PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet
January 9th, 2012 by Benj EdwardsThis video may be old news to many of you, but the stakes are too high not to post this for those who might not have seen it already. I honestly wasn’t too worried about SOPA when I first heard about it because I figured the US Senate wouldn’t take something so ridiculously anti-Internet seriously. But I was mistaken — they seem to like it quite a bit, and SOPA may very well be passed into law soon.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
Everything we know and love about the Internet today will change if SOPA is signed into law. I will have to take down my articles on ROM hacking and suppress discussion of emulation, for example, or face the possibility that VC&G will forced off the web. Heck, I might even end up in jail. With SOPA, freedom of speech will be suppressed and the Web will become one giant glazed-over commercial for McDonalds.
We can’t let one misguided law castrate one of humanity’s greatest inventions in the name of preventing the unauthorized copying of entertainment media. If you like reading VC&G, tell your local representatives today that you do not support SOPA and will hold them accountable if they support it themselves.
January 9th, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for posting about this. This is one of the most important proposed laws out there that everyone needs to learn about, it will effect everyone. This isn’t a democrat or republican issue, both parties are to blame for this horrible piece of legislation. There are a lot of great articles out on the internet about it right now, I’ve read quite a few at Boing Boing.
January 9th, 2012 at 12:37 pm
Glad you think so, Eagles409. When a law about to be passed threatens the very existence of this blog, I figure it’s on-topic.
January 10th, 2012 at 1:36 pm
About two weeks ago, upon seeing a detailed descriptive video on the subject, I ended up writing to my congressman. Something tells me that Im not the only one who has.
This website is probably one of my favorite sources of vintage computer curiosities, and Ill be damned if I let it die on my watch. In the event of the worst happening with SOPA and PIPA, it has been an honor enjoying your content for the past few years.
Thank you.
January 11th, 2012 at 8:21 am
I just finished writing & sending a rather long letter to my area’s representative… Sad to say, considering some of the more messed-up federal legislation that has been passed in the last decade, plus the amount of corruption that’s now the norm, I really doubt we’re going to ‘win’ on this one (and I’m normally not a defeatist person).
January 15th, 2012 at 2:51 pm
Funny trivia: SOPA roughly translates into GARBAGE in swedish. (Could also mean sweeping, but that’s not nearly as fun…)
Hope the law is thrown out. There are some strange things happening right now. The radio reported today that England will allow the U.S. to bring an englishman to america to prosecute him. The crime? Linking to sites that have copyrighted material.
I find it horrible that the english justice system can allow them to grab this kid/man/whatever, rip him from his home and loved ones, transport him across the ocean to a country he has never even visited to have him prosecuted for something that is done on a much larger scale by Google and other search engines.
Equally horrible is the thought of a world where the U.S. can enforce its laws everywhere.
January 16th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
I find it ironic that Hillary Clinton is sent all over the world telling other countries not to censor their internet and yet we’re trying to censor our own. Benj, have you considered joining the web blackout on January 18th? I know quite a few pretty big sites are going black that day, with only a message about SOPA and a way to contact your congressman. I found this quote which I think captures this whole thing really well…
Consumer Electronics Association president Gary Shapiro, at his CES keynote: “[SOPA is championed by] politicians who are proudly unfamiliar with how the internet works, but who are well familiar with favors from well-heeled copyright extremists.”
January 17th, 2012 at 11:38 am
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/17/stop-pipa-bar-for-your-website.html
January 17th, 2012 at 7:47 pm
Vintage Computing and Gaming will be going dark tomorrow, Jan 18th, in protest of SOPA/PIPA.