American Censorship Day

Today the United States Congress begins hearings on a new proposed law called the PROTECT IP Act (how does it work?). This law is aimed at protecting intellectual property and preventing copyright infringement online. Without surprise to you I’m sure, this law has been spearheaded by the entertainment industry. The same people that tried to kill VCRs, MP3 players, DVRs and more. The same people that sued grandmothers and little kids.

To make it worse, the law is also supported by politicians who, to be frank, don’t know shit about how the internet works, what makes it so successful and just how damaging an over-reaching law like PROTECT IP would be.

This video sums it up nicely:

I’m in a unique position because I would actually benefit from this law. The ExpressionEngine training videos I create at Mijingo are widely pirated online. Fighting the people that pirate the videos (and, sadly, those that do are part of our community) would be a full-time job. So, I choose to do everything I can to protect the videos without ruining the experience for legitimate customers (or treating them like criminals). That’s why my videos don’t have DRM or a complicated scheme to protect them from being copied.

I don’t think, however, that it’s worth ruining and censoring the Internet to prevent my videos from being pirated. And that is exactly what the entertainment industry wants to see happen; a nuclear option to protect their latest cream puff blockbuster movie from being pirated online or streamed in parts on video sites.

For those of you who live in the United States, please take the time to learn more about these proposed laws and how they can hurt you and the Internet.