It's certainly in Apple's interest that this pass. Less piracy -> More iTunes customers. More iTunes customers -> More iOS devices sold. More iOS devices sold -> More profit for Apple.
These bills would also allow someone to demand the takedown of the entire iTunes store over a single allegation of copyright infringement in a single app. Consider how much trouble they've had with patent trolls in the past.
Wouldn't they be liable for every song, every photo, every video, every document their users store? Maybe they've got songs (mostly) covered via the agreements for iTunes Match, but the rest seem hard to pull off (especially since, IIRC, taking a picture (or video) of a copyrighted painting, sculpture, etc. can be infringement in some cases).
Thank you for the correction. I don't know that but just assumed (and yes, I know what that leads to :)) that they opted out given the collective weight of the other orgs involved.
SOPA is largely an anti-counterfeiting bill. Microsoft does not want people to be able to buy counterfeit versions of Windows, so they support this bill.
Google, on the other hand, doesn't make anything that can be counterfeited, so they have nothing to gain from this bill. They do have a lot to lose (with all the censorship provisions), so they are taking a stand against the bill.
I agree that's what they are pushing it for, but they seem to want to apply the same hammers to counterfeiting of physical goods and digital copyright infringement. Physical goods and media are very different.
The lost-income argument of this needs to be battled, because I doubt that everyone buying fake rolexes at $200 each is going to be saving up for the real deal. I have to assume that the same type of arguments are propping up this debate. I want to know where the people that support this get these numbers from. Do people really think that by passing this legislation we will somehow get money for nothing?
Does anyone really think that this won't be applied to Wikileaks and the like...
Imagine Microsoft being able to block Google at the DNS level because Android infringes on their IP. Imagine Apple wielding the same power against Samsung and every retailer carrying Samsung phones.
They may never use that power, but it would certainly make negotiating much easier.
