This is primarily a jewelry blog. But sometimes something so big comes along, I’ll talk about it anyways. I don’t know if any of you have heard of SOPA or PIPA, but I wanted to share this video with you all.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
I’m a firm believer in copyright protection. However. This kind of censorship and indiscriminate punishment is dangerous more for innocent businesses than it is for those people breaking the law. The way these laws stand right now the following scenario is dangerously likely:
I write a blog post on something jewelry related. All images are either my own, or used with permission and given appropriate credit. But I do provide a link to an interesting artist who uses upcycled materials in her work creating postcards and nifty bookmarks. Disney decides that she is infringing on their copyright. They call her webhost, who shuts her down, freezes her paypal account, and then shuts me down as well, and freezes my paypal account. Not only that, but they would take away her domain as well as my domain, and I am then out of business. Guess who the major link contributor is who would get bitten by this. Yep, Google. Not likely you say?
Try this one. I write that blog post, but don’t link to anyone because I’m afraid they have something that could be construed as license infringement somewhere on their site. Be it an advertisement, a product, or even a quote from a song. But, Joe Internet Pirate comes and leaves a comment on my blog…. Guess I didn’t really need my business after all. Oh well.
SOPA is Wrong.
I love what I do, and part of that is running my site. I actually enjoy tweaking my website code, and helping other people do the same. Piracy is wrong, no question about it. Putting people out of business and taking away their livelihood on the say-so of random companies is not only wrong, but unconstitutional. We shall not be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. Due process is not ever defined as “…and Mr. Corporate executive calls up and complains”. Innocent until proven guilty in a court of Law. This country is built on freedoms, rights, and the due process of laws. If we fail to uphold and protect those things, and actually replace them with internet censorship, we become no different than countries like China and Iran.
On January 18, major internet sites around the net will be “going dark” in an effort to show congress the eventual effects of what their legislation would bring to pass. Reddit, TwitPic, BoingBoing, Cheezburger and others will be closing their websites in favor of a single page detailing the effects of SOPA. If you would like to learn more about SOPA, and what you can do to help stop this piece of legislation, please visit American Censorship.org.
Further reading:
Stanford Law Review: Don’t break the Internet”
Boing Boing Will Go Dark
Reddit on Strike