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STOP SOPA January 18 2012
If you search on Google today, or research something on Wikipedia, you’ll notice these sites “blacked out”. These websites, along with many others, have come together in protest of SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act that is making its way to Congress. The US government has been facing increasing pressure from the entertainment industry to find some method of stopping online piracy that is allowing people to own copies of their material for free. That’s fair. Original content must be protected. But not in this manner.
In a nutshell, the US Attorney General can seek a court order that would force search engines, advertisers, payment processors, et al to stop having any contact with allegedly infringing websites. It will allow the studios, for example, to create a personal hit list of websites they feel are breaking their copyright policies.
Going off a feeling can basically shut me down?
While American intellectual property deserves protection, that protection must be won and defended in a way that does not stifle innovation, and erode due process under the law. As a blogger, I’m at risk. My freedom of speech is essentially taken away. Under SOPA, I would fear censorship because one time or another I posted Nike’s logo, or a picture of Natalie Portman from Black Swan. SOPA is vague enough to accuse that as copyright infringement, and then boom, I’m finito. As an artist manager, I’m at risk. My artists have sampled songs, they’ve covered songs, and their work is on YouTube for the world to see. Under SOPA, YouTube could be on the blacklist and my artists and I could very well face legal problems from either the video site, the record label, or both.
The US congress is therefore fighting an open frontier of information, inspiration, thought, and expression. They are in effect fighting innovation, and the future Peter Thiels and Mark Zuckerbergs to create the new status quo. The internet is what it is right now because something like SOPA (and its twisted way of doing things) did not exist prior. Internet governance has long been a topic of consideration and debate. And guess what, it doesn’t work. SO STOP.
If you disagree with SOPA and feel that it could adversely affect you and your business, please take time to exercise civic duty and contact your local representative HERE.
Now let me end this with a quote I read from Jim Jarmusch (who, ironically, is a film director). “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.’”
Hey SOPA, you see what I did right there?!?!
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