Hey guys! James here again. It has been a while, and my last post was about the same subject. SOPA and PIPA. This has been something I have been passionate about for almost a year. Yeah, a year. A lot of you recently were looking for info on these bills, and you ended up here. Hopefully we were one of the candles that helped to shed some light on the subject. If you did not read the original article, you can catch up here. So what happened in this past month? Was the 18th successful? What happened on the 18th?
So many things to catch up on. First of all, the awareness of these bills grew IMMENSELY thanks to guys like SXEPHIL, Fightthepower.org, and most of all you. You were curious when you heard about our first amendment rights being completely smashed upon. Furthermore, thanks to sites like Wikipedia, Google, and Reddit; awareness grew like a snowball rolling down hill. Blacked out sites helped inform you, and you spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and every other outlet you could think of, you signed the petitions. For the first time in years… I was proud to be part of this internet generation who was shamed for sitting behind our keyboards and ranting… Yet doing nothing.
We accomplished something that has really never paid off in the past. We shouted out loud, we raised our fists, and – using the unstoppable power of what the government wanted to silence – we defeated two bills with one stone. You were ridiculed and laughed at by some, and supported and strengthened by the people who believed. Google reported over seven million people signed their petition in under twenty-four hours. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, made his first public Facebook post in years, urging us to do what we do best and spread the word.
Now that all of the praise is done, guys, please remember these words:
The government, big business, and Hollywood saw that we were growing ever more lazy with each passing year, and they tried to take advantage of us by pulling the wool down, and passing a bill during a time of year when the last thing we want to think about is “What’s going on in Washington??” Always keep your eyes open. Read, do research. These bills (or at least parts of them) will be showing up in future legislation. Whilst I am all for stopping piracy, a lot of those clauses and “loose phrasing” would have stripped us of our rights. One of the rights that we founded this country on.
YOU stopped that today. Go celebrate.
