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More Stop SOPA - Vote is tomorrow
Dec. 14th, 2011 07:41 pmPopping in for a minute to post about SOPA because, according to BoingBoing: "Tomorrow, the US government will vote to have broad powers to block any site. SOPA would not only hurt free speech, it will choke off the internet workforce and its readers by taking down entire websites. Today is the only day we have left to have our voices heard. It's time to pull all stops - please make a call right now to protest censorship. Your call matters. If you don't call, SOPA will pass. If there is one call per minute into every one of our representatives, we have a chance of stalling SOPA enough so it dies for quite some time."
This post at BoinBoing will let you put in your personal info on the web page and get connected to your representative on the phone. This post at Engine Advocacy will do the same thing, or will let you send an email to your representative if you can't make it to the phone tomorrow. They will link you up to your representative if you don't know how to reach them. The email option was very easy.
In case you aren't sure what all the fuss is about, there is an excellent write-up on the bill and surrounding issues by TechDirt here. It explains the possible repercussions of the bill in plain English, and gives understandable examples. Probably my favorite part of the whole thing is the end, though, where they say:
"... the entertainment industry insists that it's in trouble. This is the same entertainment industry who has been claiming the same thing about every technological innovation ever. If they'd had their way in the past, there would be no radio, no cable TV, no VCR, no TiVo and no iPods. Do we really trust them now to create a "narrowly focused" law that will only target the really bad behaviors? We'll close it out with a few quotes from the entertainment industry over the last century discussing various technological innovations, and question why we're letting them drive PIPA and SOPA forward:
Also, I think it's terrible that the news I've gotten about SOPA and Occupy Wall Street (and other Occupy movements) has come first and most thoroughly from Twitter through the celebrities I follow. Where the hell is the media?
This post at BoinBoing will let you put in your personal info on the web page and get connected to your representative on the phone. This post at Engine Advocacy will do the same thing, or will let you send an email to your representative if you can't make it to the phone tomorrow. They will link you up to your representative if you don't know how to reach them. The email option was very easy.
In case you aren't sure what all the fuss is about, there is an excellent write-up on the bill and surrounding issues by TechDirt here. It explains the possible repercussions of the bill in plain English, and gives understandable examples. Probably my favorite part of the whole thing is the end, though, where they say:
"... the entertainment industry insists that it's in trouble. This is the same entertainment industry who has been claiming the same thing about every technological innovation ever. If they'd had their way in the past, there would be no radio, no cable TV, no VCR, no TiVo and no iPods. Do we really trust them now to create a "narrowly focused" law that will only target the really bad behaviors? We'll close it out with a few quotes from the entertainment industry over the last century discussing various technological innovations, and question why we're letting them drive PIPA and SOPA forward:
The Player Piano(That link above takes you to: A History Of Hyperbolic Overreaction To Copyright Issues: The Entertainment Industry And Technology from the the-sky-is-falling,-the-sky-is-falling dept )
“I foresee a marked deterioration in American Music…and a host of other injuries to music in its artistic manifestations by virtue – or rather by vice – of the multiplication of the various music reproducing machines” -- John Philips Sousa, 1906
The Video Cassette Recorder
"But now we are faced with a new and troubling assault on our fiscal security, on our very economic life, and we are facing it from a thing called the Video Cassette Recorder" -- MPAA President Jack Valenti in 1982
Cassette Tapes
"When the manufacturers hand the public a license to record at home...not only will the songwriter tie a noose around his neck, not only will there be no more records to tape, but the innocent public will be made accessory to the destruction of four industries" -- ASCAP, 1982
Digital Audio Tape
The Mp3 Player
“Diamond's product Rio was destined to undermine the creation of a legitimate digital distribution marketplace..." -- RIAA President Hillary Rosen in 1998
The Digital Video Recorder
"It's theft...Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming." Turner Broadcasting CEO Jaime Kellner in 2002
Also, I think it's terrible that the news I've gotten about SOPA and Occupy Wall Street (and other Occupy movements) has come first and most thoroughly from Twitter through the celebrities I follow. Where the hell is the media?