Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Not blacked out, but I support efforts to kill PIPA

As usual, I was a day late and a dollar short with the "anti-SOPA/PIPA" strike on the internet.  So I'm not blacked out.

However, I support the effort to block the passage of this ill-conceived legislation.  Congress needs to do more research and get their heads on straight before they try to pass such laws.  They need to be more focused.  We do not need legislation that is so broad-brush that it contains the seeds of awful unintended consequences.

I am not just gassing off here.  I do not sit on the sidelines griping. I am a producer of content, I have intellectual property under copyright, not only in this blog, but also in two books.  I intend to write more books.  So I'm on the front lines in this thing.  But I agree with Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, who thinks this is bad legislation .

Congress needs to go back to the drawing board, do more research, and come up with a bill that will be more focused and more specific to get to the problem without opening the door for censorship and loss of our raucous, rough-and-tumble, open internet where we have a place to put our free speech rights to their widest use in a long time.

Perhaps it is time to elect younger people to the House and the Senate, people who have an understanding of the technology and of the world wide web.

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