SOPA was the covert Stop Online Piracy Act that big entertainment mogul’s wanted pushed quietly through congress so people wouldn’t know that the Internet was going to be censored and controlled by the Entertainment Industry. What is a little censorship when poor multi billion dollar industries were loosing some profits? Besides the fact that SOPA would have allowed corporate-via-government takeover of the the interwebs, it couldn’t have done squat about the piracy outside the US, which is where companies are losing the most money.
Moreover, companies that invented shenanigans like Hollywood Accountin, or the gross stupidity of ignoring factors like the economy and their own mendacity as explanations for why their bottom line is now “only” over $8 billion now, cannot be trusted to ‘safeguard’ our information streams.
Remember in the 1980’s how movie studios tried to get the government to ban the VCR? No? Well, most people don’t remember it because movie studios lost. And did movie studios go under because of the VCR? No. They adapted.
Technology has changed, Entertainment Industry. Instead of trying to control freedom of information and innovation, why don’t you try to maximize your profits by adapting to the new reality of life?
Anyway, the Elders of the Internet found out about SOPA and told the rest of us. Then a great many people who use the interwebs and don’t want to put up with censorship threw a fit and fell in it. What effect did this have on the clueless politicians who were letting Entertainment lobbyists tell them what to think and how to vote? Well, it scared the shit out of them, of course. Look how many left the dark side and openly joined the anti-censorship crusade:
Neat, huh? The will of the people actually had an effect on the officials elected to represent them! (For a change!)
The more information that gets disseminated, the more people that can fight for or against something. It makes for a better, smarter democracy. That’s why the internet needs to stay unfettered by special interests or any other species of controlling asshats.
However, we have not won. SOPA is only ‘on hold’. The Entertainment Industry and the politicians it has bought are hoping to sneak this goat blowing censorship back in when public outrage has died down. So we need, in the words of Mad-eye Moody, to have “constant vigilance!” if we are going to keep our freedoms.
So pay attention. Turns out there will be a quiz.
Fabulous! Now if the movie industry could just concentrate on making better movies….
It has been called the third “netizen” movement (B of A and Verizon deals were first, and a wee bit smaller). I am so proud to have been a part of this!
Julie