Usually on Wednesday, I go on RTW at YA Highway - but RTW is dark today in solidarity with many other internet presences, in protest of SOPA. I can't think of a time when censorship of an adult in compos mentis makes sense - I
wrote about it a while back when a 'white washed' edition of Huckleberry Finn popped up about a year ago. I absolutely believe in self-censorship, and the rights of parents to censor material for their kids. But SOPA can infringe on rights you take for granted right now. There have to be other ways to protect artists'/corporations' rights.
But do you agree? Is censorship an acceptable side effect of stopping piracy?
On another much more fun note,
Literary Rambles is having a contest to celebrate their 2000 followers. If I ever have that many followers I will likely keel over. Casey and Natalie have a very smart, resource-rich site over there - whenever I am researching an agent, I make sure I head over there and 'vet' the agent I'm about to query. Their site is indispensable! Their book giveaway is just a sweet cherry on top.
All SOPA will do is force the pirates to change sites while SOPA punsihes and closes down legit sites who had leaks through no fault of their own.
ReplyDeleteVictim blaming 101
Instead of RTW, I wrote an article on piracy (the internet kind) offering my perspective. I'm a firm advocate of rewarding those that do good as opposed to trying to punish the miscreants. The latter only ends up hurting the innocent, while the former makes piracy irrelevant.
ReplyDelete@sarah - I agree, it definitely has the potential to punish sites that are blameless. Plus, as you point out, I doubt it would keep pirates from changing tactics and getting the illegal material out there regardless.
ReplyDelete@Colin - interesting idea using reward as an incentive instead of punishment as a deterrent - going over to check out your post now.