We don’t want to live in a world of censorship. We don’t want people to tell us what we can and cannot say. We don’t want a government so afraid of its people that it threatens to restrict their voices.
If I can buy a shotgun in Walmart I sure as hell want to be able to speak my mind in the public forum.
Now in all fairness, I realize the intent of bills like the Stop Online Piracy Act (and its sibling bill the Protect Intellectual Property Act) are, funnily enough, to stop piracy and not to silence the voices of the people, but given even the most haphazard perusal, S.O.P.A. reveals itself as a gigantic, misguided, bloody Trojan Horse of a farce. Anyone with the slightest familiarity with the internet knows beyond a shadow of a doubt the war against internet piracy will not be won with a sheet of paper full of labyrinthine phrasing and rich old white men’s signatures.
And any fool can see the real danger behind its well-intentioned if incredibly-misguided intent.
It has been proven time and time again that government cannot regulate a trade, substance, product or idea against the will of its people. America was founded by strong men and women with a love of freedom, chief among them speech. The British government proved unequal to the task of squashing that love of freedom, and as a consequence, we are who and what we are today. Given my love for hyperbole, it saddens me greatly that this isn’t it:
S.O.P.A. is precisely the sort of edict the forefathers would have raised a hue and cry over, doubly so because its danger is hidden behind a well-intentioned facade.
Prohibition proved unequivocally if people want something badly enough then individuals with ingenuity, resolve, and no qualms about the law will deliver it to them, likely making a tidy profit in the process. One simply has to attend any American sporting event, visit any downtown in any city in America, or turn on the television for an immediate crash course in how well that little experiment in restricting the market went.
The drug trade is an incredible example of just how much effort can be thrown at a problem with a less-than-satisfactory effect. I want to make it abundantly clear: I applaud the efforts of the men and women of law enforcement agencies and I’m aware of the challenges in the drug war and how important fighting it has become.
However, the fact remains that I could stand up, walk out to my car, and within 10 minutes be in contact with one of a number of people I know to quickly and easily acquire almost any illicit substance I want. This despite my being a sweet-and-innocent looking straight-arrow who’s never even seen the wrong side of jail. The drug culture is foreign to me, but I can name five people off the top of my head who would provide either the substance or a way to get it.
Now you say: James, you’ve fallen off your soap-box and hiked off into the woods. S.O.P.A. isn’t about controlled substances, its about Digital Rights Management and the prevention of piracy. (Oh, and stop glorifying illicit substances with your sparkling comparisons to Freedom of Speech while you’re at it!)
Well, you didn’t actually say that, because you’re smart enough to use the Internet.
The problem is that to the layman, bills like S.O.P.A. and P.I.P.A. look like completely legitimate defensive measure built to guard the rights of the Film, Television, and Gaming industry against illegal copyright infringement and distribution. The bigger problem is that these selfsame laymen are going to associate the rogue sites and intellectual property pirates with bootleggers and drug-runners, will likely levy support to oppose these threats to IP and miss important details like the tremendous damage this level of censorship will do to the internet as a whole.
Worse still, they’ll likely be completely unaware of just how ineffective the measures will be against their intended target. A bigger problem yet is that the vast majority of the Congressmen and Congresswomen who will be voting on this incredibly important issue have far more in common with your grandmother who needs you to explain which button on the remote switches her TV from cable to VCR (yes of course she still has a VCR) than they do with you or I.
The good news is that if your Grandmother is anything like mine, she’s likely a pretty smart lady. It’s not her fault she wasn’t born into the internet generation, and with a little patience, guidance, and explanation, she’ll be happily flipping from Maury to American Idol to her (un-pirated) DVD of the Sound of Music in no time.
So do yourself, me, the internet, and oh, the world a favor. Go to this website: http://americancensorship.org/. It takes five seconds. Like it on facebook, explain it to your friends and family. Do not mistake my light-hearted tone. This is, and I say this without exaggeration, a threat that would have offended and infuriated the men and women that bled and died to found a country based on freedom and choice.
It takes five seconds. Make your voice heard. Help grandma get the TV connected. Make your congressman understand that we will not stand by while our right to free speech are threatened.
Thank you,
James Huneycutt
PS – The Internet and the Future also express their gratitude.