Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Stop Censorship!! Stop the SOPA/PIPA bills!

These bills supposedly will stop piracy of movies and music.

What they will really do:

Give the government more power, without solving the problem.

There will always be people who choose to break the law.

From Wikipedia:

"Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites.[5] They cite examples such as Google's $500 million settlement with the Department of Justice for its role in a scheme to target U.S. consumers with ads to illegally import prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies.[6]

"Opponents say that it violates the First Amendment,[7] is Internet censorship,[8] will cripple the Internet,[9] and will threaten whistle-blowing and other free speech actions.[7][10] Opponents have initiated a number of protest actions, including petition drives, boycotts of companies that support the legislation, and planned service blackouts by English Wikipedia and major Internet companies scheduled to coincide with the next Congressional hearing on the matter."

This is what concerns me, as being dangerous:

"The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months."

So, a person listens to 10 songs within 6 months, and ends up in prison with murderers. On what planet does this make any sense? You know some idiot judge and/or jury will do it. Think of the thieves who have been awarded settlements because they sued their victims for shooting them or doing some other bodily harm. When I lived in Thailand, the only music available was black market. Really. You could not buy original movies or music. So are all those people going to be put in jail? The insanity of this legislation is mind boggling.

3 comments:

  1. Whoo hoo! You go girl...

    I asked my readers not to open my website yesterday as part of the strike... some did, but at least they saw my posting against the bills and hopefully became better citizens.

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  2. I stole your title. :-) It's important information.

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  3. Thanks for sharing the information.

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