So I'm fairly sure I mentioned this before, but seeing as so many of our legislators seem hopelessly confused as to what the problems are with the SOPA and PIPA bills, I think it bears mentioning again. I expected the Republicans to be stupid enough to fall for this BS, but I was suprised to see it's actually mostly Democrats that support these awful bills.
The problem is that this legislation would effectively give the government wide ranging powers to censor and control the internet in the name of "protecting jobs." It would actually kill jobs if these powers were to be used. It puts huge strain on internet start-ups like Thatguywiththeglasses.com, which is a site for reviews of movies, video games, etc. Sites such as this would effectively be put completely out of business by this bill simply b/c they use some short clips and images from the titles they review. This is not harmful to BIG COMPANIES... such review sites are HELPFUL to them, as they provide FREE ADVERTISING over the web for their products, which people can legally purchase in their entirity if they so desire. If Big Companies refuse to provide their products in legally purchasable ways to the consumer, should the consumer really be blamed for trying to find alternative sources to access these products? Before I mentioned that Disney, one of the biggest supporters of SOPA and PIPA, STILL refuses to release Song of the South b/c they fear backlash of racial criticism. On the other hand, WB has released many of their "racially insensitive" Looney Tunes Cartoons on DVD, with a disclaimer about the times in which they were made.
It seems to me that the Big Companies that support this legislation do not really understand what it could do to them. After all they have a cycle of fear regarding new technology, and it always seems to have worked out for them in the past. Is it illegal to record things off TV? NO... it's CALLED: DVR. What is the difference between DVR, buying a blank VHS tape, and downloading a video off Youtube? Not much... really, and yet nobody gets threatened with jail time for purchasing DVR service or blank VHS tapes... they are readily available.
So why do companies like Disney, Viacom, etc. think that crippling the internet is good for business? And why do our legislators think that these bills will not lead to INTERNET BLACKLISTS, KILLING JOBS, and MASSIVE BLOWS to FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
We already have to work on repealing: THE PATRIOT ACT, CITIZENS UNITED, & NDAA... we cannot allow this disintegration of our democracy to continue, or it will soon be too late to undo the damage. SOPA and PIPA will kill our power to organize over the internet and have our voices heard. Would you rather wait until words are no longer powerful enough to stop the growing PLUTOCRACY... in other words a government run by a small group of wealthy people?
STOP SOPA, PIPA, CITIZENS UNITED, and all other FREEDOM LIMITING legislation. Loss of FREEDOMS is a slippery slope that not even those Big Coporations would want to go down. We can make our government see why continuing these policies PROTECTS NO ONE, and only serves to HARM THE FREEDOMS OF ALL, including those who support it.
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