Sunday, January 15, 2012

The Media Lab is against SOPA and PIPA

As many of you may be aware, there are two bills being considered by the US Congress - the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act - better known as SOPA and PIPA. While the goal to try to minimize the dissemination of copyrighted materials online is laudable, the bills are misguided and dangerous and could damage innovation on the Internet and limit free speech.

A number of organizations have spoken up publicly against the bills and a number of the Media Lab community members, including myself have been actively opposing the bill. Today the Media Lab would like to officially go on the record opposing the bill as well.

We encourage you to learn more about these bills, develop your own opinions and participate in the debate and collective action. It's a critically important moment for internet freedom and these bills could have a very negative repercussions both in the United States and globally.

You can read more about the issue on Ethan Zuckerman's blog and my blog where we have cross-posted a longer post on the topic.

3 comments:

  1. such a great thing to be able to go abroad to study! Not a lot of people have that opportunity, but those lucky ones who do - discover a whole new world out there. I had that kind of experience once in Italy, and it was one of the most beautiful experiences in my life

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