Some Thoughts on ACTA, SOPA, PIPA
Let me begin by saying that our politicians don’t understand the Internet. Let me also follow that up by saying that it’s okay that people in general don’t understand technology. It’s complicated. Roundabout. Crazy. Time-consuming. In a world of noise, we certainly don’t need more sometimes, especially if we’re a doctor trying to focus or a lawyer trying to get the best trial possible.
Let me also say, that just because you don’t understand the Internet or understand technology, it does not mean that you get to run around and tell the world how the technology ought to be used and try to prohibit when you don’t understand how the landscape works. And that is exactly how ACTA will work, and how SOPA and PIPA intended to work.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past three months, or aren’t in the Internet space, the world’s governments have been busy trying to legislate the Internet. The United States tried to pass SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Online Piracy Act), and since those two failed, the world governments are now trying to pass ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement).
But Albert you say, these sound very noble! They fight against piracy and stealing from others! And while they do seem to follow very noble naming conventions, like the USA Patriot Act (which we all remember so fondly), the reality is hardly seen in the name. The legislation gets pretty shady pretty fast.
I’m speaking out.
The Social Media Effect
As a social media person, I’m speaking out against this because its my career, but also because these very pieces of legislation threaten the very livelihood of technology and the way that people communicate, create and share, critical tenets of social media. The fact that simply sharing content, sharing what others have taught you (without having others pay you), and not being able to upload documents to the cloud (as the shutdown of Megaupload showed) brings a very dark cloud to citizens not any country, but people all over the world who use the Internet.
The problems with this act are simple. Its being negotiated in secret to begin with, and more so it stifles creativity and collaboration between a community of people - most notably the global community. As someone who enjoys coaching people on social media, networking and sharing my strategies, ideas and concepts that I have passed on from others as my own, ACTA would essentially stop me. I could be, under this proposed international law, cited for unlawfully sharing ideas without prior assumed written consent. These very blog posts which you see here, would not be able to be shared among other people because it would be seen as copyright infringement upon my end, and people who view could be arrested under ACTA surveillance.
Think about that for a moment.
The legislators of these laws are people who don’t know how to use the Internet, but are clearly in close quarters with the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), who are the ones most scared of the status quo. These are the same individuals who fought against VHS, who fought against DVDs and who are fighting now because long ago, they sat in their own offices and felt like they should be forcing others to adjust to them, and not the other way around. Steve Jobs helped briefly curb downloading by creating iTunes, but the men in suits are going to have to do a lot better than trying to shut things down.
Furthermore, the acts also seek to shutdown files stored in the cloud. With the aforementioned MegaUpload case occurring, there is no doubt a slippery slope looking to happen. Tumblr no doubt stores tons of images shared across multiple sites, and my blog would effectively go down. Box.net and Dropbox, sites I used to share files, photos and resumes would also in effect, shut down too, giving recruiters tougher access to prospective employees and giving prospective employees a tougher shot atgetting work.
Its overwhelming.
In closing, ACTA SOPA and PIPA are all pieces of legislation that cannot pass. Your career, my career and all of our online lives are at stake. Take a stand. Be heard. Don’t back down.
The future would otherwise, be bleak.
Share your thoughts. Comment below or on Twitter @albertqian.
