Today, like the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street movement back in September of 2011, websites around the world and bloggers, tweeters, and others who use the Internet have taken to the proverbial streets in protest against SOPA.
Because no normal person (myself included) can read legalese, I am unable to adequately decide whether SOPA and/or PIPA are truly the end-all Internet killer and privacy murderer that many believe it to be.
Two red flags jumped out at me throughout this whole SOPA Internet blackout protest.
First regards SOPA and PIPA bills themselves. Any law written can be used inappropriately. There appears to be relatively decent intellectual rights protections already in place on the Internet thanks to constant lawsuits against illegal downloading by large companies and corporations. This alone makes me hesitant to throw my support behind either bill.
Second, nobody seems to notice which companies and corporations are joining the Internet blackout. The companies and corporations taking part in the Internet blackout are those very organizations that would lose total freedom to do as they choose. They are companies and corporations that make their profits utilizing free transfer of information and otherwise free stuff. These companies and corporations like WordPress.com, Google, reddit, destructoid, Cheezburger, Mozilla, imgur, Wikipedia, Twitpic, among many more.
This second point should concern people AT LEAST AS MUCH as the SOPA and PIPA bills themselves. How can one simple jump behind these massive corporations and simply assume they are acting in your best interest?
The U.S. public appears somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, Occupy movements around the country complain of corporate involvement in politics and push against corporate power. BUT, here we have two bills, SOPA and PIPA, that probably ARE BAD...but the U.S. public is jumping behind these corporations for no other reason than they have no choice but to believe either their Representatives (who are in the pockets of some corporations) or other corporations that disagree with the legislation.
Why does nobody see that THIS IS THE PROBLEM! Giant companies and corporations are you ONLY CHOICES!!!Labels: google, Internet blackout, mozilla, occupy movement, occupy wall street, pipa, reddit, sopa, sopa and pipa, wikipedia, wordpress.com