Hey, all. I was planning on sharing my adventures in Italy with you for my first post of the new year (the reason I haven't been posting is because I was on a school trip to southern Italy and Sicily, and the internet was...unpredictable, to say the least), but I have something a little more important to discuss today.
Internet censorship.
The Stop Online Piracy Act, to be precise.
I don't know what you know about it (I only just found out the details myself), but basically, the internet as we know it will cease to exist. Does that sound melodramatic? Perhaps, but it's true.
Why, you ask? Here's why: Under this act, any and all copyright violation, even the most minor infraction, will result in your internet being cut, fines, and possibly even jail time. And when I say minor infraction, I mean it. The examples I've heard so far: 1) Uploading a video of yourself dancing drunkenly at a party, with copyrighted music playing in the background, 2) Quoting a news article in an e-mail to a friend, and 3) Taking a video of your baby's first steps, with the TV playing a copyrighted show in the background, and putting it on your Facebook. In other words, doing things we do every day without thinking about it. If SOPA passes, you'd face severe consequences for doing any of that.
Now, I don't know about you guys, but, well, I DON'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN.
Here's the scoop: The war has begun. On January 18th, several major sites, including Wikipedia and DeviantArt, staged a blackout in protest of SOPA. The next day, British site Megaupload was taken down by the FBI...but the fighting didn't end there. Anonymous hacked into the FBI database and caused a bit of trouble (but no permanent damage was done). As of now, SOPA has been shelved until March, when it will be taken out and examined (and voted on) again.
March. Wow. That's NOT a lot of time.
My friends and I are already working on spreading awareness on our campus. You'd be surprised how much apathy there is about this--and I'm not sure why. If there's any generation that uses the internet for creative/artistic purposes, it's ours. And I know the reasoning behind SOPA may have pure intentions...but you know what they say about the road to hell, right? And I don't think any real good can come of this.
So educate yourself. Go online and look up SOPA and PIPA. Tell your friends. Get involved. I'll definitely keep you updated on what's going on at my college--we're going to start a movement against this, and it's not going to just be a Facebook page. We mean business. We think SOPA is going too far. We don't like censorship. We want to make a difference.
This has been a PSA (of sorts) from Beatnik Belle, who has once again gotten herself involved in a cause when she does not know if she's going to have the time to commit to it (what else is new?).
Next time: The Italy Diaries, Part I.
