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SOPA Song Parodies

SOPA and PIPA are not inherently evil with respect to protecting content. However, these bills do introduce a risk of unintended consequences.

To facilitate restoring perspective to this sometimes vociferous debate, these song parodies are dedicated to  “Weird Al” Yankovic and other folks who legitimately obtain intellectual property. Enjoy!

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#10 - You Bring Trepidation - to tune of You’re The Inspiration by Chicago

You know I-P was meant to be
Copyright protection lasts forever
And I need your bits with me
From tonight until SOPA’s end

You should know, everywhere I go
You’re always on my RAM,
In my smart phone
In my hard drive

You bring trepidation to my life
You give me such temptation

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#9 - Upload It Now - to tune of Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones

If you upload it now

If you upload it now,
SOPA bills will never stop
If you upload it now

I’ve been running hot
Got me downloading gonna blow my bits
You make a bit torrenter cry

Spread out the network nazis,
call the bit police

Click smooth, download to mobile phone
Upload it now

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 #8 - Clicking To Steal - to tune of Learning To Fly by Tom Petty

Well, I started down a torrent path
Started out all alone

Firewall went down as I crossed the line
And the monitors lit up,
progress bar went still

I’m learning to steal, but I ain’t got skills
Getting caught is the hardest thing.

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#7 - Thieving Idiot - to tune of American Idiot by Green Day

Don’t wanna be a thieving idiot
Don’t want nation to ever download content

And can you hear the clicks of hysteria?
Bits being stolen all across America

Welcome to a new kind of Internet
Lots of fear-mongering, SOPA & PIPA

Everything’s not meant to be licensed
By dollar signs in industry mogul eyes

Let’s have public debate, real convos
Not all folks with stolen web content

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 #6 - Born with S-O-P-A - to tune of Born In The U.S.A. by Bruce Springsteen

Stored on an S-S-D
First trip I took was via some kid’s vid

You end up like some torrent clicked too much
Till you spend half your bits just encrypting up

Born with S-O-P-A,
I was born with S-O-P-A
I was born with S-O-P-A,
born with S-O-P-A

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 #5 - Eventually - to tune of Yesterday by The Beatles

Eventually, my downloads seemed far away,
Now looks as though SOPA’s here2stay
Oh I believe in eventually.

Yes, you see
I’m not half the torrent I used to be,
There’s no legal bit pipes connected to me,

Oh, eventually, came, yes you see

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 #4 - Bits on the Web - to tune of Dust In The Wind by Kansas

I click my links
Only for a torrent and the torrent’s gone

All my content
Passes before my eyes temporarily

Bits on the web
All they are is bits on the web

Same old clip
Just a file shared by social media

All we do
Fades away, licensed excessively

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 #3 - Lose S-O-P-A - to tune of Have a Nice Day by Bon Jovi

Why, you wanna tell me what to download?
Who, are you to tell me if it’s licensed or not?

Congress, can you hear me? Try to understand
Is copyright so clear cut on the Internet?
Torrents spread content, that’s price of fear.
Sacrificed some bits, just copying away.

Ohh, if there’s one thing we hang onto
That gets us through the night.
We ain’t gonna vote for what we don’t want to

We’re gonna live freely
Shining like a diamond, rolling with the earth.
Creators of net, I show free people how to fly.

Before unintended outcomes fly our way,
Lose S-O-P-A
Lose S-O-P-A
Lose S-O-P-A

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 #2 - Artistry & Potpourri - to tune of Ebony & Ivory by Stevie Wonder & Paul McCartney

Artistry & Potpourri, together in perfect harmony
Side by side uploaded, oh web, why don’t we?

We know which bits are same if we download
There is good and bad in every search index

We learn to play, we learn to mix
Each other we need for mash-up license

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 #1 - We Didn’t Click Download - to tune of We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel

Ron Paul, Graham Cracker, S-O-P-A, P-I-P-A
Web Uploads, D-M-C-A, HuffPo, P2P

Piracy, D-N-S, Patent Trolls, Social Media
Twitter, Flickr, Anonymous, Web Hosts

reddit, Google, YouTube, Flickr,  Kim Jong-un
CrowdFlower, Net Coalition, Wikipedia

Obama, drug makers, England has a new prince
Mozilla, RIAA, MPAA

We didn’t click the download
It was always copying
Since Wikipedia started philosophizing

We didn’t click the download
No we didn’t copy it,
But we might of linked it

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Along with some special event parodies for folks that happen to be out & about.

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SOPA Nation - to tune of Celebration by Kool and The Gang

Flickr!
YouTube!

SOPA nation, yeah, come on!
Let’s SOPA Nation

SOPA Nation, yeah, come on!
Let’s SOPA Nation,

There’s a download going on right here
a SOPA Nation to last throughout the years.

So bring your MP3s and your torrents too.
We’re gonna SOPA-brate your PC with you!

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Happy SOPA-day - to tune of Happy Birthday by Patty & Mildred Hill

Happy SOPA Day to thieves.
Happy SOPA Day to thieves.
Happy SOPA Day to you, dear law breakers.
Happy SOPA Day to thieves.

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Auld Lang SOPA - to tune of Auld Lang Syne by Robert Burns

Should Old SOPA be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
The flames of PIPA extinguished,
and fully past and gone?

For auld lang SOPA, my dear,
for auld lang SOPA,
we’ll take a copy of IP yet
for auld lang SOPA.

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SOPA-rena - to tune of Macarena by Los del Río

When they download they call me SOPA-rena
And bit torrents all say que soy buena

They all want me, they can’t have me
So they all come and download beside me

Copy with me, paste with me
And if I could I’d take you home with me

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S.O.P.A. - to tune of Y.M.C.A. by Werner Thomas

Young thief, there’s a place you can go
I said, young thief, take yourself off the grid

I said, young thief, take yourself in a new net
There’s no need to be stealin’

Young thief, there’s a download you can get
I said, young man, when you’re short on your IP

You can go there, and I’m sure you will find
Many downloads worth your time

It’s fun to live with the S-O-P-A.
It’s fun to live with the S-O-P-A.

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A ‘worst 10’ SOPA song parody list may be compiled. Suggestions welcome.

For more ‘technology simplified’ musings – philosophical, practical, whimsical, or otherwise – subscribe to Forest Road.