SOPA is here to stop online piracy because it’s evil and unfair. WRONG. Unfair to who? Do I really give an ounce of care to corporations who already reap millions? NO. Does SOPA really help the ‘little guys’? NO. In fact, it would make it harder for the ‘little guys’ to reap any benefit of the freedom that online offers for startups.
The beauty of online is that it’s our library of knowledge and trash talk. The information age has afforded us to skip a trip to the library, bookstore, record store, and video store – it’s now a laptop away. The downside is that we really have to sift through all the garbage of information to find something suitable but hey, that’s free enterprise.
The power is our hands, and that’s what SOPA lobbyists don’t like.
They don’t want us learning. They don’t want us being entrepreneurial. They don’t want us saving money. New York investment advisor, Joshua Brown, admits in his article, “Hollywood knows this and they’re scared to death – this is [sic] SOPA is actually about, not the .01% of illegally viewed episodes of Bones. Startups and internet companies also know this and they are PRESSING THEIR ADVANTAGE.” He continues, “When the revolution begins and becomes apparent, one doesn’t sit on his porch and watch – one gets his gun off the mantle and kisses the family goodbye on his way out to the field.”
Y-Combinator is interested in helping the ‘little guys’ or digital entrepreneurs and are also anti-SOPA. “The main reason we want to fund such startups is not to protect the world from more SOPAs, but because SOPA brought it to our attention that Hollywood is dying. They must be dying if they’re resorting to such tactics.”
Fortunately for the protests from online info giants ,Wikipedia and Google, SOPA has temporarily withdrawn from the fight. But best believe they will be back with an alternative shutdown plan.
In the meantime, Megaupload was shutdown. RIP MEGAUPLOAD.com, you were a good friend. This file sharing site was “exactly” the type of website SOPA and PIPA advocates had in mind when the bills were drafted, according to Neil Roiter, research director at Corero Network Security. The FBI shutdown was a good example of “how the legal system should be dealing with these types of players, through police work and criminal prosecution,” Roiter said. If SOPA and PIPA had been law, the shutdown would have happened without FBI involvement.
Ummm yeah right. Brown points out:
“But Hollywood and the media companies are increasingly under siege from the New Entertainment. The kind that doesn’t require a $200 monthly cable bill or a $17 box office ticket to consume. You’re reading this screed for free right now. You found it from a link at Facebook or Twitter – also free. When you’re done reading it, you are more likely to go on clicking other stuff or playing a game online than you are to power down and turn on NBC.”
For now we have out Google and Wikipedia back but buyers beware, know the power of your dollar staying in your pocket. Know the power of your dollar invested in your dreams not the cable company or newest Gucci threads. Know the power of calculating the sum of all the information that is available online for you to further your goals in life. Government shouldn’t have the right to regulate our digital library.
If we can rent “Star Wars” from the public library for free, why can’t we watch it for free online?
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