Crazy times, crazy times. Just now, there's a bit of an uproar going on at the moment over the closure of Megaupload, an act which was immediately responded to by Anonymous with great prejudice. To say that the government would use this latest hacker attack as an excuse to push for stronger web laws would be quite an understatement.
But see, my problem with all this internet hoopla isn't that I'm all for piracy and would like the internet to remain a wild, wild west. My issue with all this internet hoopla is, why is America dictating the internet to me? I may speak English, but I am far from an American citizen, and as such, am not covered by their laws unless I set foot upon their territorial soil, which, barring visits to the US Embassy, I have yet to ever bother doing.
My issue with SOPA and PIPA would certainly be about the vague nature of the law as it is written if I were a US Citizen. But I am not. Yet regardless, here I am, forced to react, because even if this law is drafted in the United States, it can and very well will affect me directly. That is an alarming level of powerful legislation right there, allowing the United States to just ignore sovereignty issues willy-nilly to simply do the bidding of executives who feel cheated out of losing millions from the billions they are earning. Which is fine, really, except for the fact that their methods are not only indiscriminate because insinuation is enough cause for action without due process, but it's also indiscriminate in that this gives America the power to act beyond its own territory, and, if it does come to pass, most everyone else, especially my own country, will just have to smile, grin, and bear it.
I mean, seriously. Are we fooling ourselves into thinking this country, which gets its choppers second-hand from former first gentlemen, can fight back against America?
Thank you, America! May we please have another?
It's not happening, so before it becomes law, I feel compelled to fight it. It's good to know that Obama himself isn't for it, either, but y'know, something's got to give.
Here in the Philippines, piracy still remains rampant, and we already have enough problems with inept lawmakers trying to make heads and tails of this series of tubes. Do we need more competent people making our lives miserable for us?
Speaking of miserable, I don't know if I can ever use the vernacular expression "Kodak-an" without a sense of irony ever again: Kodak has filed for bankruptcy. One of the leaders in photography for over a century, it appears that with fewer and fewer people needing film to take pictures, Kodak has slowly but surely faded into irrelevance, catering only to the outlier of markets: hardcore purists and hipsters.
From now on, we call it "Canon-an" or "Nikon-an" or "Olympus-an," and it just doesn't have the same ring to it now.
Then again, we still call refs here "Pridgider," so maybe, just maybe, the expression would stay?
Speaking of staying, that's what our current Chief Justice will probably end up doing if the prosecution keeps on bungling their own procedures.
I'd crack more jokes about how inept the prosecution has been, but ultimately, for most of us, we don't really watch the impeachment proceedings for intellectual jousting.
We watch it for one reason, and one reason alone: the truth.
Pictured: the truth.
Oh, it's true! It's damn true!
No comments:
Post a Comment