I’m not going to black out my blog, because, let’s face it, who’s going to notice? But for all six of you who read this (and, of course, you Mom), I do want to point out that these are horrific bad bills. They are sponsored by Democrats and Republicans, so party affiliation shouldn’t enter into this. In this case, they’re all bad guys. And why? Greed, pure & simple. Hollywood donates millions & millions to politicians and they expect these people to stay bought and deliver on their “anit-piracy†legislation.
Don’t know anything about this? Here’s an article. Just don’t focus on SOPA. It’s the bill sponsored by the Republicans (which for some reason is the only one called out as evil…grrr). There’s also PIPA, which is the Senate equivalent sponsored by Democrat Patrick Leahy (who clearly doesn’t get it).It’s absolutely as messed up as SOPA.
Anyway, blogs all over are blacking out today (by the way, this won’t work after 1/18/2012, so don’t bother):
My favorite
The Oatmeal
Please take five minutes out of your day today to voice your opinion on these bills. I don’t care if you’re in favor of them (although if you are, I think you’re nuts), but you need to contact your representatives and make your voice heard.
No more politics. Back to your regularly scheduled SQL Server nerdery.
Grant, exactly right. Blacking out the pages does nothing unless you’re a Google/Reddit/Wikipedia level site. Instead, make more posts. Scream it on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc. Take the time to call, email, whatever your elected officials and post to them through all the channels they are going to close. Don’t black it out. Fill it up!
Paul
The best way to fight the supression of speech is with more speech.
The Oatmeal can still be viewed here: http://theoatmeal.com/sopa
Excellent! Thanks.
Thanks for not blacking out! Your blog is a good read – lot’s of interesting insights to be gained which I’ve shared with co-workers.
RE: the whole SOPA thing…
An interesting irony is that when Thomas Edison invented the Kinetoscope, he was, for all intensive purposes, the first person to own the copyright to a motion picture. As a result of his patents, it was nearly impossible from a financial perspective for most creative groups to create motion pictures in the Eastern United States.
A number of the major motion picture houses of the time ended up moving production facilities and head offices to the Californian West Coast because the patent rules didn’t apply there at the time. This dramatic change birthed what we know as Hollywood, and gave companies the capability to freely create, more or less, at minimal cost and legal risk.
So its a bit ironic that so many decades later the very organizations that fostered the creation of some incredible creative works (think original Disney works like Fantasia) and while doing so had to wholly circumvent immaterial rights, are now trying to push through deeply flawed bills which inherently stifle creative rights.
It’s nice to see the technical community forge together with such a strong consensus on the total insanity of these bills. I don’t think anyone worth their weight as a developer, administrator, engineer or computer scientist could argue otherwise.
Wow, thanks. And I wasn’t aware of that aspect of the founding of Hollywood.
very nice. http://www.cinemacuritiba.com