The Jist of the AntiPiracy Bids
There are two new bills going to the lawmakers for a vote on January 24th, 2012, and they are considered to be AntiPiracy bids. However, they are going about things the wrong way and many are very upset over these bills. They are being supported by the Hollywood millionaires that claim they lose millions every year because of foreign piracy.
Of course, piracy is wrong and we don’t condone it at all, but we are very much against these AntiPiracy bids as well. Even though laws should be put in place to help limit and even eliminate the pirating of music, movies, television shows, and anything else, this is not the way to go about it.
One article described it as blowing up all the roads and paths to get to the guy selling pirated DVDs, but doing nothing to that guy. The White House is also against these AntiPiracy bids and will hopefully VETO the bills if they do pass. Here is what they had to say about this issue:
“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cyber security risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet,” three White House advisers said in a statement released Saturday.
Are the AntiPiracy Bids, SOPA and PIPA, Really That Bad?
With all the controversy that has been surrounding these two bills it is necessary to understand how bad they really are. Sure, they may benefits larger corporations like Wal-Mart and Comcast, but they don’t need any more benefits. They are already robbing the American people blind and we have never stood up to do anything about it.
These AntiPiracy bids have been compared to dictatorial moves by technology companies and they are horrible for those that love the internet the way it is. If they pass, we may lose many smaller search engines, small business websites, most of the internet marketing world (which makes up for a nice percentage of new entrepreneurs every year), Facebook, Twitter, and many other websites we have all grown to love.
We no longer get to make the decisions in a country that is supposed to have a government for the people and ran by the people. Instead, it is all about the money from the lobbyist sent to Washington D.C. by Google and other huge corporations. It is not that we don’t need some type of law in place to get rid of piracy or at least limit it, but these bills are not the right way to go about it.
They should not be going after companies that allow piracy websites to advertise or one huge one, YouTube, that is the king of pirated content and places ads right in the videos. YouTube, by the way, is owned by Google and even though Google is opposed to these bills, they are one of the major reasons these bills are potential laws in the United States.
It is not right to go after the avenues, streets, paths, and ways to get to the content, but instead, they should be going after the foreign websites that provide the content. When Napster was sued and taken down, did they go after the people providing a way to get to Napster (like search engines, websites linking to them, or other ways to find them)?
Of course not! They went after Napster and that is the way it should work.
How to Oppose the AntiPiracy Bids
You can do your part and oppose these potential laws to help protect our internet from being destroyed, help keep the economy of the internet intact, and force the government to come up with a better plan. You can do so by going to this website and using the contact form to tell your representative you oppose these AntiPiracy bids: http://sopablackout.org/
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