No, not Pippa, but PIPA, PROTECT IP Act.1Which itself is also an acronym: “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act.” You may have noticed (assuming you have actually come through to this page) that my site has an initial page today protesting SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act (once the blackout is over you can read about it at Wikipedia). 2Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) | Protect IP Act (PIPA). I encourage you to go ahead and click that Wiki link because there you can put in your zip code and get the names and email addresses for your representative and complain.
I am protesting SOPA and PIPA not because I think that information wants to be free (in fact, I spoke with Information and it hates being personified and has no volition or wishes) or that I think stealing others’ works is acceptable in any sense. Rather the acts as currently written are too vague, do not give opportunity for due process, and will do nothing to stop piracy, the intended goal of the acts. Pirates Thieves will find a way around the restrictions and the only ones affected will be the average user like you and me.
So if this sort of activism annoys you, relax. It will all be back to normal tomorrow and you can blissfully ignore the issue again. Until you can’t.
- 1Which itself is also an acronym: “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act.”
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