Rogue websites – those singularly devoted to profiting from their blatant illegal piracy – restrict demand for legitimate video game products and services
- from a statement on SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) released by the ESA (Entertainment Software Association); edited by me to include the hyperlink
The most frustrating thing to come out of the past year of political discourse in our country and around the world is an impossibly heightened sense that we, the constituents, have been robbed of our representatives in government or that, rather, our representatives in government have been duped into thinking that their constituencies are massive lobbying groups with agendas that almost never venn with the wants and needs of the general populace.
Nowhere is this clearer than the ongoing battle against the depressingly-inevitable-it-seems Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which will do nothing less than change the way we interact with both the Internet and other people on that Internet. The proposed legislature essentially tries to stop online piracy by turning basically everything into something potentially piratical. This is, you may have noticed, a bit like stopping King Midas from turning everything into gold by throwing all his gloves away.
A majority of sensible, tech-savvy people understand that this is awful (and it is awful), but here’s the thing: the lobbies pushing for this bill both actively hate and completely misunderstand the Internet, and the legislators responsible for voting on the bill don’t know what the Internet is at all, and are oddly proud of their ignorance (which is how you know that a whole bunch of them are Republican*).
*Sen. Bob Casey (D – PA) – my Senator – is a co-sponsor of this bill, and it is one of the reasons why I refuse to support his reelection.**
**Which leads me to the uncomfortable thought of who to vote for when nobody on the ballot deserves my vote.***
***Never mind – I’m too depressed.
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Jeff, there is only one candidate you can vote for in good conscience.
Lizard people.