Long Time Gone and SOPA

Tweet It has been a while since I have been here.

I've been spending time painting. You can check out my work at www.csrice.com.

I've also been following closely a piece of legislation called SOPA or Stop Online Piracy Act.  You've probably seen the commercials if you watch TV.  It's goal is to stop the online pirating of movies, music and other copyrighted material.

However, the legislation is a bad piece of paperwork -- it over-reaches and could have a disastrous affect on internet freedom.

Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe notes how a number of ways SOPA violates the First Amendment.

“SOPA provides that a complaining party can file a notice alleging that it is harmed by the activities occurring on the site ‘or portion thereof .’ Conceivably, an entire website containing tens of thousands of pages could be targeted if only a single page were accused of infringement. Such an approach would create severe practical problems for sites with substantial user-generated content, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and for blogs that allow users to post videos, photos, and other materials.”

A vote on SOPA is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, December 15, in the House.  If you feel strongly about how SOPA could impact the internet as we know it -- it may be time to contact your member of Congress.