This post will be in a more serious vein than my usual ones. It's super important so I hope you'll take the time to read!
Have you all heard of SOPA and Protect-IP? They are bad news for the internet and the masses. Imagine being sent to jail for up to five years for posting a video to youtube of you and your friends singing a popular song. Sounds ridiculous, right?
"This legislation will stifle free speech and innovation, and even threaten popular web services like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook." - fightforthefuture.org
Please take the time to watch this video and then fill out the form on this page. The form takes care of all the details for you and sends a message to the congress members in your voting district.
Here is another site to easily contact senators to have your opinions heard.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
(This is the same video only with an article attached to it. I encourage you to take a look!)
Everything mentioned in this video is scary on a whole new level.
A committee vote is scheduled for December 15th, so we have only two weeks to let our voices be heard to our state representatives. Please let them know that this is a bad idea.
For your convenience, I've gathered a few articles to try and bring as much information into one spot as I can.
-I don't know about you, but I love seeing speed runs of video games and I'm planning on including my own gameplay videos in upcoming vlog entries. Imagine an internet where those aren't allowed.
-Senator Ron Wyden strongly opposes SOPA and Protect-IP and wants to have your name to read aloud in his "epic filibuster" to block the bills.
-The New York Times gives an explanation of the very real dangers to free speech that SOPA and Protect-IP would create.
-Wikipedia for a straightforward run-down.
-Here's an article from CNET about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's stance on SOPA (they are supporters).
-A post from Game Politics about political blog's DailyKOS opposing SOPA and Protect-IP.
-This article from readwriteweb.com states that, from a legal standpoint, SOPA is not censorship. After reading though, I don't agree. The closing statement argues that the Powers that Be have, "confidence in the structure of our court system" and therefore claim that they would remain fair and not "manipulate" the situations. How is it not censorship if websites are blocked from being accessed?
The whole situation is quite chilling. I've already contacted my senators to let them know that this bill should not and cannot be passed. Thank you for reading and I sincerely hope that you'll use one of the options presented in this entry to contact your congress people/senators to let them know that you oppose the proposed destruction of the internet.
Of course, if you don't oppose the SOPA and Protect-IP acts I'd be very curious to hear your points of view! Everyone feel free to share your thoughts either for or against the bills.
-MJ
2 comments:
So, the thing about SOPA is, everyone I've talked to who opposes it has not actually read the bill. They all just think they know what it means. It's always been illegal to upload copyrighted material to the internet without permission from copyright holders, including game play videos. Most copyright holders let it slide because it's free press and they don't want to alienate their fans. The bill's purpose is to target foreign rogue websites that profit from pirated materials. Private, law-abiding U.S. citizens will not be prosecuted under SOPA. Neither will large sites be held responsible for what their users independently upload. I still oppose it, but it's not as big of a deal as everyone is making it out to be.
I understand that everything you've listed is already illegal. My issue stems from the fact that under SOPA, internet providers would be required to block entire websites that host anything copyrighted that doesn't have permission obtained. As far as I'm aware, that is a vast majority of the websites currently online. Even though the bill states that the act is intended for foreign websites, I don't trust them to not go overboard.
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