SOPA Needs Some Soap

Most people in the technical community are aware of SOPA. For those who are not, it’s the Stop Online Piracy Act that is being heavily pushed by the entertainment industry (Viacomm, MPAA, etc..). As history bears witness, almost every law put forward by the entertainment industry has little to do with the good of the people and everything to do with power, control and the good of their wallets. Contrary to the name, SOPA will not stop piracy but it will damage liberties in a very great way.

I won’t go into the gory details of SOPA here. Suffice it to say that it’s so bad a news analyst from EWeek magazine was quoted as saying, “The language of SOPA is so broad, the rules so unconnected to the reality of Internet technology and the penalties so disconnected from the alleged crimes that this bill could effectively kill e-commerce or even normal Internet use.” If you want to, you can read the full SOPA proposal here at GovTrak.

As a rule of thumb, I don’t engage in Politics (and I have no intentions of breaking that rule). I merely want point out to those who believe in technology as the savior of mankind that knowledge as a tool is still very much subject to the passions and the pride of those who hold it. Greed, lust & power are not, and never will, evolve themselves away. The internet has made us more informed but it hasn’t made us any better. SOPA is a perfect example of that.

Posted by Jon Kokko on November 23, 2011. Filed under Internet Related. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry