SOPA gets personal
☆ January 18, 2012
A lot of sites are going dark today in protest of SOPA and PIPA.
The Daily Coyote as we know it would not exist if SOPA had been in effect five years ago. The Daily Coyote book, which so many of you have loved, would never have been written under SOPA.
What do I mean? How can I make these declarations? Easy. Because I still so vividly remember those strange days in late 2007 when my blog went from obscurity to its opposite overnight. Dooce linked to The Daily Coyote with one picture and a blurb. Then Reddit, Digg, Notcot, and more. My editor-to-be at Simon & Schuster heard about The Daily Coyote at a dinner party in New York
and emailed me the next day with a book offer.
This would not happen under SOPA. This would be illegal under SOPA.
If you’re glad you found Charlie ~ and Eli and Daisy and the rest of the crew ~ please add your voice to those in opposition of SOPA and PIPA. Learn more HERE. Act HERE.
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31 Responses to “SOPA gets personal”
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January 18th, 2012 @ 9:47 am
So glad it didn’t exist then… I’ve laughed and cried on your blog, and I love the pics of Charlie.
Get your voice out there, Shreve, they need to hear that.
January 18th, 2012 @ 10:09 am
[…] a great blog post from Shreve Stockton, photographer and blogger at The Daily Coyote: A lot of sites are going dark today in protest of SOPA and […]
January 18th, 2012 @ 10:11 am
Thank you for adding your voice to the call against SOPA/PIPA.
January 18th, 2012 @ 10:13 am
I tried to contact my senators via http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm .. and I’m a little pissed that the links for my state, and many others are conveniently “broken.”
January 18th, 2012 @ 10:18 am
phone! use the links in the post! (that is gross though, ugh)
January 18th, 2012 @ 10:18 am
SOPA is looking to protect those of us in Hollywood who get pirated overseas through sites in China etc who offer free movie and TV downloads.
People are extrapolating a lot of spurious info about SOPA without realizing who it’s meant to protect. My bank account, for one.
January 18th, 2012 @ 10:27 am
that’s what it was meant to protect but that does not change the effect…..
January 18th, 2012 @ 10:32 am
I signed the petition a while back. I don’t trust the government to only go after actual pirating, I can see it getting out of hand quickly. There must be a way to protect copyrighting while allowing free expression. For example, a site like tombraiders.net provides walkthroughs for those of us that just can’t figure it out for ourselves. She’s not pirating, she’s helping. She’s also a fan-based site with fan artwork, etc. But she’s afraid of being shut down. Same with other blogs, walkthrough sites, etc. They don’t trust the government when they say, “We’ll only use this for such and such…” If that’s so, then write it that way in the bill. DON’T leave it for interpretation.
Shreve, we’re so glad you and Charlie are here!
January 18th, 2012 @ 10:33 am
Yet another instance where DC residents are totally powerless to do anything but sit on our hands. I’ve contacted our delegate’s office, but she doesn’t have a vote and DC doesn’t have any Senators, so District residents can make all the noise we want and it doesn’t mean squat.
So please, contact your voting representatives (particularly senators – PIPA is alive and well in the Senate still) for those of us who can’t do anything.
January 18th, 2012 @ 11:50 am
@Suzy, the road to hell is paved with the best intentions…where exactly do we draw the line?This will have a direct effect on our free speech. Sometimes when we try to solve one problem (piracy) we create another (suffocating our 1st amendment rights). There HAS to be a better way.
January 18th, 2012 @ 11:54 am
I agree with Wendy (#8). While I understand what these bills are purported to protect, and agree with Suzy (#6) that real protection is needed, I’m also old enough to know that the true effects of seemingly “just” legislation often lead to disaster. The unintended consequences of seemingly good bills can be horrific and can leave the original problem unresolved while simultaneously creating other problems that are as bad or worse than the original one.
So, thanks, Shreve, for posting about this. I urge everyone to read up on the issues covered by these bills. Whether we all agree or not, this is an issue that can impact everyone both for good and bad. The better informed we are, the better we can judge that impact and comment/vote accordingly.
I, for one, have asked my senators (New York) not to sign these bills into law as they are currently written. I want clear protections for both Suzy’s intellectual property and Shreve’s creative process, and I don’t see their needs as being mutually exclusive. Neither should Congress.
January 18th, 2012 @ 11:58 am
What makes me so sad (angry, really.) though is while I gave my two cents I feel that’s as far as it will go. I’ve voiced my opinion/protests in the past along side others for important matters and no one ever seems to be listening. Calls I’ve made to talk to representatives are brushed off as an annoyance that say “The decision has already been made (payed for), stop wasting your breath.” I don’t stop though because if by chance someone asks “Well are you doing your part?” I can at least say “Yes.” and avoid any pointless debate.
