GOING BLACK

If this site could go black today, it would be.


I know it is a little bit away from my usual non-political fun dog posts, but this legislation has far reaching consequences. Believe me when I tell you I am all for protecting copyright laws, I'm a photographer. However, the SOPA legislation is not the way to do it. Please write your representatives and let them know you do not support censorship. If you aren't aware of the legislation you can read more at Wikipedia (they're black today, but have links to further information and how to contact your representatives). Or just Google it. Actually that's a pretty good idea, because right now you can Google it. You may not be able to if this legislation passes.


From an interview with Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia. I think he sums it up quite nicely.

‎"CNN: I think a lot of people are still confused by the debate over these piracy laws. Can you explain your position in a clear, succinct way? Why are you so opposed to these (anti-piracy) laws that you would blackout your website?"

Wales:... Within our community we're very strong defenders of copyright. We have very strict rules about obeying copyright and we don't link to materials that we know to be copyright infringement. That isn't really the issue. The other side will try to paint this as anybody who's opposed to this must be making money off of piracy or be in favor of piracy. That isn't true. The issue here is that this law is very badly written, very broadly overreaching and, in at least the Senate version, would include the creation of a DNS (domain name system) blocking regime that's technically identical to the one that's used by China. I don't think that's the right way the U.S. needs to go in taking a leadership role on the Internet."


PS The graphic above was created by a friend of mine who said anyone who would like to use it may. No copyright infringement here. Feel free to snag it off my page and use it on yours if you like.