Okay, normally the Wild Heart NEVER gets political. However, todays post, well, that isn’t the case. Why? Read on Wild Heart lovers!
Today,l I read that there has been a bill introduced to Congress called the Stop Internet Privacy Act, a.k.a the Protect IPAct of
You could see something like this next time you bring up your favorite website. Do you really want that?
2011. Sounds good at face value does it not? There’s where you are wrong. It’s basically an internet censorship bill.
An internet censorship bill would mean an infringement on the US freedom that we cherish the most: free speech. Also, what it would do is stop any sort of unauthorizd streaming of audio or video. In short, unless any sort of video you watch is from a major media network or Vevo for music videos as well as Pandora, Last.fm or iTunes for streaming audio – you can kiss the unauthorized videos of YouTube and basically all of Grooveshark goodbye. Also you can kiss sharing such “unauthorized” contraband goodbye too – you’ll be sent to prison.
Such popular websites such as Facebook, Mozilla, Paypal, LinkedIn, WordPress (where the Wild Heart calls her virtual internet home), and many others will either blackout or are considering a blackout on the day that the bill goes to the senate on January 24. Thus, the Wild Heart will be doing likewise on January 24.
This will also stifle small businesses because it threatens to shut down other places such as Etsy – an arts and crafts website where you can buy things such as a Michael Jackson softball or a purse made from a record, Grooveshark – where people upload music much like people upload videos on YouTube as well as YouTube itself. This is an assault on small businesses, up and coming artists (some of which do covers of classic songs and become famous themselves) just so that the already established businesses can keep making money.
Here’s a list of music industry SOPA supporters if you choose to boycott them:
American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
BMG Chrysalis
BMI
Capitol Records Nashville
CBS (and I would assume the people that own the rights to all things that were once CBS records)
Christian Music Trade Association
Church Music Publishers’ Association
Copyhype
Copyright Alliance
Country Music Television
Disney Publishing Worldwide, Inc.
Entertainment Software Association (ESA)
Gospel Music Association
Lost Highway Records
MCA Records
Mercury Nashville
National Songwriters Association
Provident Music Group
Republic Nashville
Showdog Universal Music
Sony Music Nashville
UMG Publishing Group Nashville
Universal Music
Warner Music Group
Word Entertainment
Now the ways that you can help are this: write your senators as well as President Barack Obama and tell him that this bill is an infringement on your rights to freedom of speech!
