Resource Allocation
Note: So I wrote the below post in advanced, before websites agreed to blackout for SOPA today. Back then, it was clever. Now it just comes off as repetitive. But you’re going to read it anyways, and you’re going to read it good. Also, some of the links don’t work because the sites are down for the protest. Ironic.
Something is wrong. If you commit second degree murder in the USA, you could get a $25,000 fine, and/or 4-15 years in prison. If you download 24 songs from Kazaa, you will get a $2 million fine. Now I’ve ranted about piracy before, so instead of making you skim another post of rage, I’ll just talk about SOPA.
SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) was introduced in the USA by the devil. The idea behind it is that if you link, on purpose or by accident, to any other site that also links or has something related to piracy, you’re going to get in trouble. You can imagine what this would do to Google, who’s entire business is linking to things. Thankfully, due to public outrage and pictures of kittens everywhere blacking out, SOPA has been temporarily shelved. This doesn’t mean it’s dead though; it will come back, and there is a sister bill called PIPA which is still around.
You may wonder, as I did, why the US government would introduce a bill that is clearly unfavourable to its citizens. The answer is money. Here is an example of some “donations” made to US senators by corporations which would benefit from SOPA. I put donations in quotes there because it’s really a bribe, to ensure they vote the right way:
- Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] $3,502,624
- Sen. Charles Schumer [D, NY] $2,648,770
- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand [D, NY] $2,080,651
All of this may come off as me supporting piracy, which is not the case. I don’t think things should be free when someone worked so hard to create it, but I do think the punishment right now is dictated not by fairness, but by greed. And I think this is because some corporations refuse to adapt to a new reality, where consumers get things fast and cheap.
Oh and lastly, don’t use Go Daddy. Aside from supporting SOPA (until they had a huge customer backlash), their CEO shoots elephants. What did elephants ever do, to anyone? That’s just mean.
- Original Video Post – Extra Credits: Season 3, Ep. 24a – Stand Together: The Gaming Community vs SOPA and PIPA
- Sign a petition to have the ESA remove their support from SOPA/PIPA here
- Sign Google’s petition – End Piracy, Not Liberty – here
This is a great post. Oh, and those “bribes”? In American politics they call that, “lobbying”.
thanks! yea i noticed in all other blog/news posts they never call it bribing. but i mean, that’s what it is. i don’t get the eggshells.
Well, in the States we have a little thing called decorum. Just out and calling a spade a spade is frowned upon here. I can understand your Canadian system of frank honesty, however. You must band together and share a common trust in order to survive the icy wastes.
Not everyone trusts. Some fall victim to the ice.
damnit! i just bought our website through godaddy… fml!
you can transfer your domains from GD to namecheap.com with the coupon BYEBYEGD. this is what i did for my 10+ domains, and namecheap is much better. they may be down today though, due to the SOPA protest.
Thanks for the advice on namecheap… i’ll look into them for changing over my domains!
This SOPA shit is gay… damn rich people always tryna make shit hard for us normal peoples!
I agree. SOPA is just idiotic. This is exactly what the internet was created for. Free information and people posting horrible videos of themselves covering songs no one likes anyway.
Also, awesome screen shot on the computer. I knew it was BF3 before the dialogue haha….. I play entirely too much.
It sounds to me like you play the perfect amount for this comic. :)