This is an unusual post for my first post of the year, but I’m just posting to say that I will not be posting today.
Riiiiiiiiight.
Anyway for those of you who haven’t heard already there is a strike going on today that is being conducted on the internet. There are two pieces of legislation that are the cause of all of this. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) are causing sites like Wikepedia, Boing Boing and many others to go dark today, meaning that you will be unable to access them today.
According to the article found on MSNBC.com:
The two bills, supported supported mainly by the entertainment industry, are aimed at stopping illegal downloading and streaming of movies and TV shows. But many in the tech world — including giants Google and Facebook — say the legislation would let federal authorities shut down portions of the Internet without due process, and fundamentally alter the Internet’s ability to provide a platform for free speech.
In other words if you either had copyrighted material or a link to copyrighted material, you could have your website shut down without warning, lose all your files, not be able to come back online and be able to do nothing about it. Even if you had a link on your site to material that someone suspects is pirated you could suffer the same fate.
If these bills became law say goodbye to Wikipedia, YouTube and Google.
For that matter, say goodbye to this site.
A site like Political Irony? Gone.
PolitiFact? Gone.
Monster.com? Possibly gone.
CareerBuilder.com? Possibly gone.
Politico? Gone.
The Daily Beast? Gone.
Hulu? Gone.
Go Music? Definitely gone.
Any Conservative, Progressive or Tea Party site? Gone.
The sites of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Riley, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Micheal Moore? Gone.
The Daily Kos? Gone.
Your favorite video gaming site? Gone.
Would there be anything left? Sure, any site that is run by any corporation and offers its own copyrighted content for a price would be left standing. The sites for Disney, Universal, Sony, Comcast and Verison would still be left, although you might have to pay a “subscription fee” to be able to access their sites. Same with the sites for ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, FOX News, MSNBC, CNN, the NFL, EA Sports, etc.
Ya get why the internet is up in arms right now?
So what can you do about it? Simple – call your Congressman or Senator and give them a piece of your mind and make sure that they listen to you in an election year.
Sopastrike.com has a lot of information on how you can strike yourself and spread the word about the strike.
Wikipedia has a FAQ page about SOPA and PIPA and the reasoning behind the strike, as well as a page on their SOPA initiative.
When you use Twitter today, end every tweet with the hashtag #SOPASTRIKE to spread the word.
Let’s keep the internet free from government intrusion people, we have a right to free speech, free expression and free exchange of ideas.
We need to fight for it. Now.
Until next time…
