ON YESTERDAY’S CENSORED POSTS
Thanks for bearing with us yesterday. We know the censored posts were annoying. The goal was to raise awareness for the issue and spark discussion; judging by the comments, we were at least somewhat successful in that regard. To all of you who signed the petition or contacted your congresspeople, thank you. Actually, thank yourself… it’s your Internet, too.
All of yesterday’s posts have been updated with the original, un-censored text. Feel free to go back and catch-up if you like.
Now, to be clear, MetalSucks does not support piracy in any way, shape or form. Piracy is stealing. There are really no two ways about it.
But the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, the House version) and the Protect IP Act (the Senate’s version) will fail miserably, in two major regards:
1) They will not stop piracy. The ongoing game of “whack-a-mole” will continue as piraters find new outlets and new networks, whether those be through torrents (which these bills don’t address), hard-drive swapping, email, FTP, off-shore servers, or some other technology that exists now or will exist in the future.
2) They will sweep up innocent bystanders in the process and threaten free speech. Sites like this one — as well as giants like Facebook, YouTube and Google — face having to drastically re-work their architecture to avoid being shut-down, as well as steep legal fees that could put the smaller sites out of business and stifle innovation at the bigger ones. Due process goes out the window and sites that rely on user-generated content will have their lifeblood sucked away … all for a bill that won’t be effective anyway.
We’re all for supporting artists, labels, and everyone else in the industry that keeps the lifeblood flowing, but SOPA is not the answer. The bill faces a crucial vote in the House Judiciary Committee today, after which the House as a whole can vote on it at any time. The Senate has yet to vote on their version of the bill so there’s still some time, but we need to act now to stem the tide.
-AR & VN
