The Lady Geek's Topic of the Day: SOPA and PIPA

The Pirate Bay

Tales of the Lady Geek:

Greetings dear readers, as of this writing, I am just returned from a horrendous bout of stomach flu that left this Lady Geek weak, dehydrated and hospitalized for almost an entire two weeks. That’s right, an eternity of technological revolution and I missed it, oh woe is me!  There I was in sick commiseration with hospital staff, sporting a lovely shade of green and lying in a bed with an IV of anti-nausea medication stuck into my precious arm when the most horrible of things, if there could be a more horrible thing than what I was physically experiencing, happened. The doctor took my electronics away and demanded I rest, at 11:59 PM  Tuesday, January 17, 2012. That’s right, technology-less on the eve of the Internet’s revolutionary explosion. I ask you, could there be a worse fate for one such as me? 

Well, as soon as I felt better they sent me home and, mostly against doctor’s orders and one hundred percent due to my itching to be in the know, I immediately booted up every piece of technological wonder in my possession and began my investigation into everything I’d missed. Here to you dear readers I bring my findings.

The Lady Geek’s Topic of the Day: Revisiting SOPA and PIPA

This has been a very busy week in the tech world, ladies and gents.   As many of you may remember, last Wednesday had the computer world all a flutter with blackouts and banned stickers over some of your favorite websites like Wikipedia and Craigslist and Reddit went black and other sites like Google blocked out their logo in protest of these two bills. We even had students changing their Facebook photos to ones that said “This image has been found in violation of SOPA and has been removed” in response to these bills.

Quick Recap: What Are They?

PIPA and SOPA were bills that at face value were trying to combat the problems of foreign based websites that can be hubs for pirated material by two means, keeping Americans from reaching these rogue sites (CENSORSHIP) by telling ISP’s (Internet Service Provider’s) to block any named site or face legal action. The second way they hoped to accomplish their goals was by keeping the foreign rogue sites from getting any money so that they would have to shut themselves down.

Both of these bills would work to give the justice department control over financial services providers and advertiser’s alike to cut off the flow of money to the site and/or anyone associated with it. The worry caused by this plan was that in cutting off the money going to these companies, not only wouldn’t the companies have the proper due process before they got labeled an infringe-er and copyright violator; they also wouldn't have the means to defend themselves after the fact. 

What Happened:

There was a lot of backlash concerning the bills and everyone in the tech industry is feeling it in some way.  Even the great Zuckerberg himself came out with a mass posting that said: “The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world…can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet’s development…Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA and will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet…The world…needs political leaders who are pro-internet…”

President Barrack Obama himself has said that he wouldn’t support the SOPA bill which has since been shelved.  So now that left the Protect IP Act or PIPA bill which Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid announced on January 18^th that the voting would be postponed until issues raised about the bill could be resolved.  

What This Turn of Events Means to Us:

Well, as we said during the march on Washington, and the bra burning women’s movement, it ain’t over yet, my technological brethren! We began with just ripping our site hosting privileges from GoDaddy.com’s grasp upon hearing that they supported SOPA, and we made an impact. Every site that went black or participated in whatever form they did made a difference on the whole. 

According to the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind Wikipedia on January 19^th, “162 million people had experienced the Wikipedia blackout landing page in the space of twenty four hours.” Even more significant is that eight million Americans looked up their congressional representatives and went on to protest about SOPA and PIPA. 

I have to say, here here America! A wonderful start was had indeed, but it doesn’t stop there! PIPA is still shelved, not killed. SOPA is withdrawn for the moment, but not dead.  We have to keep after our representatives, we have to protest and be active or the momentum is lost.

Final Thoughts: 

A parting thought from your Lady Geek. One of my favorite things to do is to lay back at the end of a day and pull up YouTube clips of cutie children singing pop songs, I like to share little clips, quips and pictures from George Takei’s Facebook Page with my fellow Trek lovers. I just posted a long forgotten ditty of Leonard Nemoy singing “Bilbo Baggins”. I like to share quotes from Dr. King, from Nikki Giovanni, from Dr. Seuss. These little things relax me, make me happy and remind me of the childish side to life.  

In my bedroom as a teenager I had posters from Tiger Beat, Teen Scene and YM. I recorded favorite songs from the radio on cassette tapes and learned the songs word for word because they ‘meant something’ to me, I made mix tapes for all of my friends. Today, I can’t legally do that.  

What are you willing to give up to the government for the sin of remaining quiet?

 Written by MaryAnn Paris

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.