Internet Blackout

Yesterday, websites went censored, bringing awareness to two upcoming acts before United States Representatives and the United States Senate. Those two acts are SOPA and PIPA. SOPA has been shelved for the moment, but will be brought back sometime in February. PIPA is up before the House on the 24th of January. Both acts purport to curb Internet piracy, but the broad language of the acts and the lack of technical knowledge of those who wrote the acts has resulted in legalize that will do nothing to stop Internet piracy but will instead censor the internets. Not just censor after established crimes have been committed, but before any crime has been proven, by just an accusation that a third party did something piratey on the website.

Or so I deduced after reading several articles and viewing several infographs. I’ve done everything but read the acts. The reason that I read other people’s reasoning of the acts, is that I don’t understand the technical aspects of DNS, domestic vs foreign domains, etc. I figured I needed someone to explain that portion to me, so I went and read Reddit’s technical explanation. It is very thorough and I recommend reading it. The Mary Sue did a report on SOPA/PIPA and the internet black out if you still don’t know what was happening yesterday and didn’t do your own internets research. Google did not black out their site, but they do provide a helpful infograph.

Here’s the kicker. I agree with Topless Robot that it is unlikely the blackout will make much of a point with the white old men in the House and the Senate. Hopefully, the black out brings awareness to the issue and that constituents (that’s you and me) write our Representatives and Senators about this issue. I did. I just wrote out a quick email, copy and pasted it to my three U.S. Congressional representatives and voiced my concerns with the broad and ambiguous language of the two acts. It was easy, it was painless, hopefully it does some good. I don’t know if it will and frankly I think the following comic is possibly more about a premonition than fornication. But it made me laugh.

Oh, you funny internets.

Nodds & Nends: Authors, Regretsy, and The Magicians Script

Stephanie from Read in a Single Sitting posted about a blog on Good Reads that is hilarious. Check out this Author’s Blog Posts where she always begins her day by Googling her name.

Need some easy to read information on the upcoming free speech Internet travesty SOPA? Read all about it on Regretsy. Apparently over the weekend the issue has been shelved. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Read about the pilot script of an excellent book, The Magicians. I’m excited!

Nodds & Nends: SOPA, War Tumblr, Confederacy of Spinsters

Read a good article all about SOPA and the comic book industry.  This may require some reaction from us internets people, just saying.

This is an awesome tumblr I found via The Bloggess (if you aren’t reading her blog, you should be!).

Commentary:

Ever heard of war? That keeps plenty of people who love other people away. Remember that whole period in the late 1930s and early 1940s when young, married men were writing letters to their wives and saying things like, “The war rages on. I’m terrified but the commander says we’ll pull through. Oh, dearest Agnes, I think of you daily and wish to place my hand upon your fertile bosom once more. But the war, Agnes. The war keeps me away. Even though I love you. Because love cannot create a magical plane that will at once destroy all the Nazis and fly me back to you so that I may touch your bosom and also your other parts which a gentleman like I must never put to parchment. Because that magical plane doesn’t exist. And so I fight, here, in this war, away from you.” Yeah, it’s called history.

And this awesome blog from three different funny ladies called Confederacy of Spinsters showed up on freshly pressed this week and I’ve been checking back in on them daily. Funny reads. 😀