Analyst Notes:
Today is a showdown date in America. Internet websites are closing to protest the proposed legislation that would allow the Feds to shut down websites at its sole discretion (without indictment or judicial review) in the name of copyright protection. Legislators are being bombarded with email, snail mail, and phone calls protesting the proposed legislation: [SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) in the House and Senate respectively]. Even the likes of Marko Rubio and Jim DeMint have now been educated about the insidious acts proposed in the name of protecting American entrepreneur but which does so at the expense of the Constitutional guarantees of judicial process and which opens the door for government censure of internet content!
Several big Internet sites like Google, Wikipedia, and others have closed or modified their messages today to awake the public to this new government intrusion into American rights. These bills are pushed by Hollywood (no liberals there, just Constitution-loving people!) and the Chamber of Commerce. These folks have tried for years to stop piracy of films and music and now they want to do it at the expense of American rights! This is the Chinese solution: just control internet content and you have peace in your nation! Yah right!
As proposed, a website that inadvertently links to information on a website which uses copyright material improperly could be shut completely down and all search engine references to it would be stopped. Nice for your business to loose its assets and in many cases its complete connection to its customers! Worse yet, there is no judicial review and the decision to close you down is in the hands of some unelected technocrat in Washington! Wonderful!
When will the Feds finally figure out we have a constitution and that they must follow it. If they want to solve a problem, they must take another route than to kill American freedoms and rights! Wake up! You work for us, not against us! Stop trying to sneak in thee new Fed powers with each new bill. Even the White House backed off this one when the heat came up! Too many contributors in Silicon Valley??
Some interesting links on the topic:
blog.heritage.org/2012/01/18/morning-bell-an-internet-blackout-over-sopa-and-pipa/
blog.heritage.org/2012/01/18/free-speech-an-unintended-victim-of-protect-ip-and-sopa/
www.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/technology/web-wide-protest-over-two-antipiracy-bills.html
