Now, I’m not one to explicitly shove my opinion down someone’s throat in hopes that they’ll take my side and then act on it as well. Its rare you’ll find posts on this blog unrelated to food, deals, and the like. But I’m also not one to ignore a problem or to pretend like it won’t impact me. So that is why I want to bring your attention to SOPA and PIPA. Before you stop reading, thinking that this is a political or social statement, I just want you to watch this video.
On the Tuesday 24th January 2012, the US Senate will vote on the internet censorship bill.
Its your choice what you do with this information – I just want to keep you informed of what could happen if this bill were to pass next week. Here is a great article I found on 1stwebdesigner.com that really explains what the bill is and how it will affect you as internet users and me as a blog writer:
As stated prior in what PIPA and SOPA are and what will they enable U.S. government agencies and private companies to do, the internet will become a hunt for any little bit of possible copyright violation. Of course the government loves blogs and bloggers, so it is only natural to think that they will receive a lot of special attention. These acts make it the blog owners responsibility for everything that is displayed on their site, including the comments of visitors.
So say an article is published one day featuring a logo, or trademark, of corporation and that corporation doesn’t like that it is being put on display on the site. Now the author of this article could have used it as a teaching method, critique, praising good design, or anything you can think of, it doesn’t matter. With these acts being only direct enough to give an area for attack, and vague enough to manipulate and twist seemingly any possible way, any type of accusation can be made and found true.
Please consider the impact this type of decision could have on America and the Internet. Yes, certain file sharing and piracy sites do need legal action, but something this vague could be more powerful and more abusive than we can even realize. If you agree, then choose to do something about it and join the petition at http://americancensorship.org/. I wish I had a better solution to help control and take down sites where creative content and intellectual property are shared with no exchange of payment, but for now, I know that SOPA and PIPA are not the answer.
Dish Dash Dime 