The internet, all disgusting things considered, is a beautiful place. It lets us (and millions of other people) start websites that allow us to disseminate information, share our opinions, and receive rewards both spiritual (a ton) and material (a pittance).
If you’ve been on the internet in the past few weeks, the odds are you’ve heard some troubling rumblings about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), the net’s new Scylla and Charybdis, and how these laws could bring about the end of the internet as we know it. This is absolutely true. These bills have been promoted by the powerful lobbying firms of the entertainment industry to cripple any website or network that has (or had) hosted copyrighted material and the language is porous enough to allow all manner of governmental interference in the web.
While we at Full Stop don’t purport to understand the deep workings of the web, we don’t have much faith that the men and women of the House and the Senate do either (in all seriousness, remember that stuff about tubes?), and urge them to reconsider the effects of these bills. While we support forms of copyright, we believe these laws do little to help fight piracy. Instead, they help deliver the net into the hands of the powerful and the wealthy.
Not only will this legislation affect huge sites like Wikipedia and Reddit (which are both blacking out today in protest of this legislation), but it also could effectively destroy any small website (like us!) who might ever have a suit brought against them under law included in SOPA and PIPA. Even linking to a site that hosts illicit material could bring us under the auspices of SOPA and PIPA. And if you think the federal government has better things to do than bring down small cultural websites, think again. As Reddit user “alienth” posted yesterday, “If you’re a brand new startup with little to no money for legal counsel, well, best of luck to you. The internet may no longer be a friendly place.”
Please read up on the legislation and call your representatives:
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