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I feel i should be "down" today in protest against the US laws SOPA/PIPA being considered in Congress. I've deactivated my twitter and facebook accounts, for what it is worth.
I note one of the effects of the proposed laws is to encourage payment processors to cut off support to the identified websites. I'm not entirely sure what "encourage" means, but i don't like it. Dreamwidth's struggle to find a payment processor that will do business with a company that does not restrict content beyond "must be legal" indicates to me that the government need not get into the encouraging business; it appears that's happening without any law with some "chilling effects."
Google's blackout of its logo is nice, although i wonder what would happen if they didn't show advertisements for 12 hours during peak US surfing hours to US IP addresses. Clearly, shareholders interests might be threatened, she sneered.
Three copyright-related bills are currently in play at the start of 2012 – all of which take aim at any website beyond U.S. borders that distribute counterfeit or copyright infringing products. All three bills operate under the assumption that there is a problem that needs to be solved – and the best, or only, way to combat online infringement overseas is with more law targeted at foreign websites. These bills have the potential to negatively impact fundamental library principles. The following chart is for quick reference (not meant to be comprehensive), and outlines the primary issues and concerns of interest to the library community and those who use the Internet.
--http://www.districtdispatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ALA_pipasopaopen_ref_guide.pdf
I note one of the effects of the proposed laws is to encourage payment processors to cut off support to the identified websites. I'm not entirely sure what "encourage" means, but i don't like it. Dreamwidth's struggle to find a payment processor that will do business with a company that does not restrict content beyond "must be legal" indicates to me that the government need not get into the encouraging business; it appears that's happening without any law with some "chilling effects."
Google's blackout of its logo is nice, although i wonder what would happen if they didn't show advertisements for 12 hours during peak US surfing hours to US IP addresses. Clearly, shareholders interests might be threatened, she sneered.