If you have your own Tumblr, Blogspot, website or any other presence on the Internet, go to www.sopastrike.com for some instructions on how to represent the Internet community and protest against the asinine U.S pieces of legislation that are the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect-IP Act.
The fight against a corporate-controlled Internet is not over.
After today, there’s still a lot to be done, a lot of voices to reach, and a lot of action to be taken against these pieces of legislation before they’re fully KILLED. PIPA’s vote will take place on January 24th, and even if you’re not an American citizen, the internet does not have borders. Tell friends, family, American cousins, The U.S State Department, anyone who will listen.
Hollywood versus Silicon Valley – Be on the right side.
Ah, but there is no taking sides with this issue. Everyone has been exposed to online piracy and copyright infringement. Most of us have probably done it. Yes, it hurts the entertainment industry, but the the executives and lobbyists and politicians in Washington do not know the extent to which they are screwing with us—these are people of a past generation, angry at the fact that things are progressing out of their realm of understanding.
They’d rather kill technological innovation, the possibility of new start-ups, the next YouTube or Facebook, social networking, and the communication between me and you over the net, in favour of maximizing the profits that their multi-billion dollar industries make already.
In fighting against SOPA, we are PEOPLE rather than STATISTICS.
This is one fight where you can’t protest with your wallet, you must protest with your voice, because it’s what the Internet is based upon.
I like memes, you like memes, we all scream for more memes.
In the past five or so years I’ve seen Internet culture grow alongside myself and I’ve grown incredibly attached to it. It’s unique, it’s self-sufficient, and it addresses both serious issues and trivial aspects of our lives collectively, through crudely drawn faces and snapshots of silly looking people with text under them.
And yet, they’ve come to represent what it is to be on the Internet. Much of it relies on taking what’s already out there and making it our own. SOPA/PIPA would destroy that identity, and those behind it consciously seek to.
The U.S Congress will not stop, nor should you.
Just because a bill’s been shelved, doesn’t mean its gone forever. Further proposed legislation could sneak in amendments that do the same thing, only shrouded more from the public. Supporters could come out and try to work around public opinion. The high paying lobbyists from Hollywood have money to spare—and their spending it all on trying to shut us up.
My message? Don’t.
These are powerful people thinking they can abuse their power freely without consequence. A lot of the time, they can, and they do.
Make this the one time they face those consequences.
Call your representatives. Reach out through social networking. Spread word about the damage SOPA and PIPA can do to the Internet as we know it.
Join Wikipedia, Reddit, Wordpress, Google, Cheezburger Network, Minecraft, Mark Zuckerberg, BoingBoing, Craigslist, deviantart, Techdirt, Flikr, Scribd, Yahoo, StumbleUpon and the countless others in this fight. We all need you.
It’s not over yet.
www.sopastrike.com (participants)
http://americancensorship.org/
Protect your online rights and freedoms.
---The Fanboy Subconscious
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