• Wash It Away

  Filed under A Dude's Guide to Doing Good, A Dude's Guide to Life, Me Picking Fights
  Jan 17

  by Richard

  There’s some pretty heinous bills wending their way toward passage in the US House and Senate. Okay, sure, when aren’t there some heinous bills wending their way to passage there? It’s not a very nice place these days that’s for sure.

  However, what I’m talking about in particular has some bad, bad news in them for dudes and dudettes like you.

  I’m talking SOPA and PIPA.

  Using the idea of online piracy, the US House and Senate are about to enact legislation that would allow Big Content, record companies, publishers, movie studios and the like, to control what you see or can access on the internet. How’s this for draconian?

  Let’s say I link to a site because it’s got support for some argument I’m making. Unfortunately, what I didn’t know was that one time this site had published a link to a site that offered downloadable content that was in violation of copyright. Oops. Now the government can take the name of this site. I could go to jail. I would have to pay a fine. All sorts of bad stuff.

  And that’s pretty much the least of these appalling acts.

  I’m sorry, but no amount of piracy is worth the gag and filter these acts would put on the internet. This is just another step by the power-mongers in Congress to take complete control of yet one more aspect of our lives. Freedom of information is a powerful tool in the arsenal of a free citizenry. Without it, the Arab Spring wouldn’t have occurred.

  Big Content haven’t just declared war on Boing Boing and Reddit and the rest of the “fun” Internet: they’ve declared war on every person who uses the net to publicize police brutality, every oppressed person in the Arab Springwho used the net to organize protests and publicize the blood spilled by their oppressors, every abused kid who used the net to reveal her father as a brutalizer of children, every gay kid who used the net to discover that life is worth living despite the torment she’s experiencing, every grassroots political campaigner who uses the net to make her community a better place — as well as the scientists who collaborate online, the rescue workers who coordinate online, the makers who trade tips online, the people with rare diseases who support each other online, and the independent creators who use the Internet to earn their livings.

  The contempt for human rights on display with SOPA and PIPA is more than foolish. Foolishness can be excused. It’s more than greed. Greed is only to be expected. It is evil, and it must be fought.

  That comes from Cory Doctorow, noted novelist and a blogger for boingboing.net. And he’s absolutely right.

  It’s up to us to kill this bill because the congresscritters sure won’t, especially considering Big Content is all about giving each of the congresscritters some pretty substantial campaign contributions as long as SOPA and PIPA pass.

  Do what you can. Call your legislators and demand they do not support these heinous bills.

  In support of this anti-SOPA and anit-PIPA actions, this is the last you’ll see from us for a couple of days. We’re going dark tomorrow, as are various other sites, to simulate what would happen if these bills pass. So why not take the time you’d normally waste spend reading us, and use it to call your representative? That, at least, will be time well spent.

  • Spread the word, dude!

  Tags: A Dude's Guide to Doing Good, A Dude's Guide to Life, Acts, All Sorts, Arab, Arsenal, Bad News, Bad Stuff, Blogger, Campaigner, children, Citizenry, Complete Control, Congress, Contempt, Control, Creators, dude, Dude's, Dudettes, Freedom Of Information, Gag, Gay Kid, internet, Me Picking Fights, Mongers, Novelist, Oppressors, Piracy, Police Brutality, Protests, public, Publishers, Reddit, richard, Scientists, Senate, Torment
  
  Tagged as: Acts, All Sorts, Arab, Arsenal, Bad News, Bad Stuff, Blogger, Campaigner, children, Citizenry, Complete Control, Congress, Contempt, Control, Creators, dude, Dude's, Dudettes, Freedom Of Information, Gag, Gay Kid, internet, Mongers, Novelist, Oppressors, Piracy, Police Brutality, Protests, public, Publishers, Reddit, richard, Scientists, Senate, Torment
  
  1 Comment

One Response to “Wash It Away”

1. 

   Oscar said on January 30th, 2012 at 2:27 am

   Quality tips! I have been searching for something such as this for some time finally. With thanks!