It does make me glad (thanks for posting on this Shreve) that more people seem to unite in such matters as of late, but it still hasn’t proven to be enough impact. I truly feel like “I just don’t want to live on this planet anymore.” -Futurama. Does anyone else feel this way? What more can one do? It’s a horrible feeling to have it in your head that you are already defeated before you’ve even jumped in to take a stance.
I guess I write this here since someone probably is listening (and it being the topic of the hour) who may have more words of hope, wisdom, and encouragement than I have at the moment.
January 18th, 2012 @ 1:37 pm
@HappyLittleBird – I’m sorry to hear your opinions were received that way. Most Congressional offices have a support/oppose form that they use when recording public calls, emails, letters, faxes, etc. They then present this information to the representative/senator when they’re preparing for a vote on the issue. While the opinions of their electorate aren’t the only deciding factor, they do enter into the equation, at least most of the time. So don’t give up. Also, if you’re calling your congressperson, as opposed to your senators, the response you’re receiving may be because SOPA is essentially dead in the House.
January 18th, 2012 @ 1:45 pm
The freedoms that you think you have…………………… are but mere illusions. Wake up children!!!
January 18th, 2012 @ 3:08 pm
Thanks for posting Shreve. I have signed tons of petitions and spread the word on Twitter and Facebook. I know the bills were written with good intentions, to protect copyright, but the opportunity for abuse and censorship if they passed is appalling. As a writer, a photographer and a journalist, I can’t support this, good intentioned or not. SO WHAT if China has websites where movies can be downloaded for free? Are those in the industry here bankrupt? Starving? Destitute? Nope. Sure, it sucks to have your work stolen. I’ve experienced, Shreve’s experienced it. We fight our own battles, we go after the thief and we get our work back. This bill is not the way to protect copyright works. This is censorship 101. This is a good article about what the bill would do:
http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/
January 18th, 2012 @ 5:34 pm
Both SOPA and PIPA are important to me as a school librarian. I teach my students research skills. That includes how to search for information on the internet and how to evaluate the validity of what they find. I also teach cybersafety and internet citizenship.
With freedom comes responsibility.
I can’t believe the number of people (my own nephews for two) that believe everything that’s on the internet is “free”. One person wrote that if you don’t want me to have your stuff, don’t put it on the ‘net. Well, this is exactly why SOPA and PIPA have gone so far. There are people uploading content that doesn’t belong to them (like music and movies) and others are finding it and taking it for free. I think “pirates” is too polite a term. Criminals are stealing stuff. And anyone that either buys it or takes it for free is an accomplice and a thief. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know when a movie that hasn’t even been released in the theaters is illegally available on the internet. Or a best selling book is suddenly there for free.
There is a reason we pay for things. It’s so those that produce them can afford to live and produce those things we like. If a musician can no longer support his family because his music is being given away for free by some criminals that steal it, then he’ll stop producing music and get a day job so his children can eat. That’s it in simple terms.
The problem with SOPA and PIPA is that they both go too far in censoring and threatening our freedoms and don’t really solve the originally problem that prompted the legislation in the first place. They are both bad laws and like so many others not can but will be taken beyond their intent.
But the bottom line is if we don’t want something like SOPA or PIPA to come back in the future, something that could be even worse, we need to stop stealing stuff off the internet. If no one downloads, then the “pirates” aren’t making any money or getting any attention.
Yeah, I know. In a perfect world. But we need to start somewhere.
Pay a fair price for what you use. Adhere to copyright law. It’s not that hard. As a librarian I live my life this way. I do without until I can afford to buy. I don’t “share” copyright content.
January 18th, 2012 @ 7:34 pm
mlaiuppa: Here, here and BRAVO!!!
Exactly. It comes down to personal responsibility and understanding that just because “everyone else does it” – does not make it right.
It is NOT ok to use another person’s image or words or recipe or anything – without their permission. And this includes a BIG business’s image/words/recipe as well as a “small” blogger’s.
Integrity. We all need to look at our own actions, our own personal integrity.
January 18th, 2012 @ 7:43 pm
SOPA is fascism. Additionally, the whining ginormous entertainment corporations are raking in the profits, despite the “piracy” concerns. They need to adapt and stop whining and complaining. Smarten up, greedycorps. Get with the netflix and the ITunes and the independents who know how to use the Internet and you will start seeing a difference.
Additioanlly, maybe if they weren’t producing so much crap (horrible movies, bad music, they’d see better returns.
January 19th, 2012 @ 1:56 am
Oh grow up!
