It's time to stop PROTECT IP
by Matt Cutts on January 18, 2012 in Personal, Web/Net
A couple months ago, I wrote this about SOPA:
SOPA galvanized the tech community, from start-ups to venture capitalists to the largest web companies. SOPA was an unexpected shock and a wake-up call. Well, guess what? Now the internet is awake. And I don't think it's going back to sleep any time soon. We might need to rally again in the near future, but we can do that. The internet learns fast.
Now it's time to rally and get loud. It's time to call your Senators. Heck, it's time to ask your parents to call their Senators. If you think the internet is something different, something special, then take a few minutes to protect it. Groups that support SOPA have contributed nine times more money in Washington D.C. than our side. We need to drown out that money with the sound of our voices. I'd like to flood every Senator's phone, email, and office with messages right up until January 24th.
If you need a quick refresher about why the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) are horrible ideas, Google did a blog post talking about how SOPA and PIPA will censor the web and won't stop actual pirates. Or read about how capricious takedowns can cause serious collateral damage. Find out how real, legitimate companies can be run out of business.
It's time for action. Call your Senator right now. Spread the word to your friends and family. Promise not to vote for politicians who support SOPA. Print out some PDFs and post them at work or on your campus. There's also protests and meetups happening today in New York, the Bay Area of California, and Seattle. Don't live in the United States? You can still petition the State Department at americancensorship.org.
This is it. You want to look back months from now and know that you did everything you could to protect the internet. Call your Senators, educate your friends and family, and please spread the word about PROTECT IP and SOPA as widely as you can.
But if you can only spare five or six minutes, please call both of your senators below:
Progress against SOPA
by Matt Cutts on November 21, 2011 in Personal, Web/Net
When I did my blog post about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) last week, things looked quite grim. The fight isn't over, but there's been a lot of great developments in the last few days. If you're not familiar with SOPA (and the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate), here's a video that covers the basics:
This internet censorship under SOPA editorial by Rebecca MacKinnon also describes why SOPA would be really bad for the internet.
I also wanted to take a minute and thank everyone who called or wrote their Congressperson to speak out against SOPA and PROTECT IP. As a result of people speaking up in the last few days, a lot has happened:
– Republican Representative Darrell Issa and Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi came out against the bill. Rep. Issa said "I think it's [SOPA] way too extreme, it infringes on too many areas that our leadership will know is simply too dangerous to do in its current form."
– On the Senate side, Maria Cantwell, Jerry Moran, and Rand Paul all came out against PROTECT IP.
– The European Parliament passed (by a large majority) a resolution criticizing SOPA. The resolution emphasizes "the need to protect the integrity of the global Internet and freedom of communication by refraining from unilateral measures to revoke IP addresses or domain names."
– Sandia National Laboratories, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, concluded that the SOPA legislation would "negatively impact U.S. and global cybersecurity and Internet functionality." Sandia joins Republican Representative Dan Lungren, who also worried that SOPA would undercut efforts to secure the internet with DNSSEC.
The response from regular people has been just as incredible. Consider:
– Tumblr made it easy for anyone to call their representative, resulting in over 87,000 calls to Congress. If you haven't called yet, this page on Tumblr makes it easy to call your congressperson.
– A ton of web users now have this issue on their radar. The Hill noted that "at one point on Wednesday four of the top 10 searches on Google were related to the bill. 'Internet censorship' was still the second most searched-term as of Thursday evening."
– SendWrite offered a way to send a physical letter to Congress. SendWrite eventually had to put on the brakes after over 3000 people submitted letters to send.
I think this overreach on SOPA will actually make the internet community much stronger. Let me tell you why.
The forces in favor of SOPA have been outspending the tech industry almost 10 to 1 in Washington, according to a recent article in Politico. Here's an image from that article that illustrates the vast gulf in spending:
And members of Congress are not always the most tech-savvy: the Congressional Research Service tallies only six engineers in Congress. But if you look further out, the picture is quite different.
In 20-25 years, a generation of "digital natives" who grew up with Facebook/Twitter, search engines, and cell phones will start entering Congress. The digital generation will protect technology like the internet from especially bad regulation. They'll protect technology because they grew up with it and embrace it. So if we can make it through the next 20-25 years, the people in power will protect technology for us, not fear it.
At least, I thought we'd have to wait 20-25 years before a critical mass of people would defend the net. But SOPA has brought that day a lot closer. SOPA galvanized the tech community, from start-ups to venture capitalists to the largest web companies. SOPA was an unexpected shock and a wake-up call. Well, guess what? Now the internet is awake. And I don't think it's going back to sleep any time soon. We might need to rally again in the near future, but we can do that. The internet learns fast.
– Sign up at American Censorship to send a note to Congress and get updates.
– Call your congressperson with Tumblr's easy web page.
– I believe anyone inside or outside the United States can sign this White House petition. If you're outside the United States, you can also sign this petition.
– Follow groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Twitter.
– Sign up with United Republic, a new organization dedicated to the larger problem of money in politics.
– Sign up to have Senator Ron Wyden read your name on the Senate floor when he filibusters against this legislation.