I’m sorry to divert attention away from meaningless TV news, but there’s something very real that threatens the way we use the internet. For me, it threatens my ability to make a livelihood — my very existence. Two bills that Congress is incredibly close to passing – the PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) — will grant corporations the unprecedented ability to censor the internet and crush web start-ups. Blogs and social media as you know them 
will end, and during a time when the economy needs all the help it can get, it could crush any small business that so much as allows a link to a copyrighted work.
Listen, I don’t want to go into the legalese because I can barely comprehend that something so world-shaking is actually real, but you can watch the video above and read more about it at Uproxx, BoingBoing, Lifehacker, and The Daily What. In addition, Tumblr has facilitated a way for you to get more information about the act, and will even directly connect you to your congressman or congresswoman.
If you read this site with any regularity, you know that I hate talking about politics. This isn’t about whether you’re on the right or left, it’s about basic rights that corporations want to take away from citizens. In the words of Waylon Smithers, it’s unconscionably fiendish. Don’t let the government do this.
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I work in the entertainment industry, and if its one thing I learned, is that, if they perceive you as a threat (real or imagined, they won’t stop until you’re homeless on the street. Its not like they have anything else to do all day, besides coke and greenlighting a new reality show.
Whoa. We’re still gonna get free porn, right? Right?
Aren’t the internet giants like Facebook or Google fighting this? Okay, so Google didn’t initially cover itself in glory in China but seeing as they own YouTube, you would think a Bill like this would be bad for business.
I’m 100% with you on this Matt. Get the word out.
I called on this, the Tumblr direct connection works great. I would suggest anyone who calls be sure to look up their congress persons name and have a the statement you would like to make written down before you call.
How dare the government treat the internet like every other form of entertainment and communications!
As someone who got an A in Copyright Law [shines apple on lapel], I declare this to be bullshit of the highest order.
Seriously, sign those petitions. Censorship and due process are kinda important subjects, and deserve the 15 seconds it’ll take.
Jeebus, can’t Congress do ANYTHING right??? The situation, if it requires any legislative action at all, should only involve a scalpel, but Congress insists on using a Claymore.
The fact that we have 60+ year old life time Senators voting on this scares the shit out of me since they dont even understand what the fuck they are voting on other than cashing the check the entertainment lobby writes for them.
Something I noticed that is strange, today I have posted a few links on facebook to different things, be it on my page or in the comments a friend was making, and everything worked just as normal, but as soon as I posted that tumblr link, it popped a captcha up.
Already signed. How is something like this getting anywhere close to passing. How has someone, anyone not stood up during these talks and said, “This is shitting on the 1st Amendment right?” and than everyone agrees and watches Game Of Thrones Death Montages. This is how it works in congress right? All arguments end in watching sweet Game Of Thrones vids. I can dream can’t I. But in all seriousness this is complete bullshit.
@ troi
Here’s the thing: you’re ignorant. First of all, the way the government *already* treats other forms of entertainment and communications is bullshit. Large scale copyright holders have leaned on Congress for a long time to stretch the power they originally had, to the point now that they can shut your shit down with punitive damages for innocent mistakes or minor infractions with barely any room for you to mount a counterargument.
Second of all, the Internet is unlike “every other form of entertainment and communications.” It’s a hybrid of the two that moves exponentially faster than either. To try to govern it under the old, antiquated framework is like trying to ram a basketball into a shot glass. It’s a tool that gives the whole world the ability to communicate with each other in real time. While, on one hand, that means people get to see kitty GIFs on my Tumblr, it also means sites like Twitter, Tumblr, and Youtube can be used by individuals as a means to social and economic change. And, quite frankly, I don’t want the large corporations that are already influencing the government to have that much of a say in the way the tools we use to discuss them are operated.
Finally, this kind of censorship is the kind used to stifle the Internet in China and Iran. I don’t want to be in bed with them on ANY issues relating to freedom.
Thanks for your time,
Angry DG
I get that they’re trying to fight piracy, which is fine. But this is way too overreaching and craps all over the concept of fair use. It’s pretty easy to see where corporations would abuse this to take down stuff that makes them look bad.
Speaking of our fucked up copyright laws you’re not supposed to sing “Happy Birthday” in public:
[www.snopes.com]
@themodwriter Same happened to me on FB.
@dangerguerrero
Of course I’m ignorant I am commenting on a blog. I am willing to accept that this bill is bullshit. But I don’t have to believe the Orwellian fever dream that the internet is having about it. Companies are not going to just shut down every little blog or twitter account that happens to infringe on their copyright. What they will do is what they do now and ask the blog to stop. Now if that blog refuses or infringes on copyright constantly then the company would use the nuclear option and have the offending blog shut down. I think that this kind of bill is inevitable, entertainment companies are losing too much money for the government to just do nothing.
