Over 45 years ago a tragedy occurred deep under the ocean. An American submarine, the Scorpion, torpedoed itself. All aboard died. I was looking at the list of the names of the dead at the Submarine Museum in St. Marrys, Georgia a few days ago. I was reading
techdirt when it struck me that H.R. 3261 Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Prevent Internet Piracy Act (PIPA) are nearly perfect torpedos. They said:
“The threat of collateral damage against legitimate sites
is extraordinarily real. It’s so real we have clear evidence
of it happening at home, in the case of Dajaz1.com. Or with
the death of Veoh. Or with the very fact that SOPA supporters
continue to claim that RapidShare is one of the key sites
they seek to kill via SOPA, despite it being declared legal
in both the US and Europe.”
All that they need is to be properly weponized by some enemy. China, or some company in China, comes to mind after what they did to Google. After all this is war not just business. Take the website of a large business in the US or Europe that you compete with. Write some music with lots of lyrics and copyright the music. Have the music performed in public to show that it is real. Hire some $3.00 a day folks to put the really boring lyrics into the products as comments and then leek all of these violations to the RIAA so that the RIAA can turn the weponized SOPA into the torpedo that sinks the large retailer. Then Laugh. Laugh all the way to the bank at a country that is stupid enough to torpedo its own businesses. Laugh like hell that anybody could possibly be stupid enough to make laws that can be used to destroy jobs and lives of US citizens.
If somebody in some other country fails to figure out how to weponize these bills, then those of us that are hurt by SOPA should figure out how to weponize the bills and use it against the very supporters of that bill. Could SOPA/PIPA be used to eradicate the web presence of political candidates that supported these bills?
Congressmen are only motivated by money and votes. With congress having a 5% approval rating, any incumbent that gets replaced with a new face is a 95% improvement! If that incumbent happens to have voted for SOPA, then that is even better. It is my opinion that getting rid of every senator and representative that supported these bills would certainly improve congress. If every person that opposes SOPA/PIPA commits to vote for somebody else and makes campaign contributions to other candidates that will have an impact.
Every business that supports SOPA needs to be attacked by boycotting the products that they sell. I know that I am now boycotting Walmart because of SOPA. I have taken all of my Sony and EA products and tossed them in the trash. I can spend a lot more time being productive and a lot less time goofing off with games and movies. I can go for a walk and burn off some fat. It is better for me. If SOPA passes it will have a negative impact on my income – and what I do is perfectly legal – and I can see no reason why I should support any business that helps pass idiotic, dangerous laws that take away from my livelihood.
What I hope for is that 45 years from now my children will not see 2012 as the year that we torpedoed Youtube, Google, Amazon, Wikipedia and hundreds of other sites. I hope that they will live in a world that is free from censorship and a world that has a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
edganyeats 