Dropping the SOPA

If you were one of the awesome people who checked out the most recent podcast, we had a brief discussion of SOPA. Since this is something of a pressing issue to internet denizens such as myself, I wanted to point you to the single best site for SOPA information: SopaOpera.org.

Now, its not just SOPA- which is currently working its way through the house. There is also the PROTECT-IP bill in the Senate. My quick breakdown on the podcast doesn't really do justice to how significant these bills are to the direction of the "open internet" as we know it.  And it is far from a fair fight. The most depressing figure so far is that the corporate backers of the bill far outnumber their opponents. The companies and other organizations in favor of the bill are contributing four times what the opposition has been able to generate.

While those aren't very good odds, I remain optimistic. Regardless of the success or failure of these bills, we (people on the internet) tend to do what we want and, fortunately, there are far more of us than there are of them. As computer scientist and all around smart guy John Gilmore once said, "The internet interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it."