SOPA & PIPA, buzz words of the week, have been sparking an Internet blackout from sites such as Craigslist and Wikipedia. Google protested the proposed bills by blacking out its logo yesterday on its search engine.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who cosponsored the PIPA legislation, pulled out his support yesterday and said this about it..
“I have decided to withdraw my support for the Protect IP Act. Furthermore, I encourage Senator Reid to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor. Instead, we should take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet.”
Republican Sen. Roy Blunt tweeted, “We can find a solution that will protect lawful content. But this bill is flawed & that’s why I’m withdrawing my support. #SOPA #PIPA.”
CNN covered the story here if you haven’t caught up with it yet..
There’s a lot of illegal activity on the Internet, no question about it; the big question is does the US government have the right to police the Internet for its citizens? Take a look at countries that censor the Internet in the graphic below…
The purple colors and the light yellow are censored. Dark yellow is under surveillance and green is no evidence of censorship. SOPA and PIPA would put us in the light yellow.
I’ve never been a fan of “big brother” unless its from someone I would consider like a brother. Its not the government’s job to restrict access to the Internet. Restriction is different from defining certain activities illegal. It is well within reason for lawmakers to define illegal activity (such as child pornography) and attach legal ramifications to persons engaging in such activity. Putting restrictions on the World Wide Web, however, is a very slippery slope.
What do you think?
