Skip to content

Top 5 Reasons ████ ██ ██████

2011-11-18 · list · Hank · 3:39 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Pop culture) · mode: Advocacy & fundraising · tags: timely hook, civic or action cta

Hank argues that Congress should not regulate the internet through anti-piracy bills such as the PROTECT IP Act: copyright law matters and fair use needs protecting, but these bills would stifle creativity, punish sites for users' uploads and hand takedown power to corporations.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Reply to John's zombie list: World War Z missing; Dad took 10-year-old Hank to see Akira; a creepy song from the film

  • ★★ Hank enjoyed John's zombie list but says it lacked World War Z, the only media to give him nightmares since Akira. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank recalls that their dad took him to see Akira in a dinner theater when he was 10, which he says he will never forgive. (playful) — 00:00:08 · Mike Green
  • ★ Hank plays a song from a creepy part of Akira and calls it the creepiest piece of media ever created. (playful) — 00:00:15

00:00:24 — Playing the Akira clip was fair use; copyright law is needed but should be better; Congress should keep out of the internet

  • ★★★ Hank says playing and commenting on the Akira clip is fair use: you can't steal and monetize copyrighted work, but commentary may include pieces of it, and banning that would violate free speech. — 00:00:28
  • ★★ Hank says fair use is still fuzzy in law, so Akira's creators could challenge him, and American copyright law needs to be better. — 00:00:48
  • ★★★ Hank says he loves and needs copyright law and doesn't want John's books stolen, but doesn't want Congress meddling with the internet. — 00:00:55 · United States Congress

00:01:11 — Top five reasons not to let Congress regulate the internet (jail, the PROTECT IP name, creativity, platform liability, corporate takedowns); the internet as economic engine

  • ★★★ Hank presents his top five reasons why Congress should not be allowed to regulate the internet. — 00:01:11 · United States Congress
  • ★ Hank's first reason, played for laughs: he doesn't want himself or most people under 30 to go to jail, which would be bad for the economy. (joke) — 00:01:16
  • ★★ Hank's second reason mocks the contrived acronym name of the PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act). (playful) — 00:01:26
  • ★★★ Hank argues anti-piracy legislation stifles creativity and economic growth; Machinima thrives on technically illegal content that copyright holders welcome, so copyright law is not too lax. — 00:01:52
  • ★★★ Hank argues sites shouldn't be blamed for users' uploads: the PROTECT IP Act would make Tumblr responsible for GIFs of Abed from Community and could get it switched off. — 00:02:13 · Tumblr
  • ★★★ Hank argues the PROTECT IP Act would let a corporation have a vlogbrothers video taken down without human review, leaving creators powerless, as if the MPAA were a law enforcement body. — 00:02:35 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★★ Hank says the internet's explosion of creative content is good; technology forces change, but locking it down would wreck the only really good economic engine we have. — 00:02:58

00:03:20 — Pointer to the description on keeping the internet free; what day is it; a blizzard

  • ★★ Hank points viewers to the description, where he has written how they can help keep the internet free. — 00:03:20
  • ★ Hank, unsure what day it is, says he'll see John on Monday and sings that they are having a blizzard. (playful) — 00:03:31

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description warns that Congress's plan would let any US website be turned off at a moment's notice and push sites to censor themselves. — video description · United States Congress
  • ★★ Hank argues Congress will never catch real copyright infringers but will crush casual users who cover songs and make mashups, GIFs, videos, let's plays and commentaries. — video description · United States Congress
  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to tell their senators and representatives to vote against the PROTECT IP and SOPA bills, saying copyright matters but restricting internet freedom is not the way, and to sign Avaaz's save-the-internet petition. — video description

Humor (significant)

  • Hank recalls their dad taking ten-year-old him to see Akira in a dinner theater. — 00:00:14

    “...and I will never forgive him.”

  • Hank's first reason: he doesn't want himself or 95 percent of people under 30 in jail. — 00:01:23

    “I just think it would be really BAD for the American economy if we were all in jail.”

  • Mocking the PROTECT IP Act's contrived acronym name, Hank says it makes him want to co-sponsor a bill of his own. — 00:01:45

    “the Anti Contrived Representations of Name Yielding Mnemonics Seriously Shut Up Congress Act”

  • Under the PROTECT IP Act creators could do nothing to get a flagged video back online. — 00:02:50

    “Because apparently the Motion Picture Association of America is now a law enforcement body.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Akira · copyright · fair use · PROTECT IP Act · United States Congress

Also: Abed Nadir · Community · freedom of speech · Machinima · Mike Green · Motion Picture Association · Tumblr · World War Z

Only in the description or credits: Avaaz · Let's Play · Stop Online Piracy Act

Also centred on copyright: August 31: Copyright and Airports · Old Man Narrates Young Girl · On the Ownership of Ideas · Across Three Continents: A Tale of Tumblr, Copyright, and Excellent Posters · Who Owns a Monkey's Selfie? And a Song About Meningitis! · The Bizarre State of Copyright

Also centred on fair use: Old Man Narrates Young Girl · The Bizarre State of Copyright

Replies to

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 5 videos, 2011-10-28 – 2011-11-25.