Hey, team — I just wanted to fire off a quick, earnest appeal, urging all of you to reach out to your senators to voice your opposition to the Protect Intellectual Property Act, or “PIPA.” You’ve probably heard a lot about this bill already, thanks to famous Internet players like Wikipedia blacking out their site for a day to protest the draconian means by which the US government proposes to restrict access to “pirated” content.
I won’t bore you with all the specific, tech-y reasons why PIPA is a horrible bill — and I won’t irritate you by bloviating about how it would mean the breaking of the seventh seal of the free speech apocalypse, ushering in a new dark age of e-fascism in the name of corporate greed, etc., etc. What I will tell you is that if this bill passes, Rock Town Hall as we know it will, in all likelihood, eventually cease to exist.
All those so-awful-that-they’re-hilarious videos will be taken down at the source, under threat of legal action. All the unauthorized screen caps from JaBo’s “Dancing in the Streets” video will be replaced with black boxes. No more Mystery Date. No music-rich Insta-Reviews or histories of obscure rock bands. In fact, there’s a good chance that the site as a whole would be taken down, if the wrong people find us and threaten the RTH web host with legal action because they’re “facilitating copyright theft” by keeping us on their servers.
Many of you know me as a fun-loving, studio-owning, underemployed composer of music — but my “day job” is as a marketing executive at one of America’s leading web hosting companies, and we’re neck-deep in a fierce battle to kill PIPA and other bills like it. PIPA is coming up for a key cloture vote on January 24, and we need to make sure it doesn’t pass that vote. (If it does, it will be hurried onto the floor for a yes/no vote, and chances are good it would pass.) What we need is more time, so we can explain to ignorant lawmakers just why this bill makes no practical sense. You can help us get the time we need.
If I could impose on you, by January 23, to take a moment to write a brief note to your senators outlining your concerns about PIPA’s effect on Internet innovation and small businesses — small-business innovations like a certain free-wheeling, fun-loving communi-blog devoted to the world’s aging rock nerd community, for example — I would appreciate it. And I know our Moderator and The Back Office would, too.
I mean it more than ever when I say:
I look forward to your responses.
HVB
There are a number of sites out there that make it easy to call/e-mail your senators. These include:
http://stopthewall.us
https://blacklist.eff.org/
http://txtapp.publicknowledge.org/index/signup
Any and all will help.
I feel like I need to say again: I’m not reaching out with this appeal for any reason other than because *the threat posed by this legislation to Rock Town Hall is very real*. No exaggeration, no panicky flight of fancy — RTH is the kind of site that would be among the first to go if this thing passes.
The following TED Talk video is a bit out of date WRT the technical provisions of the proposed legislation, but is otherwise spot-on and worth watching — even for escapist Townspeople who don’t come here to talk about the “real world.” If it makes you fee any better, it spends some time talking about “mix tapes.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_URcT_Y1TME
There was a lengthy but not particularly incisive discussion of this last night on Radio 4’s “PM” programme, which was the first I’d heard about it here in Britain. It bears some resemblance to a particularly stupid piece of legislation brought in over here just before the last election, although because nobody takes any notice of us any more it has largely been ignored. This, though, unlike our Digital Rights Act, has teeth, and contains such a stupid, draconian and unworkable set of proposals that our Government would certainly not stand up against it, although they are currently occupied with trying to force through a law which will withdraw social security payments from the disabled and cancer patients at the moment so have probably taken their eyes off the ball.
As soon as I saw that Richard Murdoch was in favour of the bill it seemed highly likely that it must be a very, very bad thing, and having read some intelligent articles in the more reliable end of the British press about the implications of this bill for users of the internet in the rest of the world I do not think that my initial response was an incorrect one. Even though he’s in a heap of trouble over here for owning papers which hacked into the phones of a murdered schoolgirl and British soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, the BBC are still running as scared of him and his empire while our Government remain as cosy as they can be with the gutter press. If Wikipedia hadn’t gone dark today it is unlikely that it would have been reported here at all, although it’s equally likely that no more than one in a hundred people here will make any attempt to find out anything about it.
The interviewee on the radio who was agin it described it as being as if cars had been invented fifteen years ago, and because cars were occasionally used in bank robberies the Government allowed themselves to be persuaded by bankers that cars should be outlawed.
I wish you luck fighting it, for all of our sakes. We over here may be amused by your Republican Presidential hopefuls demonstrating their knowledge of world affairs and eloquence, but this bill will not only disenfranchise Americans, it will disenfranchise any part of the world where the rule of law generally keeps things together.
