So, let’s talk about SOPA and PIPA.
It’s a trendy topic right now because the bill is looming and dancing around in Congress, rearing it’s ugly mug. The Stop Online Piracy Act started out with good intentions, as I imagine most bills do. Someone thought, “Hey! Let’s make a law to stop online piracy so these RIAA guys will quit their bitching about not making enough millions!”. Naturally, this spiraled out of control and extra crap got added on to where it basically would allow anyone that holds a copyright to force hosting companies and ISPs themselves to take down and block a website that is displaying their copyrighted content.
The thing is, the web is almost built on other people’s content. That’s what the web is really. Sharing content. Most people don’t have the ill intent of “pirating” anyone’s content in a mustache-twirling spat of villainy to make millions of dollars off of someone’s song or movie. Naturally, the copyright holders don’t see that because they’re pissed that Suzy Smith can fire up uTorrent or Grooveshark and grab a song instead of going to Walmart and buying a highly overpriced CD of her favorite rap “artist”.
Needless to say, these bills are bad for everyone (except the copyright holders obviously). That’s why today, Janurary 18th, many websites such as Google, Wikipedia and Craigslist are doing a blackout and shutting down their websites to raise awareness. Everyone is encouraged to contact their representatives to raise Hell about putting an end to these bills before our internet access starts looking like communist China’s. Here’s a link for more information on SOPA/PIPA directly from Wikipedia. You can keep an eye on SOPA here and PIPA here.
The free world of the internet is under attack. That’s bad for business, especially if you’re an internet marketer as sharing content and having basically free reign to expand our business online is the core of what makes us money and allows us to do what we do. Even the Bieb is in danger! Remember, he got famous by singing covers of artist’s song on YouTube. Bad Bieber.
