A great metaphor illustrating why SOPA/PIPA are bad - written by my esteemed friend, Dr. Cary Gabriel Costello:
The problem with explaining the negative impact of SOPA and PIPA is that the people who need it explained to them generally don't rely on the internet in the same way we do. If they're legislators, they have staffers to run a Facebook page for them. If they're people next door, they put up photocopied flyers to advertise a yard sale to get rid of their old stuff.
We need an offline metaphor for them. Like: imagine your grandma loves Mickey Mouse, and loves doing needlepoint. She makes cute embroidery depicting Mickey Mouse in front of city landmarks, and decides to sell them at a yard sale. So she takes photos of the needlepoints and creates a flyer for the yard sale, and puts them up around town. But Big Brother sees one. And since Mickey Mouse is a copyrighted figure, grandma gets arrested and put in jail for 5 years. Not only that, the photocopy place where everyone in the neighborhood goes is shut down and nobody can use it. And the trees with the flyers on them are cut down. And when you cry, "But it was just grandma, it's not like she was cutting into Disney's profits! Five years in jail is insane! And I need to use that photocopy place! And my world is emptier without those nice trees!" you are labelled an anticapitalist pirate. It's like that.
More info:
Join the strike -- write to your congresspeople
Why SOPA is Dangerous
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