New Orleans    The Stop On-Line Piracy Act (SOPA) at least means soup in Spanish, so there’s at least one good thing about it.  Other than that it seems to be about big Hollywood and others trying to use poorly written domestic legislation in a ham-handed way to strike out at Russian, Chinese, and other foreign cyber sites that they believe are ripping them off.   Somehow they want the ability to shut down websites and, it appears whole companies like Google and others, if they find an offending item.   They’re wrong for that!

If this were just Google and the gang fighting Hollywood, it would be a yawner, but when trusted sources like Wikipedia, the less than perfect, but upstanding non-profit information resource, and the widely respected Electronic Frontier Foundation, so clearly join the protest, then you know which side is righteous.  Wikipedia took the highly unusual step of shutting down today – love ya, gang! – in order to make their protest crystal clear.  Others are rerouting on-line inquiries to explanations of SOPA and why it doesn’t make sense.

Many sites, like Craigslist, are enabling people who believe in internet access and freedom to write Congress and demand that their representatives stop SOPA and similar bills.  Seems like a good idea to me, so why don’t you spend a minute and join in with me:  www.craigslist.com.

Oh, but be careful which ones you pick because many of them (Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Reddit, Reverse Robocall.com) seem to mainly be harvesting emails for good and whatever.  The link to Electronic Frontier Foundation asks for your zip code, which is legit to find your representative, and gives you some choices for response.

It’s a wild world on the Internet, so PROTEST NOW!  And, caveat emptor!