Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge

“Imagine a world without free knowledge” is what you will see if you try to access Wikipedia today.   Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.  So for 24 hours, to raise awareness, Wikipedia is blacked out. 

The legislations that Congress is seriously considering implementing are SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP (IP stands for Intellectual Property) Act) two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. These bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout. GovTrack lets you follow both bills through the legislative process: SOPA on this page, and PIPA on this one. The EFF has summarized why these bills are simply unacceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free Internet. 

A proposal in SOPA will allow the government to target sites that simply provide information that could help users get around the bills’ censorship mechanisms (targeted sites could be permanently shut down). Such a provision would not only amount to an unconstitutional prior restraint against protected speech, but would severely damage online innovation. And contrary to claims by SOPA’s supporters, this provision—at least what’s been proposed so far—applies to all websites, even those in the U.S.    

Social media sites like Facebook or YouTube—basically any site with user generated content—would have to police their own sites, forcing huge liability costs onto countless Internet companies.  Many jobs could be lost as a result of these bills.  This is exactly why venture capitalists have said en masse they won’t invest in online startups if PIPA and SOPA pass.

Organizations that are funded by the State Department to create circumvention software to help democratic activists get around authoritarian regimes’ online censorship mechanisms would be negatively affected.  Ironically, SOPA would not only institute the same practices as these regimes, but would essentially outlaw the tools used by activists to circumvent censorship in countries like Iran and China as well.  What the hell does Congress think they are doing?  This bill seems less about piracy and more about trying to make our country vulnerable to security threats and weakening our economy so they can get a Republican in the White House. 

Without user content portals like Blogger, NewGrounds, Facebook and YouTube, the Internet becomes just another mainstream media outlet, instead of the wild proving ground of ideas that allows regular people like us to find a large audience.  Please, like this Facebook page to show our politicians how many of us oppose SOPA and PIPA.  In addition, if you live in TN please like this page.


Sources:  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup?zip=37212
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/sopa-pipa/
http://www.explosm.net/sopa.html