I meant Rupert Murdoch, obviously
I wrote both of my Senators.
From a purely political standpoint, this SOPA/PIPA thing looks terrible. Americans love the internet. Americans do NOT love Congress. So the old fogies in Congress are thinking about mucking up the internet??? Makes no sense.
So I’m cautiously optimistic that this thing will die when the public starts to pay attention. (I assume there are big money interests on both sides of the debate.)
Thanks for posting this hrrundi. I was trying to get around to putting something up as well. This SOPA/PIPA thing sux bad. It is very real and very much an act of The Man.
Wikipedia has a link on their blackout page with help in contacting your representative – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Here’s an online petition to sign asking Microsoft to stop supporting this crap- http://sumofus.org/campaigns/ms-pipa/?akid=52.88764.sVqj66&rd=1&t=2
Here’s Google’s link to speak out to congress- https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
Those are just the ones that I’m aware of. I’m sure there are more.
To me this really isn’t a political thing as that’s no fun to read about on RTH but as these efforts are direct threats to not only RTH but the freedom of the internet as we know it… The thing is that these acts are far more than anti-piracy. They would give big business the unchecked authority to shut down any site based on simply alleged copyright violation. Or so I understand.
Get up. Stand up. Stand up for your rights.
Oh, and here’s a link from Mozilla/Firefox- http://www.mozilla.org/sopa/
I appreciate your concern, HVB, but if we end up targeted by The Man because of this post you’re dead meat:) No, you’ll always be A-1 Steak Sauce. Maybe even this severe political cynic will do his part and write to the parties you suggest.
Awesome graphic, by the way.
Certainly, Richard is dead-set against this.
I’ll add my voice to this call. Please contact your senators/representatives and let them know that SOPA/PIPA are dangerous. If it’s any encouragement, it appears that Congress seems to be a little less gung-ho about the proposed legislation.
There’s big money on both sides, but the money on the pro- side is freaking HUGE. Scan the list of people who are down as pro-PIPA/SOPA, and you’ll find them all to be recipients of many millions of dollars of entertainment industry money.
Interestingly, the internet industry has historically spent only a teeny tiny fraction of the time and money trad media has on lobbying over the last 20 years. They’re only now waking up to the fact that it’s a sad necessity in today’s business/regulatory environment.
Makes sense. If this law passes, it will send a signal to the big internet business that the internet is just like every other place (under the government thumb) and they will probably start to throwing their weight around.
But a threshold will have been crossed and we’ll never be able to go back to the concept of a free, unrestrained, equal opportunity internet environment.
Our two senators are each 87 yrs old. I can’t imagine what they’re being told and surmising in regard to this bill. But they have received (and will continue to receive) my four cents on this issue until the vote.
aloha
LD
Har har.
Hey! Perhaps we should discuss some of the Rawk Stars that are supporting this & why??? Izzat too Sunday morning pundit show???
Not at all, jeangray! I had no idea rock stars were supporting this legislation. Do tell. Thanks.
I’m FB “Friends” with David Lowery of CVB and Cracker. Mod, you know my feelings towards CVB. Mr. Lowery has been posting long rambling messages which 1. I think are supporting the legislation and 2. are making me think that I’ve long overlooked Jonathan Segel and Victor Krummenacher’s music output.
Weird! I may have to “friend” him just to see what he’s going on about. I would NEVER ask you to cut-and-paste some of his private messages for our consumption.
I just sent you some things for your consideration.
Cool, I will check out your notes and see if we can take this discussion to a new level, extended thread. Thanks.
Sorry I did not respond sooner, was on a family trip with little Interweb access.
What got me thinking of this topic was a column in the Seattle Weekly written by Duff McKagan of G’n’R which was very pro-SOPA, and actually made me consider a side of this issue I previously hadn’t: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/reverb/2012/01/quit_whining_about_sopa_and_pi.php
In the comments two Seattle big-shots, Krist Novoselic & Jessie Sykes come to Duff’s defense. Somewhat disappointing, since these are both musicians that I have some level of respect for. I am curious if’n anyone else is bothered by any musicians’ support of SOPA.
From what I understand, Congress is going to be bringing this issue up again next month. I canna help but feel that they will keep hammering on this (public lack of support be damned) until they get some form of these acts on the books. Too many deep pockets support this legislation.