Soon Congress will be voting on SOPA and PIPA, both of if passed will enable the government to monitor and censor the internet for users and servers in the United States. Since the internet thrives on the exclusive freedom that it offers leaders of prestigious websites (Google, Craigslist, WordPress.com, Wikipedia, Wired, to name a few) have shut down for the day in protest. The fear is that, if enacted, these laws will remove jobs, stifle innovation, and raise the costs of doing business online.
I’m not sure what the answer to internet piracy is, but I think companies have already started to overcome those hurtles but allowing their content to be viewed online either for a fee or with commercials. And anyways, the internet is a force that cannot be stopped. Betty White hosted SNL because of the internet. The It Get’s Better Project can reach teens across the country because of the internet. The internet is a complicated machine that has started to take on a life of its own.
To close, I leave with a quote from Chuck Klosterman’s book titled Eating the Dinosaur:
“Technology is a more powerful force than the desire for freedom.”
