I know I normally talk about Gamification on Mondays, but this bill is being voted on this week and we need to work together to get it stopped. Have you heard of SOPA or Protect IP? I hadn’t until recently. You may have seen the words crop up in your social network feeds or seen articles on it as you scanned Google for Justin Bieber pictures, but please take 4 minutes to watch this video and visit AmericanCenshorship.org to find out more.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
And if you have about 20 minutes and want to know exactly what all this SOPA stuff is, please watch this video:
These are very serious issues and most of Congress is only hearing one side of the arguement. Please take two minutes more today and visit AmericanCensorship.org and they’ll give you the means to call, write and email your representative to have your voice heard.
Please don’t take this as me going all hippy and hating on the US government. I’m a very big fan most of the time, but this is scary stuff and when corporations and lobbyists are allowed to manipulate systems that we depend on to protect our rights, it’s time to step up and actually use this Internet thing to do something good.
Now, for all of you living outside the States and dismissing this issue because you “don’t have a representative”, this will affect you as well and the the site give you an avenue for your voice to be heard as well. Stand with us in protecting the Internet for the entire world.
Tags: Government Censorship of the Internet, how to stop SOPA, Internet Censorship, PIPA, Protect IP, SOPA, what is SOPA
Joey
I've been doing some research on Protect IP and SOPA, especially this past weekend. Like you, I've been hearing about it but I've never really put in the time to find out what it really means. I'm concerned that a stance taken against these bills isn't as righteous as most people think it is. Opponents of SOPA and Protect IP uses terms like "Freedom of Speech" and "Free Expression of Ideas", but more and more the people that I hear complaining are the ones that just want free music and movies. I'm definitely not saying that you are one of those people. I'm with you, I'm terrified of a locked down internet. On the other hand, with a victory against SOPA and Protect IP you get an implied victory against Anti-Piracy. No...SOPA and Protect IP may not fix the issue, but right now you have "Pirate-Happy-Fan-Boys" and "Proctector-Of-Internet-Sanctity-Bloggers" on the same side of an argument and I'm afraid that taking a broad stand against SOPA and Protect IP will be dangerous in the long run for our credibility. Maybe I'm wrong, but I would love to hear your opinion on that.
Thanks
Dennis Edmondson
Computing Concepts
ComConcepts Hey Dennis, don't get me wrong, I love free music and movies just as much as the next guy, but that issue never even crossed my mind in this regard. Sure, there are probably people on this side of the argument that would embarrass others in this camp, but I'm sure that could be said for the Occupy-ers, Tea Party-ers, Republicans, Democrats, Christians, Muslims, and any other group who takes a stand for something they believe in. There will always be crackpots on both sides of arguments but I don't believe their position hurts my credibility any more than someone who says the only reason they go to church is for the soft seat and the free crackers and juice hurts my credibility for going to church.
My fear goes beyond the avenue of wanting free music and games and more into the overarching fear that we're about to vote in control of the Internet to the government, giving veto rights to not only content, but entire avenues of content, to entertainment corporations. This won't just hurt a video posted on Youtube, but will hurt Youtube as a whole. This won't affect a picture posted on Facebook, but rather Facebook entirely. An example used in one of the videos sums it up well, this is going to be like giving people the right to sue Toyota for someone crashing into them driving a Toyota and win. I'm not going to tout free speech and all that jazz, but by giving control of Internet content to entertainment companies who hate it and government officials who admittably don't use or understand it, we are stifling and potentially murdering the greatest technological advancement to free enterprise and personal communication in history.
All also want to make sure I can get the latest Bon Iver album for free when it's released.
Conversation from Twitter
RandyHlavac Thanks for sharing that post!
brandconnection guess what! on facbeook they're sending out sponsored ipad 2's for the holidays! take a look fbchristmas .com
ericamallison Thanks for the support. The vote is tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
Higgins82 I don't use the internet, so it's all good.
RobbyDawesFC you sucks
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