Seen and Noted

So we’ve had the day of the Internet protest. Sites such as Wikipedia and others went blank in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). What does it all really mean?

The official line is true up to a point. No one will argue that there is a lot of piracy of intellectual property; movies, music, etc. You see it constantly, and there’s no question that something needs to be done about it.  However, these bills are so poorly conceived and poorly written that it’s obvious they aren’t the vehicles to accomplish the task. Most people are telling Congress to go back and get it right, and then we’ll talk.

It’s the unofficial line that gives many of us pause. My own opinion is that the real agenda here is censorship, which will in turn control information. Most of the backers of the legislation as it currently exists are corporations, many of whom own the major media outlets (papers, network news, etc.).  In case it’s escaped anyone’s notice, in recent years news has started degenerating into fluff. Hard news and information has given way to infotainment – and there’s more tainment than info, for my money. This is no accident; the powers-that-be in America have no desire for an informed populace. It’s about the last thing that they want, because if we all really knew how dirty their hands are, we’d rise up in righteous wrath. As long as they can control what gets out to us, they can continue to pursue their evil aims pretty much unchecked. They were seriously honked off when Wikipedia aired all that dirty laundry, and they’re eager (dare I say, desperate) to keep that from ever happening again. No, I for one fervently believe that this is about censorship and restricting information – and I for one am agin’ it!