SOPA, so good?

(Firstly I apologise for that title I couldn't resist.)

Stop Online Piracy! It's a noble goal, isn't it? Or is it? On the one hand I think we can all agree that if you make something you deserve at least a slice of any profit that it makes. As such the US Senate/Congress (I really don't know or care which one) is currently debating the Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA is just about one of the most terrifying effronteries to a free and open society that has been considered by a democracy since the Reichstag declared a state of emergency. You see SOPA basically puts forward the idea that a rights-holder can have a website removed from the internet if it is in breach of copyright. This has little or no oversight, and you don't even need to be informed that it's happened. This is a terrifying.

That's the obligatory Orwell and Nazi references done with

Allow me to explain. Imagine you've got a lovingly crafted website filled with hand drawn images of horses fucking dogs, I'm not going to judge you. Now one day you get an e-mail from one horsedoglover@gmail.com telling you that they cannot access your website from the USA. That's the first time you know that someone has lodged a complaint against you. After this you send out a flurry of e-mails, after all your crude etchings of inter-species porn are your only source of income, you discover that someone over at Disney has decided that one of the horses you've scribbled looks exceedingly like the one from Tangled. You now need to lodge an appeal with the US Government to get the block lifted and allow the traffic back to your website. It's worth noting that take-down notice that Disney will have requested won't need to specify what breach of copyright has occurred. This legislation allows corporations to get any website they should choose removed from the internet. It is only after the site has been taken down, that any due process is used.

I'll give you £10 if you can give me another blog that'd have this
picture underneath  a paragraph that included inter-species dicking

That means there is absolutely nothing to stop me from getting Google taken down. Unless of course the US Government decides that my rights as a private citizen are not as valid as those of a large corporation. So we have a piece of legislation about to hit the books in the good old US of A that means that anyone can shut down chunks of the internet. The list of those who are against this ridiculous piece of legislation includes Microsoft, Google, eBay, twitter, Amazon... and no I'm not linking to those sites, they don't really need exposure. The real problem here is that if they do pass this bill other governments will not wait to see if it works or if it is a terrible idea, they'll leap on the band wagon. It's always been true that small countries follow the lead of larger and more powerful states, but this time it's China we're all stumbling after. Stopping free use of the internet is what the Tunisian, Egyptian and Libyan governments tried to do before their respective countries caught fire. Now I'm not stupid enough to say the US administration is identical to these states, that would be an over-exaggeration that I'll leave to the many morons that inhabit the web.

I'm getting more mileage out of this picture than
the lesbian nun-one... something is very amiss here

What I will say however is this. It won't effect me. I'm serious. Every attempt at creating a firewall of this type has failed. You see the people who create the systems to block these sites don't want to do it, they're the kind of people who live on the internet. So instead they make a basic system show it to the people who have hired them and take the money, within a few weeks programs appear that allow those who wish to circumvent the barriers. It's happened with the great firewall of China, and that government is far better at censoring shit than the Americans... practice makes perfect after all. This will only effect law abiding citizens... actually now I come to think of it I operate on the assumption that everyone who reads this runs at least one illegal dog-fighting ring so this probably won't effect you either. I live in the UK so I have at least a week before my country's government decides to follow suit, as part of our governments ongoing 'work the shaft, cradle the balls' policy towards the US. I have no intention of obeying this law. In fact I intend on deliberately griefing it absolutely senseless. I'm going to fuck this law harder than a group of premiership footballers fuck an eighteen year old crack-whore.

I'm not calling Rooney a rapist... I'm calling all premier league footballers rapists

Here's what I plan to do. On day one of this bills enactment, I'm going to send out a flurry of take-down requests to the relevant authorities. There is absolutely no penalty for this. I will be aiming to get the official websites of all US political parties, Senators, Congressmen and all official government, presidential and white-house sites. I will also target every single site I can think of that is crucial to modern day life, Google, twitter et al. Now they can choose to ignore those requests if they want to, in fact that will be better as it will prove that this law exists entirely to allow the rich and the powerful to control the internet.

Couldn't find a single image that summed up the internet accurately
that I was comfortable with showing you... there is entirely to
much Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle gay porn in the world

That's what this law is really for. You see the entertainment industry has seen a massive fall in profits since the internet was created. It turns out that when presented with the ability to easily access any piece of music, any film or any TV show people choose, by and large, not to get stuck with the absolute wank these industries have tried to force on us. Would you rather watch Michael Bay's latest series of explosions or Blade Runner? Would you rather listen to the latest winner of whatever low-rent freak-show Cowell's just produced or the frankly fantastic Hadestown by Anais Mitchell? Would you rather watch Hole in the Wall or download Modern Family? Then of course you have the artists themselves who have now realised that there is little or no reason to give a cut of the money that they've worked for to these cowboys when they can get 100% of the profits for themselves. This law is nothing more than a swaggering bullying power play by a group best described as cunts. I'm not out on the streets protesting with the Occupy guys because I don't have the free time, I'm lucky enough to be employed, but I'm fully willing to fuck off the other shit going on in my life if the fucking revolution has started, and this law's passing is pretty much the first step on that fucking highway. Your move Senators.

I'm not saying I have a cyborg-bear...
I'm saying I can and will make one

eddie <if your government shuts down the internet then you shutdown the government>