Tangent to fandom (dirty politics)

[sunken_standard]

At midnight, the English language version of Wikipedia (along with reddit and a host of other sites) is going dark for 24 hours in response to SOPA and PIPA. 

I don't want to soapbox or alienate anyone with my politics, but if either of these bills pass, we can kiss LJ, Dreamwidth, AO3, FFN, YouTube, DeviantArt, and any and all other sites that host fanworks goodbye.  So if you're in the US, email (or better yet) call your Reps and Senators and make some noise, or take it further if you're so inclined.  Facebook isn't doing anything official, but there's this. 

I can't help but see a completely Orwellian future ahead of us if this is signed into US law. 

Comments

[madder-badder.livejournal.com]

I am not in the US, but yeah, no. SOPA is crap, and probably unenforceable in reality, but it's the principle of the thing. Intellectual property is a fiction at best, a lie at worst.

[sunken-standard.livejournal.com]

The possibility for selective enforcement is what scares me the most. Remember the DDS attacks on LJ last year over one political blogger? The reverse could happen here legally, dressed up as "copyright infringement." They'd only have to take a few sites down to cripple a movement or sway opinions. Imagine if Twitter had been forced to go dark for even a few hours when Arab Spring was happening.

I mean, I know it sounds like tinfoil hat conspiracy shit, but I honestly don't trust my government to protect anything but the finacial interests of a very small group of people.

[madder-badder.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's nothing tin-foily about it. Big business runs everything.