Also to compare this bill to what China ans Iran do is just idiotic. In those countries the government shuts down and jails people for saying things that may in some way be construed as anti-government. This bill would just shut down people who continually steal from them.
Thanks for the info. I did a little reading and did the e-mail to congress thing. My first, if truth be told. I expect a boilerplate response and then for the congresswomen (All my reps women right now) to vote the way they were going to vote anyway, but at least I can then vote for or against them with a clean concience.
If they don’t want to go along with me on this then I feel justified in voting them out. Conversely, this is probably the one thing that would keep them in office for me.
@troi – I cannot fathom, after the last decade, how you can glibly comment on how we can trust corporations to responsibly police themselves & others. Are you high?
Orwellian? Prolly fucking not. Internet-as-we-know-it-breaking? Fucking right.
-210
@ troi
This is beyond an “Internet fever dream.” Almost universally, the most prominent voices in intellectual property law and policy have shit all over this bill as it relates to censorship and due process. And the fact that it is “inevitable” doesn’t mean anyone has to take it lying down. I don’t particularly give a shit if entertainment companies are losing money, especially if the response is a wide reaching bill like this that craps all over progress and individual rights.
And my point on the China and Iran thing is about opening a door to web censorship. We’re giving a WHOLE LOT of power over the tools we use for speech to the mass copyright holders who use their influence like a hammer. Censorship is censorship, regardless of the extent of the punishment.
Looks like the biggies have been getting involved in the fight: [www.guardian.co.uk]
You tell ‘em, DG. I’m glad you’re on our side.
God dammit this pisses me off. Use this legislature as proof positive that the government does not work for you, but rather the mega corporations that line congress’ pockets and gets them re-elected. Your representatives, your senators, they don’t give a shit about you in any way shape, or form.
Any Idea what this would be passed or when the vote to pass it is going down?
I have to side with Danger here…he does have the credentials to back it all up.
I did my part I guess, even though my old ass representatives already gave me a voice mail and auto reply to my letter. Snail mail is too slow on top of that because they closed our local post office center.
I am kind of surprised Sen. Leahey is a sponsor on this, since he has a strong reputation as a supporter of the First Amendment, including being sensitive to the dangers of chilling effects.
@Troi: The truth is that allowing corporations or the government to impose penalties without due process and a (theoretically) neutral arbiter is a recipe for abuse, and even if everyday users aren’t the first to be targeted the fear of being swept up in this will stifle a lot of speech.
1984 is a masterful book, but one problem is Big Brother is obviously evil to anyone who isn’t willfully ignorant. In the real world tomorrow’s police state often starts as a reasonable sounding request to a plausible sounding threat, then once it gets rolling it is almost impossible to slow, let alone roll back.
I don’t live in the U.S but I am terrified of the snow ball effect this will have around the world. Stupid cocksucker politicians and big businesses deciding what we can and cannot do,hear, listen to, learn, watch, take part in, understand or just know that it exists. Huge over-reaching censorship laws is a scary major step in the direction of complete governmental control. It has always been the case in dictatorships.As has been said b4, this is more Aldous Huxley than George Orwell. Keep the truth from the masses by filling the void with nonsensical drivel.
My one hope is that those on the right side of the issue are more intelligent and manoeuvrable than big business and can react with ease to any unwieldy censorship and legislation.Generally government and business are years behind the cutting edge of technology, at least they have been when it comes to the internet.
Maybe that’s about to change. That would suck serious cock.
I can’t find any support for this bill in WSJ or any of my other communications from my dark, conservative overlords. Won’t your hip, blackberry addict, super-smart, constitutional-law expert president just veto this stupid bill? Oh, he’s supportive of it? Why do you think that is?
Fire them all. I vote for none of the above.
Except for Wyden. That guy’s the real deal. Good job Oregon
[www.politico.com]
This whole thing is antithetical to constitutionalism (i.e. – American Conservatism). I know you don’t like politics on this blog (and correctly so) but I think a lot of misinformed leftists are going to get a lesson on the true purposes of Big Government. As in all spheres, Govt regulations always serve to prop up the establishment – because only the establisment has the money and the connections to afford them. “Leahey is sensitive to the dangers of chilling effects” – gimmie a break; wake up and try getting your views of politics from outside a college campus.
