Today is American Censorship Day, and it’s a really important event. You’ve all heard me talk about my feelings on censorship, that it goes against everything that freedom stands for. But we won’t understand its true implications if we look at this topic through the lenses of the past.
Yes, content created by an individual has the right to a certain amount of protection, both legally and commercially. But we all know that we are creating this content for the specific purpose of sharing it with others. If a piece is going to be shared, then it really isn’t going to need such protections outside of what it’s creator has done. We live in a commercial world where everyone thinks that they deserve to be paid for their work, and they’re right. But what we need to be thinking about is the extent to which a person should be paid. One time? A creator’s lifetime? A creation’s lifetime? In perpetuity? It’s a hard question, but it should be answered by the creator and not by external institutions or even public perception. This question belongs to the creator’s logical belief in what is deserved.
Greed has played into this concept, and now our own governments are trying to take over the conversation. Considering that they had no hand in the creation to begin with, then why do they have the ability to enact legislation perceived as social good, but really for their own personal good? Well, they shouldn’t!
The new SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) bill is a blatant and overreaching attempt at controlling a venue that everyone has wanted to control since its inception: The Internet. Big Money wants to control this new digital world like they do the physical world, even though they did not create the content on the Net. Because a company attaches a small temporary network to the overall Net, a concept that was created to live in times of true dire need, does not give them the right of full ownership or even some misplaced sense of guardianship.
Things have gotten out of control in our institutions. They are not following the rules established by society. They’re following rules that they made up just for themselves. It’s time that we put thing back to the way they need to be. Here’s an article I wrote for Urban Times regarding Internet Censorship. There’s a lot of people who are rightly scared at what a small group is trying to do: Turn democracy off the Net. We need everyone to see what is really happening, and to protect that which belongs to mankind. It’s up to us now!
