Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Opinions of SOPA and PIPA Supporters are Wrong

Have you ever just stopped and thought about how important the internet is?  Seriously, take a few moments and think about how different your life would be right now.  My family were pretty late adopters to the whole "world wide web" thing, but the internet for me has been everything from browsing MIDI-soundtracked Geocities (RIP) pages late at night on a shitty dial-up connection, to instantly accessing the hundreds of scientific papers I've had to read for my studies, to finding a great community of friends around the world who eventually had the crazy idea to start a blog together.  There is so much more I could detail, and so much more I should not detail, but the internet is special to me because it is an unfettered culmination of humanity, with all of its best and worst attributes.  But it is still in its infancy--the majority of the world doesn't even have access to it.  It has so much room to grow and to challenge, and we have so much room to grow and to be challenged.  So that is why it should tear at the core of every sane person's being that Congress is even considering measures to censor and stifle the internet.  It's disgusting.

This isn't about whether piracy is good or evil, or whether copyright is unfaltering or outdated.  SOPA and PIPA are all about suppressing individual liberties and killing the internet we all hold dear.  Censorship is a slippery slope, and once the door is open a crack, the deluge is all but inevitable.

We at YPOIW would like to let all SOPA and PIPA supporters know that their personal opinions on this matter are wrong, and we encourage everybody who enjoys the internet to join the movement.

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