Going Dark in Protest of SOPA and PIPA
Dear Friend and Reader:
Gay Girl Dating Coach has gone offline from 5:oo PM until midnight EST today, Weds. Jan. 18. We are joining our fellow websites who are protesting proposed federal legislation that would turn the American Internet into something considered normal in China.
Two bills currently pending in the U.S. Congress — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its companion bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — propose new powers for the government and also for private companies to essentially create blacklists of sites that allegedly are engaging in some form of online infringement. Government and media corporations could then force service providers to block access to those sites. This opens the door for the government and corporations to easily and conveniently censor the Internet, without due process.
These bills began, theoretically, as ways to curb copyright infringement; but they have been thoroughly crafted to open the door to dangerous levels of censorship. Even Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz from Utah talked about the disconnect between addressing copyright issues and what has been drafted in SOPA in a December hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. Chaffetz remarked:
“I was trying to think of a way to try to describe my concerns with this bill, but basically, we’re going to create — we’re going to do surgery on the internet, and we haven’t had a doctor in the room tell us how we’re going to change these organs. We’re basically going to reconfigure the internet and how it’s going to work, without bringing in the nerds, without bringing in the doctors. And again, I worry that we did not take the time to have a hearing to truly understand what it is we’re doing. And to my colleagues, I would say, if you don’t know what DNSSEC is, you don’t know what you’re doing. And so, my concern is that there is a problem, but this is not necessarily the right remedy.”
He is being extremely polite when he puts it that way — but he has the right idea. In our view, the open Internet is the only thing between the American people and some very bad things happening.
Open Internet access is crucial to all of us trying to connect and create. Anyone who has ever experienced the least modicum of creativity or the humblest inspiration knows that creative process of any kind cannot exist in an environment of fear, of chilled speech or of constant worry about transgressing. The whole point of art is to transgress. And as a lesbian and homosexual, our rights are already limited by laws and ignorance. We don’t need to add to the list.
Bigger websites, including Wikipedia, Craig’s List and others, are going dark for 24 hours (which started at midnight). You can visit their resources areas here and here for more information and to add your voice to those telling our leaders to keep the Internet open.
Thank you for your support, and for standing up for free speech and a world free from paranoia. See you tomorrow with my regular Thursday post.
Yours & truly,
Mary G. Malia
Your Gay Girl Dating Coach