January 19th, 2012 @ 6:36 am
If we could trust our legislators (and it’s clear we just cannot trust them to protect THE PEOPLE and not the corporations – and I am looking at ALL OF THEM) not to crap up every single piece of legislation passed with garbage we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
What we lack and sorely need is transparency. Fairness. And a government that is “for the people.” And despite what they try to shove down our throats, corporations aren’t.
January 19th, 2012 @ 10:17 am
We seemed to have lost track of Charlie. There used to be stories about his adventures by himself, with Chloe, with Eli, with you but now there are only pictures of him. I miss those stories. Not so much into how to make deodorant. More into animals and there seems to be less and less of that.
January 19th, 2012 @ 11:42 am
M ~ You cannot imagine the burnout I experienced with and after the book – there was a lot of extraneous bullshit surrounding that experience that I have not shared and my reluctance in writing about Charlie is partly in reaction to that. It’s the way it is. It might change but I won’t give a time frame…..
January 19th, 2012 @ 12:01 pm
@Lesley, SOPA is not fascism. Please understand that I don’t agree with the scope of PIPA or SOPA. They are over reaching and over reacting suggestions to the idea of online piracy and theft of intellectual property. I do however believe that people’s work should be respected and valued. When you say that the corporations need to “adapt”, it sounds like what you really mean is that you want what you want when you want it and you want it immediately and for free. And there lies the problem. Nobody makes you buy, read, watch or listen to crap. I think that calling someone’s work crap is just a way to justify stealng it from them without compensating them for it. Again, I don’t support PIPA or SOPA.
January 19th, 2012 @ 12:26 pm
Well, I’m a librarian, too, and I know that copyright is a dicey subject to tackle, and I oppose pirating of movies and music.
I wanted to read the text of these bills, not just other people’s opinions about them, so I found them and before giving up in frustration at the convoluted legal language, I noticed that part of SOPA involves cracking down on foreign sites that sell adulerated or mis-labeled medical drugs (which does go on, and has led to people purchasing cheaper drugs which either harm them or do nothing at all), along with the movies, music and books copyright infringement provisions. I think this is much too broad a scope and these separate categories need to be tackled in separate bills, not this all-encompassing one.
January 19th, 2012 @ 1:17 pm
can you imagine sharing so much of your life as S~ does? even with positive feedback you might then ask yourself, am i creating my very own invasion of my privacy? her photos, her words, these are her life, it doesn’t get more personal than that.
so, regarding self expression.. enjoy S~’s blog now because there will come a time when she doesn’t want to do it any more. at such point she would be justified in saying, get a life, your own.
January 20th, 2012 @ 11:26 am
Shreve, I would love some more detail on why you think your sites would not exist if SOPA/PIPA had been in effect back when Dooce linked to you.
As far as I can tell, you do not violate any copyrights or pirate things so…I am a little confused about why you believe your blogs would be subject to censorship. (Or are you saying that you would not have started them in a world where such laws were in place?)
January 20th, 2012 @ 12:55 pm
Miranda, sometimes if I have a hankering for some extra Charlie I go to the website and click Four Years Ago. Then I keep clicking backwards through the posts. I love doing this and it gives me a great dose of the sweet days of coyote youth.
January 20th, 2012 @ 4:21 pm
Lisa ~ no, OTHER people, like Dooce, and the big sites that linked to me (which directly led to the book) would not be able to do so ~ their actions would be illegal under SOPA. All sites that “curate” the web would no longer be allowed, via the wording of this law. In fact, if you have a blog and someone else posts a link in your comment section, your blog could be shut down, no questions asked, and you have to fight it after the fact. It’s crazy. It’s actually very dangerous as this bill is basically a way to put an end to congregation and group sharing on the web. So, that’s why the book would never have happened, and why we would lose out on so many new discoveries (and our own power).
January 20th, 2012 @ 6:42 pm
I linked this post in my letter to Congress. There are many sites on the web which I love and which made statements against the overreaching effects of these bills, but I liked the simplicity and accuracy of your statement.
As for those who feel entitled to dictate the content of someone’s personal blog… Are you serious? Not only is this NOT The Daily Coyote, but I for one feel grateful that Shreve, and many other bloggers, choose to share their lives at all.
January 23rd, 2012 @ 9:30 am
Thanks for the explanation. :)
January 23rd, 2012 @ 10:03 pm
When I was maybe eight years old, the music industry died when cassette tapes allowed anyone to just COPY a song from the radio or a record. No wait….it was later, when mp3’s and Napster came around…no wait, it was when torrent files….awww, shit, I guess all that stuff has actually INCREASED opportunity for new artists, spurred competition, and expanded artistic diversity. Never mind.
I wonder if SOPA and PIPA are really about something else? About control, and retaining power and profits without the need to adapt and excel?
Technology changes things, and industries that fail to adapt die. Google Kodak…they didn’t go bankrupt because people stopped taking pictures!