In case you haven’t heard, PIPA (PROTECT Intellectual Property Act) and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) are bills working their way through the US Senate and House of Representatives, respectively. They both propose giving the USA government the power to censor web sites in much the same way that China, North Korea, and Iran censor web sites today. [Read more to learn more]
Why is this important to Kenya? Sadly, many of the companies that “control” the Internet are based in the USA. This means that the above pieces of legislation will affect these companies and they, in turn, will affect everyone in the world directly or indirectly.
The US also controls the top-level domains (.com .net), so websites on those domains would be affected. .com and .net are administered by Verisign which does come under control of US laws.
Some of our favorite websites (google.com, youtube.com, facebook.com, twitter.com etc) are at the risk of being shut down if these bills go through.
Please watch the video below to learn more:
Here’s an infographic that explains it all:
Here’s an extremely detailed article that describes the dangers of these horrible American bills: The Definitive Post On Why SOPA And Protect IP Are Bad, Bad Ideas
What can you do to help stop this?
Sadly, as Kenyans, there is little that we can do. Basically, you need to spread awareness about this. Let everyone you know who cares about the Internet know about this impending doom. America needs to know that they are trying to fuck up the Internet for everyone.
If you can call/write to the American embassy to voice your opinion it might help.
Sadly, those who can help directly are American citizens who must contact their congressmen/women to fight this.
wOW! and like chapaa is a .com, that gives you a right to complain.