SOPA, PIPA, and internet striking

[alpha_hydra]

Okay you guys, so there are these bills in the US congress right now, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act which are filling me with rage-y, political feelings. So many other sites and people have explained it in much better detail than I ever could(even in infographic form!), so I won't spend too much time on that. The important thing

Comments

[w0rmsign]

There's no way those stuffy old congress people realize how far reaching this bill has the potential to be.

oh no?

You block a site like youtube and you not only stop the spread of "plagiarism," you stop the spread of ideas around the world,

I rather suspect this potential has been deeply considered. Freely communicating populace is harder to control, the internet is too full of freely generated content and thought than sponsored, govt sanctioned tv and radio (mind)programming.

Also, ALL sites have the potential to host copywritten material.

[alpha_hydra]

Did you notice that Megaupload's been shut down? It's sickening to see this sort of thing happening in this day and age, and really terrifying when you consider those implications. It's funny that even when I'm cynical about the US government, I'm still a little idealistic and naively think that it wouldn't so brazenly try to turn the internet into something so easily controlled.

[w0rmsign]

I'm still a little idealistic and naively think that it wouldn't so brazenly try to turn the internet into something so easily controlled.

Quite possibly a cover up or distraction technique for some other nefarious plotting that's going on, what with all the recent FDA bullshit that's been going on.

[arcanelegacy]

Thankfully, a lot of politicians are (maybe for the first fucking time ever) listening to the huge outpouring of negative response they've been getting, and supporters of both SOPA and PIPA are dropping quickly.

IDEK if they're finally getting the message that these bills, as they are now, will severely impact the public's ability to share ideas or if they're finally realizing that it's a major violation of the first amendment or if they're just realizing HEY FUCKSHITS THIS IS A BAD IDEA, but I'm getting more and more optimistic the damned bills won't pass.

I'm all for fighting piracy. I'm not for doing by completely censoring the internet, especially down to the DNS level (oh my god NO).

lol edited to close a parenthese. Because I know grammar.

[alpha_hydra]

I still have hope that someday the government will be as awesome as it should be, because apparently I am totally an idealist at heart, but yeah, thank fuck that something's getting through to them, even if it's just, oh hey, if we support this we probably won't get reelected because everyone will HATE us FOREVER AND ALWAYS.