Online Blackout

Ok, first a video, just in case you have no idea what is going on with this whole "Internet" thing you happen to use every day. From Fight for the Future and Stop American Censorship

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

Ok, so that's happening. And it's staggering to think that our government would let it happen. 

Now the basics are that yes, pirating (aka stealing) occurs on the internet. Much like in real life. But the premise of this bill is akin to not allowing people to leave their home just because some of those people will use that privledge to steal. It is simplely an unexceptable restriction on the lives of many Americans. In a time when the debate exists on whether or not Internet Access is a basic human right akin to access to water (as declared by the United Nations), our government should not be searching for ways to destroy American's access to this fundamental technology. As people across the world rail against oppressive regimes in Syria, Iran, and China, our country should be serving as a beacon of light for the democratic world, not trying to slyly follow in their footsteps.

The business reasons for this move, while they may seem obvious, are very misguided. Yes, the Entertainment Industry has suffered due to pirating. Not just pirating, but access to the Internet itself has hurt the way this industry used to do business. Where as before we were forced to buy over priced movie tickets and DVDs to see content, we now have the ability to stream content for smaller monthly fees. We can now shop around for the lowest price. We are not locked into their price structure, and the percieved value of their product has plummeted. We can legally buy the one song we like off an album for the fraction of the cost we would have faced years ago when we were forced to buy the whole thing. The Internet has made the consumer's life better, and while some media companies have adapted and thrived in this market, the larger companies hate this "Online Consumer Revolution". They want the old ways, so their businesses can thrive again, and this is the pitch they've sold our congress on.

But I ask you, what of the companies founded on the back of the Internet? The billion dollar conglomerates founded around the simple idea of an online search or a way to keep in touch with friends? Yes the Entertainment Industry has lost money, and it cost us American jobs, but by vastly limiting the most powerful tool of the Computer Age, won't even greater amounts of money be lost? These bills may have provisions to protect Facebook or Youtube specifically, but if these bills had been in place 5 years earlier neither of those would even EXIST today. And whatever next big thing coming out of Silicon Valley is sure to die should these bills pass. Innovation would dry up in Silicon Valley, and the strongest driver of the future of the American economy would begin to collapse. It might not be sudden, it might happen over years, but eventually we would find that the majority of the world's leaders in technology immigrated AWAY from the US to start their businesses. The monetary and job gains in the Entertainment Industry would never match what the US would lose in the Technology Industry.

The goal of stopping theft makes sense. But by going against all of our ideals as a country to stop it, to presume every US citezen as guilty with no way to prove our innocence, that is a step we should never take.

~Jones Out