The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is dangerous to the Internet.
It is also dangerous to all online businesses and anybody who voices an opinion on the Internet. I’m guessing that includes you.
Here’s a good video that explains what SOPA is all about (hat tip to Salty Droid):
Tens of thousands of people have already spoken out against SOPA.
But now there is a new threat: the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
PIPA is as bad or worse than SOPA.
As I write this, both bills are on the table. Whether one passes or both pass, it will have far-reaching negative impacts on the Internet.
Here are two good editorials about PIPA. I recommend you read both.
In the second article, Amanda Peyton describes what she discovered when she called Senator Schumer’s office (Charles Schumer is one of the co-sponsors of PIPA). She writes:
The first question I asked was “why does the Senator support this legislation?”
The guy on the other end of the phone said: “well, he’s a co-sponsor so he’s not changing his position.”
He must have known why I was calling.
Asked the same question again. This time the reply I got this time was different: “Senator Schumer is in favor of censoring the internet.”
This is the real issue. It is not about piracy. It is about censorship.
The stated reason for the bill is to stop piracy. This is because most people will be in favor of stopping piracy, so this is what is pitched to the public.
But the real reason for the bill is censorship… the ability to control what is said (or not said) on the Internet. Almost nobody in the U.S. will support censoring the Internet, which is why the real reason is kept secret.
I imagine some will find this duplicity surprising, but it’s “business as usual” in D.C.
Politicians do they same thing to drum up support for wars. They tell the public that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction; but what they really want is to preserve the status of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
Later the truth comes out that Iraq never had WMD. Of course, by then it is too late.
And so it goes.
If we don’t do our part to stop SOPA and PIPA now, the Internet will never be the same.
With that in mind, please share this post on Facebook and Twitter… and keep hounding your representatives. Thanks.
-Ryan M. Healy
About Ryan M. Healy
Ryan Healy is a direct response copywriter. Since 2002, he has worked with scores of clients, including BoostCTR, Alex Mandossian, Terry Dean, and Pulte Homes. He writes a popular blog about copywriting, advertising, and business growth, has been featured in publications like Feed Front magazine, and is a regular contributor to WordStream.com, BoostCTR.com, and MarketingForSuccess.com.
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The scary thing about these bills, is where does it end?
Same with the Patriot Act. Where does the slippery slope
go too far to fast?
With bills like this, it’s just getting started.
That’s the thing… it doesn’t stop. The government, like any business, seeks to expand its powers as far as possible, as fast as possible.
It’s my opinion that the role of government must first be defined. Then the people must strictly confine the government’s activities to its definition.
Hey, I can wish, can’t I? :-)
Ryan
The role of government is defined in the US Constitution. The problem is we have representatives of the special interests, not the individual rights and liberties of the people.
Exactly. The definition is meaningless if politicians aren’t confined to it.
One thing that really gets me heated about bills like these is that while a majority of Americans protest the passing of the bill… what power do we have over getting what we want?
The bills can pass regardless of what the people say or want. Isn’t the government’s job merely to protect our freedom? What ever happened to “for the people BY THE PEOPLE”?
Washington D.C. is no longer “the people”… Washington D.C. is more like the enemy in my opinion… the people in office are a bunch of rabid dogs that are completely out of control, resorting to surveillance and censorship tactics so they can keep building more power and weakening the people’s say so on what goes on.
When Amanda Peyton called Senator Schumer’s office to express her dissatisfaction with the bill, she asked the guy on the other end of the phone how many people had called in to support the bill.
His answer? NONE. But the man did say they’d received hundreds of calls from people opposing the bill.
And yet Schumer was not going to even consider changing his position.
It’s really crazy. Politicians are not “representatives” of the people, but rather autonomous law makers who seek power and wealth for themselves.
My wife’s in an industry with lots of startups on the internet selling their products. Bigger established companies are always threatening the little stay-at-home moms to shut down, with little stuff like similar brand names, similar domain names, etc. None of these mom and pop shops have money to fight legal battles, so they quickly change their business names, brands, etc. PIPA will make that even easier I bet.
I think you’re right. In fact, PIPA could potentially allow bigger companies to simply shut down smaller competitors’ sites — no threats needed.
SOPA has been pulled and PIPA has been postponed. Time to get PIPA pulled, however.
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