act.demandprogress.org/sign/st…
petitions.whitehouse.gov/petit…
[more links to come later as I accquire them >.>]
Basically... if any of you know me to any decent extent OUTSIDE of deviantArt, you know I've been against the concept of SOPA, or PIPA, or ACTA, or that Trans-whatsitsface Act since the start. If you know anything about these laws, I figure you should know [if some how you haven't heard yet], that they're attempting to revive at least one or two of SOPA's worst segments into seperate laws.
For those of you who don't know, SOPA was brought to attention back in 2011, although sources tell me it was actually conceived in 2009. It's one of those ideas to impose laws to regulate the internet basically. You know, in the name of "fighting copyright infringement and piracy". It might sound noble at first glance, but there were some serious issues, including stuff that would've all but threatened the existance of things like the Let's Play culture on Youtube, or videogame streaming on Twitch.tv, or even fanfiction, gaming modifications or even most things an entire fandom does in terms of showing their appriciation of things. Even a site like deviantart isn't immune to this.
Unfortunately one of the provision they're trying to revive is the law to crack down on streaming content online. While you might think "they're just trying to stop some piracy of TV shows and Movies man" the problem is can we really trust that's all they'd do with this law? And even if that's the exact length they'd go, the problem is piracy is not something you can stop with mere laws. Piracy is usually done by people if they feel overcharged getting the legal copies of games/movies/music/etc. If they feel the quality of these things aren't good enough for the price, they'll either not get them or pirate them, end of story. I don't condone it personally, but why do other things have to suffer due to the over-obsessive nature of our govenment officials and the entertainment/music lobbies that have them in their back pockets?
If you're still skeptical, read this @ misfittechstudios.tumblr.com/p…, not just my part at the end, but the rant someone states towards members of tumblr who they assume will just ignore this and think it won't affect them. DA is mentioned, webcomics like bleedman's PPG comic and snafucomics are at risk, possibly fanfiction.net/etc are at risk too [regardless of your opinion on most fanfiction, we as people still have a right to make and read them ], along with a lot of fandom related endevors. It doesn't seems to matter of these fan works are just for fun or to help people making them or reading/viewing them get over the darker times in their lives. If that stuff really IS on the line because of this, HELL NO I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT. X.X
I don't get activist over much of anything I'll admit, but this is one thing I don't think laws, no matter their good or ill intent will fix. The internet is a monster the original creators have lost control over, and it's their own fault and they don't want to accept responsiblity for their actions and just want to stuff it back in the pandora's box they released it from. The internet has become an eldritch concept that will continue to make it's own path in spite of what people who want to stop it want.
Hate to say it, but yeah sometimes it really is 'INTERNET SRS BUSINESS." >.>