Thursday, January 19, 2012

SOPA

Sorry I hadn't posted a blog yesterday, but I was among the many people protesting SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act." I have seen and read quite a bit about the Act, and I have to say, it seems to do more harm than good. It is a problem that many people are downloading illegally and hackers are uploading viruses to the Internet, but from what I understand, this Bill won't stop any of it really. People will still easily be able to bypass this.

What this will do is censor sites that are just entertainment yet are doing no real harm. I know of a bunch of websites with videos that contain content from other sources, but I know that they always get permission from these sources to use that content. This Act will just limit free speech on the Internet and that is a violation of the 1st Amendment. Do we really want the government to be in control of what we can or can not see on the Internet? Granted, there are sites that are inappropriate for children under a certain age, but just like watching inappropriate movies, the parents are the ones responsible for what their children watch.

I would hate to have my portfolio site or my web comic site censored for no particular reason. Granted, all my content is originally mine, but this Act could still hurt my site.

Here is an email I was sent:

Message body

Tomorrow, January 18th, 2012, will be the largest internet protest in history. Thousands of sites across the internet, including some of the biggest in the world, will be blacking out and directing people to contact Congress to kill the web censorship bill, SOPA and PIPA. We want to get you involved.
Join us on the historic day by blacking out your site. Copy the code below and paste it into the header of your theme (Wordpress users: use the SOPA Strike plugin) to black your site out in protest of SOPA/PIPA. It will activate automatically on Jan. 18th, displaying this page and directing visitors to contact Congress, and will deactivate at the end of the day.
<script type="text/javascript">var a=new Date,b=a.getHours()+a.getTimezoneOffset()/60;if(18==a.getDate()&&0==a.getMonth()&&2012==a.getFullYear()&&13<=b&&24>=b)window.location="http://sopastrike.com/strike";</script>
In just 7 days, the Senate will vote on forever altering the free and open internet by instituting a new regime of extra-judicial, corporate-led website takedowns. This is a fundamental fight about who has power in society -- the people with the means to communicate freely or the governments and corporations that feel threatened.
For the full state of play on the censorship bills, take a look at this infographic we've put together. Click here. The clock is ticking, and we're still 35 senators short of the number we need to kill the bill.
If you're on Facebook or Twitter, please use these links to spread the word about the protest:

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Thank You!
-Donny, Tiffiniy, Holmes, CJ, Phil, Josh, Douglas
Fight for the Future is a non-profit organization fighting for people's freedoms in a new digital age

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