Seldom has a piece of proposed Internet legislation evoked as much as outcry and debate as the Stop Online Piracy Act. Over the last few weeks, hundreds of consumer and technology groups, industry associations, trade unions, free speech groups, security experts, academics and Web companies have ranged themselves on both sides of the debate.
Jaikumar Vijayan wrote a great blog post on Computerworld yesterday and even included a link to the bill.
You can read the full article here: http://blogs.computerworld.com/19286/why_sopa_deserves_a_closer_look?source=CTWNLE_nlt_wsmgnt_2011-11-17
This is more of an immediate issue for the United States, but if passed will have a great impact on Canada and the World. I wanted to share, even if just a few more people become aware.
Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! – fightforthefuture.org/pipa
PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting “creativity”. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.”
The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.
