I’ve remained silent in this issue for a while, but each day it’s becoming more urgent at an alarming rate. Congress is trying to pass two bills that will change the face of the internet. One is called Protect IP, but the one that’s been a real hot topic lately is SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act.) It’s an attempt to stop online piracy. Of course, I do not support piracy, but the way the bill is written is very broad and open for interpretation.
According to what everyone’s saying, it will affect the whole internet. It allows the government to step in, on behalf of major corporations to take down any website or video that they want. It seems like under the broad language of these bills, it would mean doing movie reviews, video game reviews, or anything of that nature would become illegal. There already exist fair use laws that permit the partial use of copyrighted works for criticism or educational value. But somehow these new bills, if they pass, would trample all over that, and fair use would no longer exist. Yes apparently that would mean no more AVGN videos. No nothing. But don’t worry about me. Worry about the internet. The internet has been a source of innovation. These bills are anti-progressive, would cause mass job loss for all small companies online. They are written with a very out-dated business model.
I usually prefer to stay out of politics. I just want to provide entertainment. I want you to come to this site, laugh and enjoy my videos. The last thing I would ever want to do is send everyone into a panic. It’s especially hard for me to write this, since it comes during the holiday season. I thought I’d be able to wait until January to speak up, but the SOPA bill keeps gaining momentum. It’s supporters are trying to push it through as fast as possible. It was suddenly scheduled for a vote on December 21, THIS WEDNESDAY! I thought they’d at least wait until after Christmas. It’s not the ultimate last step the bill has to go through, but it’s crucial one and it’s important that we’re all aware of it and try to do something about it.
I’m not the best person to explain this. Here are some videos you should watch that are informative.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDX8Lyl16Qs&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwuXNv8fJM&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=f-hpgI0XFSg
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? Here’s some links I found for various petitions. Please check out each of these.
http://americancensorship.org/
http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/pipa_sopa
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/protectip_docs
http://act.boldprogressives.org/survey/survey_sopa_reddit/?source=bp
http://keepthewebopen.com/
http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=53
https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet/?wLKMocb
http://www.house.gov/ (Enter your zipcode to find your representative)
Here’s a petition to get the bill vetoed! Create an account and sign this!
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitio...eaten-diminish-free-flow-information/g3W1BscR