The year is 2012,
The greatest information source known to man is under attack by various governments and businesses around the world, due to its free nature of illegal file sharing and ultimately piracy.
Lamar Smith, a US Representative, is the architect behind a new piece of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. The proposed bill would enable individuals or organizations claiming copyright to block any website they suspect of infringing their rights. They would simply send complaints to advertisers, payment services, search engines and even internet service providers operating in the US, who would stop doing business with the suspected site. It would have enabled law enforcement to block access to entire internet domains due to infringing material posted on a single blog or webpage.
Multinational Corporations defend the proposed legislation, saying it is a necessary step to impose copyright law and to protect intellectual property.
However, the internet is being defended by millions of ordinary citizens, myself included, who believe it is an action that threatens free speech, denies rights to privacy, and is too vague in its methods of action to enforce.
After mass protest online on January 18th 2012, the bill has been shelved for further inspection, but other countries, including this very emerald isle have seen legislation being proposed, and this is not going to go down lightly. After the shutdown and arrest of the founders of MegaUpload in New Zealand, courtesy of US Federal prosecutors request, the internet's users are getting ever uneasy, and backlash to proposition gets ever more likely.
http://www.tjmcintyre.com/2012/01/irelands-sopa-faq.html
sign the petition, keep the internet as it should be, free without prying eyes.
http://stopsopaireland.com/
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