clay shirky on sopa/pipa

Great overview on what this crappy proposed US legislation is all about, and some thoughts on what is really going on. It’s about corporations trying to remove rights, negate costs, and place the burden of proof on the innocent. Friction added to the process of sharing, to make it more difficult to do and make it a less common activity.

My thought, posted to Twitter after watching this: If the laws are insane, only the insane obey them. Badly crafted laws are corrosive.

By selling out our rights and freedoms in response to pressure from corporate interests, we further lose our sense of connection with our own government. If we lose it completely, it becomes irrelevant.