SOPA - The NHL wants to Censor the internet.

How would you like an American law that basically censors the entire internet the way China is censored? Without any real oversight? Guess what! That law is currently being pushed in the United States after many large multinational companies paid off "lobbied" some politicians enough to push it through. Among those companies are all of the major professional sports leagues of North America, including the NHL.

Now, I get where the NHL is coming from. Obviously here in Winnipeg, there are counterfeit Jets jerseys being bought and sold. It's worse on the internet. Obviously the NHL wants to protect their business. There are also streaming sites out there that they might wish to have shut down.. though I consider the proliferation of streaming sites a reaction to the needs of consumers not being met, not piracy that needs to be stamped out. I mean nothing is more infuriating to a Jets fan stuck in Vancouver not being able to watch TSN Jets. If I could subscribe to TSN Jets through a $10 web stream and not have to pay for basic cable, I'd pay it. Granted I'm happy with the radio feed.

But SOPA is to anti-counterfeiting and copyright protection what the Code of Hammurabai is to family law. It's akin to dropping a nuke on a city in order to kill a terrorist. It incriminates far too many people and gives far too sweeping powers to individuals and entities that CAN'T BE TRUSTED to use them.

Obviously as a Canadian, there is little we can actually do, even though this law effects us, we cannot threaten an American politician with votes. We get all the "benefits" of these laws with none of the say. Lucky us, to be serfs in a globalization game of thrones.

We can boycott companies who do support (foolishly) this law. GoDaddy recently backed down from their pro-SOPA stance thanks to the THREAT of a boycott. But lets be realistic, nobody is going to boycott the NHL. Especially here in Winnipeg. But we can hopefully communicate to the powers that be our distaste for this entire premise. Being anti-SOPA is not being Pro-piracy. Piracy is not something that can be legislated away anyways. Obviously as consumers everyone wants creators to profit from their works. I myself write this blog and would hate to have others steal it and post it under their own name. That said, a bad law is a bad law, and insane people who push those laws because they think theres something in it for them need to step back and rethink what stepping off the edge of a cliff will do to them.

These giant companies that are most in favour of SOPA? They want us to go back to the days of AOL or Compuserve or prodigy where they control everything we see and hear. They want to turn the Internet into a passive media where they profit off of every bit.