Say NO to SOPA/PIPA -- a day of protest

Google & others are protesting, thought I'd join in -- b/c the internet doesn't need 'protection' from 'Intellectual Property theft' at the cost of having a free & open internet!!!
Also, copying is not piracy.  We must keep our language and filter out the false phrases.  One false phrase is calling copying piracy.  'Piracy' is stealing something from someone such that the owner no longer has access to that thing.  'Copying' (which has been called 'sharing' at various points) duplicates something and no one loses the use of that thing.  The only losers in copying are companies who want more profit from the thing, and are willing to sacrifice and sabotage and criminalize Constitutional rights (such as freedom of press, freedom of speech) in order to force people to purchase (and re-purchase) access to content which they created.

Other bogus words include:
  • "right to life" for the anti-abortion movement,
  • "insurgents" for people fighting invaders of their own country,
  • "terrorists" for military forces not linked to a government -- but this phrase is not applicable to mercenaries who are linked to governments (even if they may be torturing, raping, and murdering),
  • "contractors" which is now mis-used to include the government use of mercenaries in foreign lands,
  • "surgical strikes" which has been used to describe missiles and bombs which frequently kill civilians, hit hospitals, & kill journalists,
  • "free market capitalism" which in the USA intentionally casts a blind eye to sanctioned market manipulation with policies like farm subsidies / drug war (making products illegal) / corporate buyouts / fraudulent promotions / and government bailouts of corrupt fraudulent financial institutions, but accuses other countries of violating the principle of "free markets" continually,
  • "peace keepers" for foreign fighters, invaders, or neutrally-aligned foreign occupying troops,
  • "illegal aliens" for descendants of native peoples who's ancestors resided on the territory which is now claimed by the descendents of the conquerors (who are attempting to erase the historical factual record and also maintain a racially biased system of immigration which is biased against non-whites)
The following text is copied (word for word) from Craiglist's protest today -- http://www.craigslist.org/about/SOPA.  Thanks Craig Newmark & co!
Corporate supporters of Senate 968 (PIPA) and HR 3261 (SOPA) demand the ability to take down any web site (including craigslist, Wikipedia, or Google) that hurts their profits -- without prior judicial oversight or due process -- in the name of combating "online piracy."

PIPA and SOPA authors and supporters insist they'd only go after foreign piracy sites, but Internet Engineers understand this is an attempt to impose "Big Brother" controls on our Internet, complete with DNS hijacking and censoring search results. Incredibly, many Congress Members favor this idea.

Try to imagine jack-booted thugs throttling free speech, poisoning the Internet (greatest of American inventions, the very pillar of modern democracy), and devastating one of the our most successful industries. Totalitarian, anti-American, massively-job-killing nonsense.

Tell Congress you OPPOSE Senate 968 "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) and H.R. 3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA):

Supporters of PIPA and SOPA: RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, TimeWarner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters, Rupert Murdoch, Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI)

Opponents of PIPA and SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX)

Where does your Member of Congress stand on PIPA and SOPA? (Project SOPA Opera)

PIPA and SOPA Are Too Dangerous To Revise, They Must Be Killed Entirely

Congress needs to hear from you, or these dangerous bills will pass - they have tremendous lobbying dollars behind them, from corporations experts say are attempting to prop up outdated, anti-consumer business models at the expense of the very fabric of the Internet -- recklessly unleashing a tsunami of take-down notices and litigation, and a Pandora's jar of "chilling effects" and other unintended (or perhaps intended?) consequences.

Don't believe it? Monster Cable has labeled craigslist a "rogue site," earmarked for blacklisting and full-takedown under PIPA -- resale of stereo cables by CL users reduces Monster 's new cable sales. (reddit).

There is still time to be heard. Congress is starting to backpedal on this job-killing, anti-American nonsense, and the Obama administration has weighed in against these bills as drafted, but SOPA/PIPA cannot be fixed or revised -- they must be killed altogether.

Sen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep Ron Wyden (D-OR) are championing an alternative to SOPA/PIPA called Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) that addresses foreign sites dedicated to piracy, without disrupting basic Internet protocols, or threatening mainstream US sites like craigslist.

Tim O'Reilly, a publisher who is himself subject to piracy, asks whether piracy is even a problem, and whether there is even a legitimate need for any of these bills.

Learn more about SOPA, Protect IP (PIPA), and Internet Blacklisting:
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