Today many sites on the internet look different than they did yesterday. Google has a black bar across their name/logo, Wikipedia is dark which means none of their billions of pages are available to explain whatever crazy reference you read in some blog. Social media sites are burning up with comments about PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). In a tiny nutshell, these congressional bills try to protect copyrighted content on the internet by making it illegal to use/display/link to content without permission. It is backed by the Time Warner, Sonys, CBS’s and NY Times of the world. It is opposed by almost everyone who uses the internet as their primary method of producing or consuming content. The argument against it isn’t that copyrights shouldn’t be protected it is that is bill is so vague and clueless that it can’t work.
Here is the part I really get a kick out of; you can’t go to a current events online site without reading about SOPA or someone’s opinion about it, but if you turn on the TV, radio, open the newspaper it will barely get a mention. They want it but they don’t want to stick up for it because they know most people are against it so they just don’t talk about it.
,255,255); text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; display: inline !important; font: 13px/18px arial, sans-serif; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; float: none; color: rgb(0,0,0); word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px”>This SOPA thing is shaping up to be a major debacle. I predict by the time it’s over even it’s most staunch supporters will be saying things like, “I wasn’t really in favor of it as it was written” or “ me? that wasn’t me, I never inhaled”
Here is one of my favorite quotes from a SOPA detractor – “Under SOPA, you could get 5 years for uploading a Michael Jackson song, one year more than the doctor who killed him”