There was a lot of Twitter traffic yesterday regarding the bill in the House of Representatives known as the Stop Online Piracy Act. Actually, there were 2 1/2 million tweets with the #SOPA hashtag and others as well. Some sites like Wikipedia went dark in protest and other had scathing comments about the bill that will "ruin the Internet forever". The lobby from the music industry, video content originator's, pharmaceuticals, and other interests want the online piracy of their material stopped. As in any controversy, there are multiple sides. This post is not about the pros and cons of the bill; there are thousands of pages on the content of the bill.
This post is about the bill itself and the complete lack of knowledge that many comments contained. It was clear from reading a lot of tweets and other active sites, that there were a lot of thoughts that were simply parroting what has been said by others. And, several sites had links to send petitions to the House. And I am sure that some people signed on the dotted line and hoped that the Internet will still be the same forever. But I took the time to find the bill and read a good amount of the 77 pages in that document. From the comments that I read online, I would guess that most commentator's could not even find the bill,or have an intelligent debate, but would rather jump on the lemming bandwagon.
The potential power of the social media is great, as evidenced by the Arab Spring. But without organization and considered thought, it is pissing in the wind. Consider for a moment what could be done to tell Congress that we are sick and tired of ideology and personal greed and individual power aggregation. With a 12 % approval rating, they should all be replaced and term limits be a change in the "business as usual" commentary. I am for net neutrality and First Amendment rights, but not theft! If you want to see what the bill is all about, check here.
We can all be influenced by hype and apathy, but at times we need to find out how to have an impact on our world. It is sometimes and ill wind... Typo fixed. Thanks Ken.
This post is about the bill itself and the complete lack of knowledge that many comments contained. It was clear from reading a lot of tweets and other active sites, that there were a lot of thoughts that were simply parroting what has been said by others. And, several sites had links to send petitions to the House. And I am sure that some people signed on the dotted line and hoped that the Internet will still be the same forever. But I took the time to find the bill and read a good amount of the 77 pages in that document. From the comments that I read online, I would guess that most commentator's could not even find the bill,or have an intelligent debate, but would rather jump on the lemming bandwagon.
The potential power of the social media is great, as evidenced by the Arab Spring. But without organization and considered thought, it is pissing in the wind. Consider for a moment what could be done to tell Congress that we are sick and tired of ideology and personal greed and individual power aggregation. With a 12 % approval rating, they should all be replaced and term limits be a change in the "business as usual" commentary. I am for net neutrality and First Amendment rights, but not theft! If you want to see what the bill is all about, check here.
We can all be influenced by hype and apathy, but at times we need to find out how to have an impact on our world. It is sometimes and ill wind... Typo fixed. Thanks Ken.
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