STOP CENSORSHIP

Dec. 30, 2011 at 1:39pm with 11 notes View comments

Stop SOPA Week Starts January 1, Join Me.

Let’s start 2012 off right!

71 of our representatives and many content providers and distributors want to add mechanisms that can ultimately restrict your voice and your freedoms. Stop SOPA Week is about telling Washington that for this one time, doing nothing is the absolutely right thing to do.

I’ve been vocal and so have many others. Over the last week, I’ve observed the best and the worst in behaviors with respect to SOPA and it’s proponents. What happened?

People spoke with their pocket books. Many site owners spent time and money to move away from GoDaddy to demonstrate they disagreed with GoDaddy’s point of view. Hackers called for a massive strike. People are flooding petition sites with submissions and phones with calls.

The result? GoDaddy changed their stance. I’m relieved they did. They listened and I trust they’ll continue to listen and seek more feedback. Sure, they might have learned a valuable lesson but I also think they’ll get something else: They’ll get closer to their customer and remember to listen to them, if not ask actively ask them for feedback.

What happened to GoDaddy can happen to other companies that still support these unnecessary laws.

In calling attention to a problem, I don’t (do not) believe our “representatives should be crushed”, sites should be hacked, or anything destructive.

Instead, let’s call both SOPA and PIPA efforts what they are: Commercial organizations are attempting to redefine our freedom to protect interests. They suggest that the creation of enforcement mechanisms will solve their problems. That the law can change the behaviors of a small set of the population that seem to think it’s ok to break the law.

Do I think that what happened to GoDaddy is enough for SOPA/PIPA supporters to reconsider their proposal? No. Many of them are larger and have deeper pocket books.

I believe that SOPA/PIPA supporters should be boycotted. Nothing else. Simply ask people not to consume. It’s easier than migrating a domain and it doesn’t cost anything! It doesn’t bring the FBI to your door.

To me, the benefits are obvious: For not renting or watching a video for a week, for not watching reruns in front of the television for a week, you also say the following:

First Amendment Rights trump any commercial interest.

For spending more time with your family or exploring lesser known media types and content, you get something else:

Knowing that this one time on this one single issue, that doing nothing in Washington is the right thing to do.

Seems like a bargain to me!