I wash the SOPA off and it goes down the PIPA

SOPA and PIPA: A short thought

I've been sitting on the sidelines and not mentioning the bill at all on my site. I decided to sit and listen to both sides. I was cynical and didn't think people would have enough power to slow down the bill, but the Internet surprised me again this week. Never has there been a more diverse group of Internet users from all colors and flavors coming together and protesting these bills.

However, MC did a wonderful post on his blog. He brought up the abuse of power these copyright holders will have over the little people like you and me. If someone doesn't like my review on the Love Guru, what's to stop them from filing false copyright claims to shut me up? That's the part of SOPA and PIPA I don't like. If this bill passes, you will have to wonder how much groups like FOX or Scientology will abuse the powers. I don't want groups like Scientology to flag me falsely for making fun of Xenu.

One thing the protests did do is bring these bills to light to the non-tech savvy crowd. That was the most important part of the Internet protest yesterday that did some major good. Up until that point, the large news media outlets did little to cover the story. Now, it is on every News site. It also had people at my work talking about the bill, and many of them aren't hip to these sort of things. A friend on Facebook changed her profile picture to a stop SOPA picture.

It was amazing watching people from the left and the right protest this bill.

I lean toward less government in our lives, so naturally these bills are dangerous. If people can keep it up, more and more lawmakers will turn away from these flawed bills. You've already made a difference.