Don't break the internet, USA!

Several of my favourite webcomics and one or two of my other regular haunts, have blanked out, or offered "temporarily unavailable" comic screens today, in protest at the US government's current proposed laws SOPA and PIPA, which are claimed to be aimed at stopping internet piracy but which seem in fact to be aimed at stifling creativity, protest, fair comment and other good things that the internet helps us do. It's no accident that when the protests in Egypt started, the government there shut down the internet; now it looks as though the US is doing the same kind of thing.

EDIT TO ADD: Here's a Guardian piece that explains it better than I can.

Most businesses are still trying to function on a business model that simply does not take into account that people like to SHARE stuff, and that, far from being a problem, people sharing your stuff with one another can actually be a good thing. This legislation seems to be an attempt to shore up the failing, 20th century model. Some of the webcomic artists who are opposing SOPA and PIPA are people who make their living from their comic, and whose business model works to exploit rather than be harmed by the tendency to share. They, as producers of original content, would find themselves harmed, not helped, by the provisions of SOPA and PIPA.

Normally, I tend to steer clear of talking about US law. It's an alien culture over there on the left bank of the Pond. But SOPA and PIPA directly impact everyone, not just USAians. Many sites are hosted in the US, and subject to US laws; whether or not we non-USAians publish content via them, we almost inevitably make some use of them. The provisions that require site owners to check every single link posted on their site, whether as part of the design or by users, mean that those sites could be slowed down to a stop.

Moreover, IIRC from when I looked it up last year, it's also got provisions to prevent USAians reading sites hosted overseas, and to seek prosecutions against overseas website owners who breach the terms of SOPA or PIPA. It looks like a huge attempt to override the sovereignty of other nations, and the freedom of speech of the entire world.

This isn't something where I can stand on the sidelines and say, "Huh, look at those krayzee Yanks." The Wikipedia "about" for their own blankout says that non-USAians should write to or call their their nation's relevant minister (I didn't see a title that I recognised from the UK government, so I emailed my MP asking him to contact the right person) so that our governments can communicate our concerns about freedom of speech, about fair comment, about right to protest and so on. And, of course, about the encroachment on our sovereignty implied by SOPA and PIPA.

EDIT TO ADD: here's the Avaaz petition.

I'm not mucking about with my blog to try to do my own blankout (I might break it by mistake) but I thought I would give a list of links to some of the places I like that have done:

Wikipedia, who gave us this advice.

Maybe Days, Maymay's tumblr-style blog

Fetlife (I'm assuming you'd need to log in to see their announcement page, but the link's there anyway for those of you who are members)

Those webcomics I mentioned:

XKCD (shift your angle of view and you may see the hidden message behind the censorship)

Basic Instructions

Girls With Slingshots

Something Positive

There are thousands of other sites taking part, but these are the ones that I regularly read.