Sopa - the spanish word for soup.
Pipa - a Chinese lute with four strings.
In a world without Wikipedia and Google, how would you have known that? Well, you might be a Spanish speaking ethnomusicologist, but probably you aren't.
Right now, Congress has two bills in discussion, SOPA and PIPA - one's in the Senate, the other's in the House. Both aim
"to cut off the oxygen for foreign pirate sites by taking aim at American search engines like Google and Yahoo, payment processors like PayPal and ad servers that allow the pirates to function."
Yes, piracy is wrong, stealing content is wrong, copyright has a point. But SOPA/PIPA won't stop piracy and will quash innovation and damage the internet.
Here, go read what Sarah Granger has to say. Or check out The Oatmeal (because kitten BBQ = bad. Oprah and Jesus on a jet ski in outer space = good). Protest SOPA/PIPA via Wikipedia or via Google or via a participating site of your choice.
Let us blather on in peace.
You tell 'em.
ReplyDeleteI called my Senators!
Khan Academy had a great explanatory video on these 2 laws.
ReplyDeletePS According to that video -- if the law passes as-is: if someone leaves a comment on your blog which links to a site which has been accused in court of engaging in copyright infringement, you (not the commenter, but you) will be also be in violation & your blog will have to come down. The whole blog. Not just the comment.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
ReplyDeleteAlthough whenever I hear those acronyms, I can't help but think of Kate Middleton's sister in her bridesmaid dress.