A Thorny Topic
Today I joined in with sites like Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, and NewMexiKen by blacking out my site in protest of SOPA and PIPA.
I did this with a LOT of mixed emotions.
Regular readers will remember that last February I had one of my photographs swiped by the San Francisco Giants organization. They deliberately cropped off the copyright watermark and used my image for a Valentine’s Day ecard.
One little blogger up against an MLB Franchise.
I was unhappy, and then I had to become Zen about it.
With that in mind, I seriously believe SOMETHING needs to be done about IP theft on the internet.
However…
To quote the well known New Mexican pundit, Heath Haussamen, on his site NMPolitics.net:
“While protecting intellectual property rights is a worthy goal, this legislation is not the way to do it.”
As originally drafted, the legislation was, in my opinion, “right idea, wrong implementation.”
As of yesterday, the White House said that bills in that current state would get vetoed, and so perhaps there is hope.
It’s hard for me to trust that this current sitting Congress will do the right thing when partisan squabbles separate them on almost every issue imaginable.
So for now we wait, and hope that the needs of IP protection and the needs of free speech can find a comfortable place to meet. And maybe have a cup of coffee and a scone.
Find out more at americancensorship.org or the video below.
Comments
Ephraim F. Moya
Chica,
What is the wording of a bill you would support?
I can’t think of any. Yet there remains the fact that there are BILLIONS of people looking around on the internet for stuff to copy.
The Creative Commons license gives viewers the right to use the material for ANY reason as long as you attribute it.
“Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)” ?
Any lawyer will tell you that that means FREE (even if you get caught).
Somehow the law’s going to have to account for the attributes of the channel.
Regards,
El Abogado Popular
mugwort
I believe SOPA and IPIP can be compared to a sledgehammer hitting a flea. Not that internet piracy is comparable to a flea. What I mean is this approach to prevent net piracy very well be with good intentions. It is problematic since in the goal of its intent it can destroy many major web sites. Examples youtube, and every other video site. Reddit, Digg, Experience Project, Formspring, Twitter etc. This is because these sites use material from other sources. I propose a solution. Why not just enforce putting quotations marks or write in or otherwise post the source of the content? If one is unwilling to do this then the material is not published.