I suppose I should be grateful that the US Congress has my back. But I know that they aren’t proposing this bill for me (because I don’t “bolster the economy” or “pay taxes” or “contribute to Super PACs”).
Anything that could potentially prohibit my silly little tunes from reaching the ears of someone who might enjoy them, especially at the behest of conglomerate media corporations, is garbage.
Sure, SOPA seems like artistic altruism, protecting inventors and writers. But the only ones it’ll end up protecting are the conglomerates who chew up and spit out the inventors and writers they profit off of.
It could potentially put an end to Twitter, Vimeo, Flickr, and many other ways we have come to love sharing and discovering honest and genuine art. Art for the sake of art… and maybe making a buck or two to pay the rent and eat a sammich a day. It’s us little guys who will be caught in the shuffle. And all I want is to play piano and hope it’ll pay for my sammich a day. mmmm, sammich. It’s almost lunch time…
Anyway. I protest the passing of SOPA, and with the full knowledge that this bill’s purpose is to “protect” my financial interest as a professional musician. If you believe that art-for-the-sake-of-art can benefit from free transfer of information on the internet, you should protest too. Wikipedia will help you, they’re blacking out their own site today in protest with information on what you can do.