The Day The Internet Fought Back

Wednesday the 18th – 2012, the Internet got angry. Over 13 MILLION people, and 70,000 websites stood up against SOPA, a piece of U.S. legislation that would have done a lot of damage to free expression and innovation online. Wikipedia, Google, and Reddit were some of the big boys, but they were backed up by all the free-loving mom and pop sites, (including this one) that closed their doors and urged visitors to petition up, making the largest protest this country has ever seen in a given day. I would like to thank all my readers that signed their names on this site and did their part.. I wish I could say my site contributed to .01% of those signatures, but this little blog is still growing. We did what we could, and its officially safe to say we won.

SOPA and PIPA put to bed.
House and Senate leaders abandoned plans to move on the legislation today (Friday) — the surest sign yet that a wave of online protests have killed the controversial anti-piracy legislation for now and maybe forever. Lets hope so anyway.

Website developers, owners, marketers, and users are all breathing a little easier today.. If this would have passed, there is a strong possibility that the majority of my websites and content would have been blocked by the US government.. The idea that someone would have the power to moderate all the Internets content is preposterous. Little known fact… not even 2% of the internet’s information is readily available to the public. Imagine the task of moderating this huge world wide web, and then doing it 49 more times.. I’m sorry to say, but it would take almost as many people to block the internet, as it would to build the internet.. America is a strong country, but the resources it would take to remove all copyrighted content online would be a military worthy effort.

As one of my favorite high school era movies (Anti-Trust) quoted.. “Human information belongs to the world”. Could u imagine if we had to pay rights every time we saw the Mona Lisa? or be limited to the information we can access online?? I for one wouldn’t be able to cope. Having an encyclopedia of knowledge constantly available at our fingertips, is in my opinion, one of the greatest accomplishments our civilization has ever and ever achieved. Innovation, technological advances, financial growth, and our futures stability, all depend on this informational freedom to grow at the pace we need to be at to stay above the global curve.

“The overwhelming input I’ve received from New Hampshire citizens makes it clear there are many legitimate concerns that deserve further consideration before Congress moves forward with this legislation,” said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who represents that state. She is among the senators who pulled back their support of the bill. Thank you Sen. Avotte for listening to what the people are saying, and not letting the lobbyist sway your vote with rhetoric propaganda. (As if there was a choice..) I believe there would have been a complete legislative change-up if these bills would have past, as we the people, truly do have a say in our freedoms, as long as we band together and use tools such as the internet to make our voice heard.

I, as a person that depends on informational freedom for my lively hood, am overjoyed with today’s news and will continue to keep my eyes and ears open for the next battle, in which I pray will not be during this lifetime. Today is a day to celebrate and take advantage of these freedoms.. I may download some pirated music tonight, and read a copyrighted e-books as part of my celebration. Remember, it’s not about informational freedom, its about what we do with it… We live in a place where this is possible, so count your stars and capitalize. Congrats to all… and keep in mind, that if pirated content is valuable to you, give credit where credit is due, and support the content owner with a payment if you can.

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