@ SilentCalvin
This ain’t a left/right thing. I could paint it as either, easy.
Right: This is big government infringing on our individual rights.
Left: This is what happens when the free market runs amok and large corporations use their influence to act in a government capacity.
This is fucked on a more basic level. It’s not about scoring points, homeboy.
I think you are wrong – it is exactly a left / right thing (in fact that is the heart of the matter), but I guess I was trying to score points, not the place for it – so I’ll quit. My apologies.
Damnet Danger I am in 100% agreement with you. SilentCalvin if you take a look at the supporters it is on both sides. Which sucks.
@SilentCalvin : I was going to write almost exactly what you said until I saw how well you put it.
This is just one more example of the current gang’s willingness to govern by fiat, or czar, or whatever foreign-sounding word you want to use for “people who are connected to government making you do shit you don’t want to do just because they say so.”
Now that it’s going to affect your Game of Thrones montages, will you finally wake the fuck up and realize what it’s doing to your job, your health care, your freedom?
Sorry, enough politics. Bring on the Alison Brie GIF’s, while you still can.
I would just like to share some info from what I’ve found in the last few minutes about the Protect IP bill’s author Patrick Leahy.
Leahy’s top campaign contributors include Walt Disney, Time Warner, Vivendi ( a French based entertainment corporation) and Girardi and Keese a lawfirm which specializes in what type of law? IP infringement? You don’t say? They must have nothing to gain from a legislation that will broaden their ability to sue some of the biggest social networking sites in the world.
Leahy’s top contributor is a company called Technet which apparently from their own website is: “We are the policy and political network of CEOs and Senior Executives that promotes the growth of technology and the innovation economy.”
Just to let you know that this is complete bullshit.
*angry rant about the RIAA’s extremism*
I also oppose this bill.
@Chick Magnet
I see that you posted one minute before Bulk’s post, but take a look at that and tell me that this is all Big Government’s fault. Danger’s right, this is beyond blue and red.
Just signed and also spread the word. This is scary stuff. Tacos is right, it’s always completely reasonable to start out. The frog in the boiling water and all that.
The problem is that they’ve already gotten bad without this law in place. The most blatent example being the five to six-figure lawsuits doled out for downloading a dozen or so MP3s. No way the RIAA could settle at a reasonable fine or use the internet themselves before Apple forced the issue.
There’s also lables not knowing the difference between bootlegging and promotion. Drake tried to leak a free track this summer and Universal made sure to block every link out there due to “piracy concerns.” And this is a dude who got his buzz and record deal from releasing a free online mixtape.
Corporations have delivered misguided overreactions to piracy for years. I don’t need Congress enabling them.
Yeah, this bill sucks, but this site would hardly be enough impetus for me to act since it’s basically a right-wing bashing site to begin with.
“If you read this site with any regularity, you know that I hate talking about politics.” And yet, shit gets posted all the time ripping the right and NEVER the left.
@Yukon: I don’t think you are being fair.
Are the bulk of articles and comments on this site left-leaning? Yeah, but I think that has more to do with demographics and the nature of TV than a conscious desire to be a liberal site. Matt is a 30 something who lives in Brooklyn and is a member of a co-op (Seriously Matt, a co-op? Jesus), it makes sense he is going to see the world a little left, same with most of the commenters, they are (I think) mostly 20-30 somethings who live in urbanish areas, they tend to be liberal. Finally, since this is a TV blog it makes sense that articles with political content drawn from TV will be on topics friendly to liberals. There is no conservative analog to the Daily Show or Colbert, so it is impossible to write articles about or inspired by them.
Also, as the token (g)libertarian (the G is for Otto) I can say the comments on most of these articles tend to be more civil and constructive than a lot of political blogs I frequent. Why don’t you join in, advocate your position, maybe change a few minds.
p.s. Alison Brie is something people of all stripes can agree on.
@keepurgardup: Oh, I know Danger’s right. I’m not talking strictly about the Obama gang any more than about the Bush gang or the Clinton gang or any particular version of Congress. I’m just saying that the oligarchy–which at the moment is in favor of turning us all into government dependents–is not on your side or mine. It’s not left or right, it’s “paid for” vs. “trying to make a living.”
@Tacos: Yes, of course this site is left-leaning, for all the reasons you so eloquently describe. I’m the most conservative poster here (prolly), but funny is funny and who the hell cares? I can laugh at Jon Stewart when he bothers to be clever, but I turn him off when he plays to the screeching left-wing trustafarians instead of coming up with something less obvious.
And more Joan Holloway Harris GIFs too, ya freakin’ Commies.