SOPA--domestic Drama

Bills to stop Web Piracy are causing all sorts of trouble here in the US and in California. My Business Law students are all concerned. There are so adorable.

The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act are supported by the Motion Picture Association of America. In opposition to those Acts is the entire Tech industry who is blacking out Wikipedia as a protest.

I'm thrilled. I plan to organize my entire Legal Research and Writing class around this tremendous event. Finally, I will be privy to my students ACTUAL thoughts instead of those stolen from the anonymous but clearly wisemen of the Wiki world. Who else but the wise have time to update and verify all that is contained there??!!

At this point I don't even care if I sound like my parents....old and ill-informed. Seriously?? A protest that stops the one site I have spent years forbidding students from using.

The tech guys claim that lawmakers just don't get it. Eric Martin of Reddit.com may be right that people do not get the Internet. I just wonder why, if he and other tech people do get it, they have not fought for copyright laws to be enforced. Shouldn't people be able to protect what they create and earn from it without being afraid of others stealing it??!! Maybe this is less about censorship and more about income streams being disrupted.

I really don't like being lectured about getting things when all I see is someone trying to save there ASSETS. If what you do contributes to the violation of the law...then that is a problem. Did you KNOW that when you started doing it. Look, I hate sounding like a cop but if YOU want to be paid at the expense of someone ELSE being paid then I am unsympathetic.

Conflict Resolution 101, be part of the solution and not the problem. The tech world needs to grow up and inform Washington if someone there doesn't get the inter-Web Net.

Tech geeks: Spend less time with Nurf guns and enter the adult-world of law, law creation, and law enforcement. Start making the tough decisions and compromises we are all forced to.

I am sure you have important things to say and we are all listening....and Thanks for the Wikipedia thing!!!