Posts Tagged ‘totalitarian’
Ah, what a beautiful thing to see a great website so many people depend on willing to stand up and suspend their service in protest against evil . . .
Interesting to see Google only went halfway with their protest . . .
I was a little disappointed to see Google’s wouldn’t go so far as to suspend their service, but as I thought about it, it’s understandable, really – Wikipedia has the unique advantage that no other site anywhere provides what they provide as far as being a one-stop for any sort of knowledge imaginable, but if you need to do a search and Google has shut itself down in protest, that’s not going to stop you from searching, you just go somewhere else and who knows if once you go elsewhere you might never come back. So I’m willing to cut Google some slack for not completely shutting itself down today.
UPDATE: Excellent explanation of why Google is against the draconian measures of SOPA and PIPA and a cool graphic on just how many of us are with them.
Oh by the way, you remember Chris Dodd, the guy who did more to cause the housing crisis than any other person in America except for maybe Barney Frank? Well this guy is now chairman of the MPAA, and check his quotation here, an instant inductee to the Hall of Fame of Irony and Idiocy:
[Shutting down their services in protest] is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power . . .
source: MPAA Press Release
This guy! Talking about “abuse of power”? This from a guy who supports Chinese-style totalitarian control of the Internet in America?
So basically, he says it’s irresponsible for a website to shut down IT’S OWN SERVICE if they choose to do so, but he thinks it’s perfectly okay for our Federal Government Overlords to have the power to shut down any website they may see fit? Oh yeah, give the government dictatorial powers and nothing irresponsible could ever happen, you’ll never see major websites targeted for their politics or their owners bullied one way or another under the threat of a possible shutdown and I’m sure you’d never see that kind of power used to stomp little sites out of existence before they get too big for anyone to notice.
He’s upset with Wikipedia because they shut down a service of their own creation???
In Chris Dodd’s world, I bet you not only should the government have the power to shut down any website they see fit to shutting down, but I bet you he’d also give the government power to force a website to stay online at their demand or risk of fines and imprisonment.
Hit the Wikipedia page, type in your zip and call your representatives.
