SOPA Who?

So, the past few weeks when it comes to the proposed SOPA and PIPA laws in the US have completely taken off. I couldn’t believe when I first heard that a new law was going to effect online pirates, and any website that is consorting with online pirates. Now, with the risk of sounding like a typical, naïve, ‘me me me’ Gen Yer, what does anyone use the Internet for more than social media, and other forms of user generated websites such as Youtube? Sites such as Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook are hugely dominated by copyrighted materials. I understand that online piracy is a serious problem and steals billions of dollars from content creators, but the proposed legislation aimed to shut down any site that had just about ANYTHING to do with online piracy. Perhaps, I’m overreacting here, but, to me, that, that seems the equivalent of shutting down an entire office building just because one guy was stealing staplers.

Of course, by now, we have all come to the realization that the Internet isn’t the Utopian global community many predicted it would be. Us humans have managed to find a way to economize nearly everything on the net, and fill nearly every user-generated site with references to our own shit - literally! However, sites such as Youtube, and Twitter have played an important role in furthering democracy and re-installing it. I was personally disgusted that the United States of America – “land of the free” hand on my heart, ‘God bless our cunntry!’ and all that would be willing to jeopardize the status of these sites just to catch a few nine-year-old kids uploading Robot Wars on the weekend. I’ve done a Journalism degree, so I’ve had this sort of thing drilled into me, but I think it is very important for everyone to remember that freedom of information should not be seen as a privilege it should be seen as a right. Censorship jeopardizes our rights, and especially, in America where this is a foundational part of the constitution. The US government has dropped the proposed legislation for now, but I don’t see this going away just like that. Believers in a free and open Internet should continue to fight for our right to freedom of information.

The Black March against Internet censorship will take place between the 1^st and 31^st of March. Hit media companies were it hurts and refrain from buying any products or seeing movies etc. legally or illegally. Help send the message that the world’s biggest corporations cannot jeopardize our liberty.