Google Co-Founder: US Piracy Laws on Par with China

Google's co-founder Sergey Brin recently stood up against the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP act, which would allow websites to be taken down without legal discourse. He said the act would put the United States right up there with China and Iran in terms of censorship. The government will be able to take down sites, hijack DNS domains, and even file lawsuits without ever going before a court.

The problem is that this isn't just about piracy. Companies could easily fight piracy through the free market, but they'd rather control pricing and distribution, as well as how their customers use their purchased content.



But, these bills aren't just about piracy. Recently, Universal Music proved just why this act will enable internet censorship. Universal Music had a video taken off of YouTube because the video featured various celebrities speaking in favor of MegaUpload. Rather than allow celebrities speak in favor of a tool use for file transfers (and occasional piracy), they had the video taken down for "copyright violations".

Did the video violate any of Universal Music's intellectual property? No, but it had a message they didn't like, so they had it taken down. But they didn't stop there. They also had a news story covering the takedown removed from the site.

In China, censorship protects a corrupt government. In the United States, it protects the businesses that fund our politicians. No wonder so many of our politicians are in favor of SOPA and Protect IP.

But you can warn them. Tell them you won't stand for it. You can head over to AmericanCensorship.org and tell your politician you won't support censorship in America. They're spreading word about these bills, and have already gotten recognition from over half a million people. They've also been supported by Mozilla, the EFF, Creative Commons, Wikimedia, and many more.

AmericanCensorship.org also makes it incredibly easy to tell your politician that you're not happy. You can send an email, or you can even call your representative through them. They'll give you talking points, as well as facts about the bill, so you can give your representative an argument against censorship based in fact (rather than rambling).

With enough support, politicians won't have to worry about getting campaign funds from their "anonymous donors", they'll have to worry about your vote, which is the way it should be.
via NPR, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, and AmericanCensorship.org