Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe Slams SOPA Despite Benefiting From Bill: ‘I’d Rather Starve’
This SOPA thing that everyone's talking about today? Even many of the artists it's purporting to protect, like Lamb of God singer Randy Blythe, hate it.
"A profit margin at the cost of liberty is never high enough for me," says the outspoken Blythe, beginning into a rant against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) through U.S. Congress, and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) through the Senate, which threaten to throttle the internet Big Brother-style.
"I believe it opens up too much corporate and governmental control and I think it would be a monopoly by corporations and governments who are in bed together on creative content and what does and what does not go on the internet," Blythe told Noisecreep's sister site, Spinner Canada.
Mammoth websites like Wikipedia and Reddit have gone into "blackout" mode today to protest SOPA and PIPA. Even cute cat sites like I Can Has Cheezburger have joined the protest. Theoretically, the bills are designed to protect content owners and creators from piracy by using internet service providers to block or shut down sites that are accused of illegal usage, or have search engines like Google erase offending website from its search results.
The idea would be to strangle out people from going to sites like the Pirate Bay. But the opportunity for abuse is astronomical.
Blythe, a "content creator" who remains vehemently anti-piracy thinks such potential censorship powers are way out of line. That, even though someone like him would stand to benefit tremendously from the protections SOPA/PIPA would provide.
"Never ever, ever, ever," states Blythe on whether he'd ever support such legislation. "I would rather starve. I've been poor plenty of times. I was poor for a long, long time in this band, literally homeless at times. I'm not particularly worried about getting rich, that's not why I do this. I make a good living, a lot of people don't. I'm not a millionaire, but I'm quite comfortable now after 16 years of being in this band.
Watch Randy Blythe's 2012 Presidential Campaign Video
"To tell you the truth if this SOPA thing went through at first it would probably be a huge economic boom to myself personally and I could take that money and be set... until they'd figure out another way to leak music.
"And yes, I would make more money, this is true. And yes, I think it sucks that people steal music. And that's what I call it. Not copyright infringement, not piracy, it's f---ing stealing. That sucks. That being said, I just don't want the government or corporations to have more control than they already do. To me it's ridiculous and a very easy choice.
"I've been to China. I know what happens there. I've been all around the world to places where you can't get this and can't get that and I'm like, 'Really?' It seems like such a weird innocuous thing to me coming from America. I refuse to support anything that will further censorship whether it be government or corporate. I mean, we're being sold enough s--- as it is."
For Blythe, the idea of SOPA comes down to a debate about freedom. And it's clear what side of that debate he's on.
"Would I like to live comfortably in a nice house as an indentured servant or would I like to live in the ghetto as a free man? I'll take the ghetto any day."
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