I feel really uneducated and dumb about this whole issue – NBC says it’s good, Google/Wikipedia/etc say it’s bad – hmmmm, guess I better get to reading.
Well, I have to admit I recognize that the Google and Wikipedia protests against SOPA/PIPA are not 100% due to egalitarian morals.
For example, under SOPA Wikipedia could get in serious trouble for using copyrighted imagery. Google could get in trouble for using spurious advertisers in the unregulated drug industry.
However, I am anti-SOPA/PIPA because:
– Under SOPA/PIPA there doesn’t appear to be any parody protection or protection of purpose, such as education. That means that if an independent group used a Bank of America commercial in a web documentary on the malfeasance of banks, it could get blocked.
– Five corporations control all media, even if it appears independent. They are: Time Warner, General Electric, Walt Disney, Viacom and News Corp. That means traditional media such as radio and TV aren’t “free speech.” The internet may be a wilderness, but all newspapers, radio and TV news is Astroturf.
– Many of these corporations – such as General Electric – are also military contractors. Theoretically, whistleblower sites which criticized the prison or defense industries could be shut down or blocked – and you’d never hear about it.
Good on you, Chuck for the shout out to both libraries and ‘antiquated’ tech. Thanks as well for the attention grabbing style for your blog post. Getting eyes and minds focused on this issue is the most important thing to be done here. Though I could certainly stamp my feet and wave my hands for the benefit of my perspective, in the end my hope is that measured heads will consider the realities and agree.
All that is predicated on an assumption that captains of trade and industry aren’t reading. Apologies if that’s a target audience here.
Chuck The Writer 
I feel really uneducated and dumb about this whole issue – NBC says it’s good, Google/Wikipedia/etc say it’s bad – hmmmm, guess I better get to reading.
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Great post Chuck. I remember the Selectrics & the element ball. Don’t use as much white out nowadays 🙂
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Well, I have to admit I recognize that the Google and Wikipedia protests against SOPA/PIPA are not 100% due to egalitarian morals.
For example, under SOPA Wikipedia could get in serious trouble for using copyrighted imagery. Google could get in trouble for using spurious advertisers in the unregulated drug industry.
However, I am anti-SOPA/PIPA because:
– Under SOPA/PIPA there doesn’t appear to be any parody protection or protection of purpose, such as education. That means that if an independent group used a Bank of America commercial in a web documentary on the malfeasance of banks, it could get blocked.
– Five corporations control all media, even if it appears independent. They are: Time Warner, General Electric, Walt Disney, Viacom and News Corp. That means traditional media such as radio and TV aren’t “free speech.” The internet may be a wilderness, but all newspapers, radio and TV news is Astroturf.
– Many of these corporations – such as General Electric – are also military contractors. Theoretically, whistleblower sites which criticized the prison or defense industries could be shut down or blocked – and you’d never hear about it.
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Good on you, Chuck for the shout out to both libraries and ‘antiquated’ tech. Thanks as well for the attention grabbing style for your blog post. Getting eyes and minds focused on this issue is the most important thing to be done here. Though I could certainly stamp my feet and wave my hands for the benefit of my perspective, in the end my hope is that measured heads will consider the realities and agree.
All that is predicated on an assumption that captains of trade and industry aren’t reading. Apologies if that’s a target audience here.
LikeLike