "Why can't the film industry innovate like Silicon Valley?" which pretty much sums up the point that the film industry is not about innovation.
Like many things, the film industry is about making a profit, and making a profit and innovating don't necessarily go hand in hand. When you've got cash, lobbyists, and a few congresspeople on your side, it probably seems easier to just go and screw with the future of the internet than try and innovate.
So consider that – the film industry not only doesn't innovate, ask yourself if it has reached the stage where it cannot. If it is indeed at that stage, it's only recourse is to try to resort to profit-maintaing and rent-seeking tactics. If it cannot succeed with those, what is its future?
(Oh and you'll notice a distinct lack of SOPA coverage among SOPA-supporting outlets.)