Guys, that bill has NOTHING to do with SOPA.
This link has been going around, saying that SOPA was defeated. It hasn’t been, not yet. They are two different, if somewhat intermingled, issues. And yes, this is a very good thing-but this fight is not over. Seriously. Don’t sit back and go OH, WELL, WE AIN’T GOTTA WORRY ANYMORE. No, you have to worry. You have to be angry. You have to fight.
Congress might kill my livelihood.
I’m sorry to do this to you guys, again. This blog is first and foremost for my art, and I had no intention of it containing anything else.
But this is a crisis. For all of us who use the internet.
As I’m sure most of you know by now, the US is very possibly about to pass a bill that would give its government and corporations the power to censor the internet in the name of copyright protection. A cause that is noble in idea, but we all are too aware of how terribly these powers get abused. Especially when corporations are given a hand in it (and from the get-go!).
Now, the House of Rep.s has announced they are ignoring all petitions and protests of these bills in their ruling.
And, the petition going directly to the Obama Administration is only limping along toward their 25,000 signing goal.
The reason I break my “art-only”-blog-rule is because—
Well, no. Let’s so this:
Dear men and women of the US Congress, House of Representatives and Obama Administration,
I’m appalled by S.968 and H.R.3261 because of how devastating it would be to everyone in the US- but to an even greater degree, to people like me.
As an artist, my livelihood is built around my presence on the internet. The creative communities and blogs that I’ve built my reputation and business around are threatened by this bill. My husband and I already have found these last couple years hard because of the shaky economy, but if sites like DeviantArt and Tumblr were to be threatened, or god forbid, censored from us and our US viewers, you will have wiped out our entire means of living. My personal portfolio site cannot do all that these communities have done for us and our business. These sites let us connect with people in a way you could never do with traditional gallery-work or exposure. With these sites, we are accessible to our fans and customers, and as such they become more that just fans and customers to us. Thanks to these online communities, the massive networking and exposure had lead to us getting freelance work from well-known media companies, as well as simply sell personal work to support ourselves. Because of these resources, we make our living doing what we love, what we are passionate about. What we do for a living is more than just our job; art is our life.
By passing this bill, sites like YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Blogger, DeviantArt, SoundCloud, and pretty much any site that allows independent users to post or edit content, is threatened to be censored to American viewers. It’s ridiculous enough to think this threatens people’s basic rights to express themselves online, but there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in the US and worldwide who rely heavily on these threatened resources to sell their legitimate goods and services.
If these sites get blocked, or worse taken down all together, you have effectively left my husband and I without means to support ourselves adequately.
All these corporations that are effected by internet piracy have continually been making billions of dollars, regardless. Their losses because of copyright infringement has not come close to sinking their ships.
Many, many, people’s livelihoods are threatened with extinction if censorship of the internet is allowed.
My sincerest hopes,
Shy Custis,
Illustrator,
Columbus, Ohio.
My words will be ignored by congress, just like all the others who have said similar, and the petitions that people have flooded with protest. It’s naive to write it anyway, but I’d like to have at least said something on a public forum.
Please reblog and add your words. Regardless of what you use the internet for.
"...The Protect IP Act, which has been introduced in the Senate, and a House version known as the Stop Online Piracy Act — have an impressive array of well-financed backers, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Federation of Musicians, the Directors Guild of America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Screen Actors Guild. The bills aim not to censor political or religious speech as China does, but to protect American intellectual property. Alarm at the infringement of creative works through the Internet is justifiable. The solutions offered by the legislation, however, threaten to inflict collateral damage on democratic discourse and dissent both at home and around the world."
nytimes.comThat unions and artists are some of those spearheading SOPA and PIPA is at once troubling and sad.
Over 100 Lawyers, Law Professors & Practitioners Come Out Against SOPA | Techdirt
techdirt.comIn sum, SOPA is a dangerous bill. It threatens the most vibrant sector of our economy — Internet commerce. It is directly at odds with the United States’ foreign policy of Internet openness, a fact that repressive regimes will seize upon to justify their censorship of the Internet. And it violates the First Amendment.
Senator Harry Reid Moves To Approve PROTECT IP And Begin Censoring The Internet
techdirt.comApparently ignoring the widespread protests about both SOPA and PROTECT IP (PIPA) from the last few months (and the momentum growing against both bills), it was announced over the weekend that Harry Reid is seeking to override the hold on PIPA put forth by Senator Ron Wyden (along with Senators Jerry Moran, Maria Cantwell and Rand Paul) by seeking cloture. This isn’t a huge surprise. Last week Senator Reid had informed other Democratic Senators that he intended PROTECT IP to be the first bill he brought to the floor when the Senate returns for business in January. So, now the cloture vote will happen January 24th, 2012 just as the Senate comes back into session. That means there’s a little over a month where Hollywood is going to make every effort it can to get Senators over to its side. They need 60 Senators to betray the Constitution and to undermine a decade and a half’s work on online security for a plan that won’t actually help Hollywood at all. But, with Hollywood flinging money around DC like they’re making record revenues at the box office (which… um… they are), they’ve already got 40 Senators signed on. That means there’s a month to make sure 20 other Senators don’t betray their country, their economy and the internet.
The really disappointing part in all of this is that these Senators appear to remain totally out of touch to the public opinion on these bills. They simply look at Hollywood, the US Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO and see dollar signs. These groups fund campaigns, and 2012 is an election season. So, might as well try to make them happy. Public will be damned. Of course, the one way to defeat dollars is with voters. The more constituents who reach out and call their Senators, or (better yet) go and visit them and explain how this bill is a disaster that undermines everything America stands for, the better. So, start calling…
This shit just does not want to die without a fight.
Call your reps and make your voice known. You know what to do.
