OPEN LETTER TO US LEGISLATORS
I request that you vote against SOPA and PIPA. The Internet does not need any censoring. If people were more educated as regards copyright law there would be a lot fewer violations.
I’m a creative writer whose copyrights have been violated, with some of my poetry and an entire novel. I handled those instances on my own. It cost me no money, since the owners of the sites were cooperative as soon as they learned of the violations by their users. Those instances occurred because of lack of education of the public as to copyright law and fair use, and I don’t feel that SOPA or PIPA would have been the answer. We already have laws regarding copyrights. It’s possible we have too many protections, with a corporation able to hold copyrights (for material produced by employees) in perpetuity rather than just one person’s or their heir’s lifetime. I am in fact in support of returning US copyrights to their former limited time span.
Again, I’m a creative writer, but I think there should be a point at which all intellectual property reverts to the public domain.
The Internet represents the first time that everyone in the US (who can afford or use a computer) has had free speech in my lifetime. All other forms of public expression are controlled by moneyed interests with their own agendas and are not readily or freely available to all citizens as a forum for expression. Please don’t let the Internet’s availability for self-education and expression disappear because a few large corporations think it would be more convenient for them.
SOPA and PIPA are wrong, and they will not protect jobs. They will censor all of us unnecessarily and wrongly. Please vote against them.
