What the Hell is SOPA?

As a writer and blogger, I should be against piracy and copyright violation, right? One would think ... but there's a lot more going on with SOPA than appears on the surface. 

And if you think it's no big deal because you didn't see it on TV this morning, think again: 

SOPA would give both the government and major corporations the power to shut down entire websites accused of copyright infringement with neither a trial nor a traditional court hearing. The legislation is aggressively backed by Hollywood movie studios and major record labels, along with several major news providers, including Fox News and NBC-Universal, which have largely shied away from coverage of the bill.

Wonder why big media (record companies, movie companies) is for SOPA while search engines, Twitter and YouTube are against it? The Stop Online Piracy Act sounds really good, right? Who doesn't want to squelch piracy? And I don't disagree that we should squelch it -- but this is so not the way to go about it. The U.S. government is talking about mucking around with the way the entire Internet works and holding social media sites such as YouTube personally responsible for any bit of perceived copyright violation anywhere on its site, meaning it can be blocked from you if some kid in Sri Lanka uploads a dance video with copyrighted music playing in the background. If any editor on Wikipedia mucks up and doesn't make a correct citation. Bye bye, Wikipedia.

If there's piracy or copyright violation, fine them. Don't censor them. Don't shut down the entire site over what could be an accidental oversight. Who do we think we are, China? I'm looking at you, Blunt and McCaskill. (Currently both senators are for PIPA, the Senate equivalent.) 

Guess who might like that to happen? Maybe companies that don't want the competition?

As a writer, I value building on others' work. Often I'm inspired by someone else's post, and quote a bit of it to riff on it. A fair use bit, as defined by the law. How do you riff a little on a video or song? How do you participate in culture when that participation could be deemed harmful enough to block a website for everyone before a trial even happens? Have we all gone insane? There is true piracy and there is misunderstanding the law, and this legislation doesn't give a shit which one you do -- you can have your DNS address delisted without a trial for suspicion of wrongdoing. 

And OH MY GOD HOW MANY TRIALS WILL THIS ADD? What about the people who can't afford to lawyer up? Bye bye, website.

And the scariest part is that the lawmakers voting on it don't even understand how the Internet works. 

If this freaks you the hell out, there's a list of things you can do and even more background up on BlogHer today, which is not blacked out because this legislation is so important to the community's livelihoods and more. Knowledge is power -- please speak your mind today.