About SOPA, PIPA, and internet freedom ...

The words SOPA and PIPA have been everywhere on the internet lately . For those who don’t know what they are , SOPA and PIPA are drafts for two laws that will allow the American government to shut down any website containing or linking to copyrighted materials without prior notice and fine them , maybe even put the people responsible for the website and copyright infringements in jail . PIPA is a law that forces ISP’s to block certain websites from their users, and even before mentioning any more details, this is screaming "POLICE STATE ". In other words , if the American government or a copyright holder deems a website as a copyright violators it reports it to the American Justice Department , and if the website domain is within the USA it is immediately shut down , if it’s not it’s reported to the ISP’s so that they would block it from their users ( of course proxy servers like the ones used during the Arab spring to bypass government censorship will be blocked too ). SOPA and PIPA have been supported by major copyright holders ( Microsoft , Apple , Universal Studios etc… ) and opposed by companies like Google, Mozilla , The Wikimedia Foundation, Facebook etc…  most of the general public and the internet community ( Anonyms , Wikileaks , The Pirate Bay , Whited00r etc…) .

There are four main points of objection to this projects ( four since people who want SOPA and PIPA not to pass as laws so that they could use pirated materiel don’t count ):

1.    1.    This is censuring the internet , hence heavily censoring free speech and the freedom of expression to exaggerated extent ( for example : if a political figure uses a flyer to campaign it’s agenda, and you edit what’s written on the flyer to use that flyer in a blog post were you explain what you believe is their true agenda, the political figure is free to accuse you of copyright violation and shut down your whole blog and force you to pay a fine for violating their copyrights, it can also be used by the US government as an excuse to censer all sites they deem inappropriate for US citizens , such powers could be abused by any corrupted regime to come  ).

2.     2.        The US government has been heavily criticizing the Chinese internet censorship ( all thought it’s also primarily with the agenda of stopping online piracy ) for years . Also if the US government does it , and considering its current superpower state , then all governments will be censoring the internet if they want to without any real international objection because it will have to be a strong objection against both the US government ( the one that is so zealous about “freedom” that it will destroy it’s own economy in a long destructive war “just” to bring freedom to a middle eastern country ) , and the other government .

3.     3.        SOPA is punishing the whole internet community for the act of one , for example if one copyrighted video is illegally  posted or was linked to by a video on YouTube , the whole site with all the useful and legal videos on it will be shut down , or if a blog on blogger contains copyrighted materiel illegally then the whole domain ( in that case blogger including  all its blogs ) get’s shut down or blocked .

4.    4.          There is no prior notice before taking down the “guilty” website .

In the mean time SOPA and PIPA seem to be pose no real threat to internet freedom because thanks to the worldwide protests ( online and in the streets ) the draft  is almost cancelled ( well postponed but is likely to be withdrawn or modified ). Some of the most important factors that led to what is considered today as the internet and free speech victory over the monopolies are:

1.    The White House objection : president Barrack Obama announced the White House won’t agree on any law that limits freedom of speech

 2. . The online “peaceful” protests of Wikipedia , Google , Mozilla etc… : Where tens of the most used websites in the world either blacked out their websites or posted anti-censorship logos on the “American censorship day”.

3. Anonyms: The lax group of hacktivists who have been relatively calm since the first quarter of the Arab spring except for some NATO websites attacked, have threatened to respond if SOPA and PIPA were passed by the congress . The Megaupload shut down by the American department of justice got them furious and responded by taking down websites belonging to the Department Of Justice , the FBI , the copyright.gov website and several key entertainment websites ( the RIAA foe example ) in an attaq considered the biggest ( by targets and number of Anons participating ) in history .

Hopefully , the congress will get the message and the bill won’t be passed . 

New Year's Resolution



A Real New Year's "Resolution"

It’s this time of the year again, the time where everybody see a new year coming ( already !!!!!!) , realize that 365 days have passed and that they don't have a pause button for time. A time where people are forced look back on the old year , contemplate what they have achieved or lost during that year, and , always whether they are satisfied with it or not , realize they have much to do and  much to change and that this new year is a blank page hat haven’t been filled yet with their mistakes and failures , and that they have the chance to shape it and fill it in any way they want. And that is what I believe is what the new year celebrations are all about ( I can't find another reason other then refreshing the economy and this ) . The beauty of this time of the year is not just the fact that it symbolizes new beginnings , birthday's do too yet I hate them , I believe the real beauty of this event is that almost everybody in the world is preparing  (even if it's only in his mind no matter how much they say they think new year's resolutions are useless) a list of resolutions to make him a better person and make the world a better place, therefor there is, even if for less then a month, a "change" that happens somewhere , and the world actually becomes a much better place for a while.

Now real, long lasting changes rarely happy because of new year's resolutions , it's life events , reflection ,true will and determination that causes a change ( positive or negative ) to happen , but still,  it gives me hope to see that people everywhere realize what  needs to be changed and want to change to a better person.