UPDATE: It appears yesterday’s black-out and anti-PIPA/SOPA campaigns really paid off everyone! Congrats! Read the article by the New York Times here, which shows how monumental this was for new economy to rise up against the old and prove that the way business is done in Washington is rapidly changing. One Senator, Jeff Merkley (Democrat of Oregon), even was quoted on twitter as saying
“Thanks for all the calls, e-mails, and tweets. I will be opposing #SOPA and #PIPA,”
Click Here For NY Times Article Today
Click Here To Read Full GMAD Educational Post on SOPA
If you have a TV, read online articles, use the internet, or talk to another human … you’ve probably at least heard of SOPA, even if you have no idea what it is. Well in short, it is a new proposed bill (still only a proposed bill), that if it became law, would allow the government and major corporations to “filter” the internet based on who was doing an “acceptable” job monitoring copyright infringements. The tough part is, now a days copyright infringement is everywhere, its grey areas keep getting larger, and its definition is constantly changing. With the internet, came people wanting to share other artists works (pictures, songs, videos, and more). In some regards it is illegal (distributing copyrighted music for free), but in other cases it is free speech (blogs, videos, FREE MUSIC). Across the world some websites are taking a stand and joining a black-out (google, wordpress, wikipedia) to raise awareness for SOPA and prevent it from every being passes. Instead of doing that, we at GMAD decided to give you a basic educational lesson so you can form your own thoughts as young adults. Here are 2 videos
1. This video is a basic overview, in about 4 minutes, of what SOPA is. A must-watch for anyone just now learning about the topic.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
2. This is a video by Dan Bull called “SOPA Cabana” and is a well played music video describing a world in the future in which SOPA was passed and our grandkids asked us of the time of the internet.
So it seems over the last couple weeks the anti-SOPA movement has been able to gain a lot of momentum, thanks to powerhouses like Wikipedia, Google, WordPress, and more. The original hearings for SOPA in November and December didn’t go well for SOPA advocates as constant addendums were being brought up. The bill still is waiting to be re-drafted and more and more addendums are being added. They were supposed to have another meeting this month, but it looks like it’s pushed back to February for now. The most important thing to know, is that this isn’t even officially a bill yet to be voted on. It still has a long way to gom but it is a dangerous concept. Keep reading and educating yourself so we can be a generation to think for ourselves!
If you want to learn more: An article by the BBC about the blackouts (click here), and an article by Forbes comparing it to past issues (click here).
Feel The Need To Write To Congress?
CLICK HERE
