If you’ve stumbled here to Puddintopia today, it’s probably because half of the good sites you usually go to on the internet have gone dark as part of a mass demonstration to SOPA. S.O.P.A, if you were aware, is the Stop Online Piracy Act currently being batted around in Congress.
SOPA is both foolishly simple and remarkably complicated technical suggested solution to the problem of online media piracy. The long and short of it is that if it passes, any copyright owner will effectively be able to blacklist a website without warrant or any other form of judiciary oversight.
Yesterday, I considered embedding this video in my Tunes Test Tuesday post:
If we lived in a world where SOPA passed, and I posted this clip from the movie The Fifth Element, Sony Pictures Entertainment could have Puddintopia blocked without warning or any form of day in court.
In which case, you’d have seen something like this when you landed here.
Yes, the entire blog would be unavailable because I embedded a 5 minute clip from a decade old movie, from which I was deriving no profit. Oh, and I’d have no opportunity to confront my accusers first.
I believe in a United States based on Free Speech. This legislation is pretty much the opposite of that, and in my opinion violates the Constitution.
If you agree, contact your Congressperson or Senator and tell them to vote against S.O.P.A.
Otherwise, you might want to get used to seeing these kinds of screens.
Pud’n
Puddintopia 