I don’t know if you know about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) or not. It is a fear-mongering legislation that puts forth that our country (US) is being financially ruined by online piracy. Is it really?
The list of companies (see below) that are in support of SOPA baffle me. I can understand the entertainment industries, to an extent. But the law enforcement and the fire fighters unions? Really, WTF.
If enacted, the US government and corporations can create blacklists of sites that are accused of “Piracy” and/or copyright infringement. The website has five days to appeal before it is permanent.
But if you think this is only going to apply to non-US sites that are distributing bootleg movies, music and software, you might want to think again. Look at the text of the act in the description:
To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by
combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes
Along with this is the PIPA (Protect IP “Intellectual Property” Act). Thus, if I post about some technology put in place by CBS (who is a supporter) and call out anything they do not want attention drawn to, they can claim I am infringing on their Intellectual Property. This site gets blocked with a graphic, possibly like the following:
Now the above was a graphic sites put up to protest on the 19th of December. But you get the idea.
More information is available here. The full text of SOPA can be read here.
GoDaddy.com was on the list of supporters. However, after a massive campaign to boycott, the company flip-flopped.
I am going to go through the list and pull my service from as many of these companies that I can. Some cannot be avoided, but others can.
The Reddit campain to boycott GoDaddy was such a success that now they are targeting the politicians in favor of the Act(s).
Go to OpenCongress.org to send a message to your Congress member to oppose this pending legislation.
Companies supporting SOPA are:
Posted by WTF Really