So some of you might be thinking, “Wait a minute... Why are some sites looking kinda funny today?” Well my friends you may have heard of a little acronym floating around called SOPA. No, that’s not a typo, we’re not discussing soap today. SOPA/PIPA or, Stop Online Piracy Act/Protect IP Act, sounds like a good idea right? We all get it, we have seen the commercials that pirating movies and music is theft just as much as stealing a car is. But here's the thing ladies and gents, this isn’t the only thing SOPA’s going to affect.
Now my audience has been to high school, lots of you have been to a post secondary institute and from this we have learned plagiarism is wrong. Have your own ideas and if you need to use someone else’s ideas then cite it and give credit where credit is due. I mean, if you came up with a great idea and someone else took it and told everyone it was their's, you’d be pretty pissed. So as long as we respect each others intellectual property we should be fine, right? Well this is where SOPA says uh-uh.
If this bill is passed, the government will possibly shut down websites for using ANY intellectual property that is not the author of the websites original property. Okay wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s break it down. Intellectual property is;
"The ownership of ideas and control over the tangible or virtual representation of those ideas. Use of another person's intellectual property may or may not involve royalty payments or permission, but should always include proper credit to the source. " www.Dictionary.com
Which is a fancy way of saying you own the original ideas you produce and therefore your idea could be copyrighted or patented and every time somebody uses your idea you could get paid. CHA-CHING!
So what does this have to do with SOPA? If SOPA is passed, sites that use images which are not considered their own intellectual property could be removed from the internet. Now this sounds a lot like they’re infringing on our freedom of speech, but using the “piracy is stealing” school of thought - they could get away with this. The internet was created to share ideas and information, key word SHARE. If sites are removed because of SOPA then our information on things might only come from one source and what if this source is wrong? Hey it happens!
If you’re curious as to how this would affect you personally, let’s think about what sites you use regularly that would cease to exist, or be censored to massive extents.
Facebook, Youtube, Gawker, Technorati, Twitter, Wikipedia, Google, Blogger, and so much more. Thats right everyone, if SOPA passes then blogs like yours and mine could be removed from the internet!
Now you may be asking, “Well what can I do?!” If you’re an American citizen, I urge you to visit this site (http://americancensorship.org/) and ask them "PLEASE DON’T DO THIS!" If you’re not living in the United States... Well, do this! Post, blog, share, speak up and speak out! This is serious folks and despite the fact it is happening in the States, it WILL affect countries world wide, hence the World Wide Web.
If you’re still confused I have posted some great links to help explain the possible crisis we have brewing (also would possibly not be allowed if SOPA passes, by the way). Enjoy!
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