Just in case I ever forget why thousands of people took a stand.
As a musician/songwriter, artist and photographer I can understand that there is a legitimate need for measures to protect property rights. However SOPA and PIPA legislations that are currently on the table, appear to be far to broad in their terms of reference to be free from abuse. It’s a basic human failing; hence, ‘give an inch, take a mile’. Sometimes it appears that lawmakers and legislators just don’t get it. Where they, (in most cases) appear to see an issue that needs some kind of action; instead of weighing all arguments carefully and devising an approach that is even handed, effective and free of gray areas that are far to interpretive, they fly in with a napalm mentality that takes out everything in it’s path, including the innocent. This is what bothers me about the current situation. There’s a lot of valid talk about inhibiting genuine development and innovation in many of area of enterprise on the web and these concerns need to be taken seriously, however the bigger players, whom the legislations are purportedly designed to snare will probably just bunker in behind more sophisticated defenses and some kid who didn’t read the fine print or even know about it will do something innocuous, thoughtless or risky and spend years behind bars for it and we’ll be expected to read that as a measure of the incredible success of the law.
I think that Forbes covered most of the issues quite succinctly here
Art + Photography 