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Holiday of the Interwebs
13 years ago
I havent slept in a while. So expect a dis-jointed rant here, hopefuly atleast somewhat entertaining, if not totaly full of typos, bad spelling, and gramatical errors.
It just occured to me, after reading up on a few web pages talking about the second attempt to get SOPA passed through Congress along with some new bills (ACTA, for one), that holidays on the internet are nothing like holidays in the rest of the world.
Seriously, follow me for a sec. Christmas comes by, every store closes. Thanksgiving rolls around, every store closes. President's Day, and every bank and post office closes. More and more it seems the defineing quality of a holiday is that it causes places people depend on most (stores, banks, post offices, ect) to all close up and be unavailable. Yet, dispite this, the one thing that most people in this country (and others) depend on, the Internet, is never closed for any of these. That changed when the big media groups tried to push SOPA and PIPA through into law, and suddenly websites everywhere, includeing some very major ones, all closed up shop for a day in protest. It was the closest thing to 'closeing up for the holiday' that the Internet has ever done collectively. A day or so later, the bills were put on hold cause of it all.
So it got me to thinking, if stores and buissnesses and banks can have holidays where they close up reguardless of who's depending on them, why shouldnt the Internet? There should be an Internet holiday, where those websites people depend on most remind us all of what could happen if we let those in power take censorship too far, and forget that freedom may be earned, but it should never be sold at any price. One a year, for one day, websites throw up their black screens, showing us that we can never stop in defending our rights. And maybe, if it does happen, those in power might think twice about pushing the people too far.
Hell, if they can give talking like am out-dated stereotype it's own day, we can atleast give one to protecting our rights.
It just occured to me, after reading up on a few web pages talking about the second attempt to get SOPA passed through Congress along with some new bills (ACTA, for one), that holidays on the internet are nothing like holidays in the rest of the world.
Seriously, follow me for a sec. Christmas comes by, every store closes. Thanksgiving rolls around, every store closes. President's Day, and every bank and post office closes. More and more it seems the defineing quality of a holiday is that it causes places people depend on most (stores, banks, post offices, ect) to all close up and be unavailable. Yet, dispite this, the one thing that most people in this country (and others) depend on, the Internet, is never closed for any of these. That changed when the big media groups tried to push SOPA and PIPA through into law, and suddenly websites everywhere, includeing some very major ones, all closed up shop for a day in protest. It was the closest thing to 'closeing up for the holiday' that the Internet has ever done collectively. A day or so later, the bills were put on hold cause of it all.
So it got me to thinking, if stores and buissnesses and banks can have holidays where they close up reguardless of who's depending on them, why shouldnt the Internet? There should be an Internet holiday, where those websites people depend on most remind us all of what could happen if we let those in power take censorship too far, and forget that freedom may be earned, but it should never be sold at any price. One a year, for one day, websites throw up their black screens, showing us that we can never stop in defending our rights. And maybe, if it does happen, those in power might think twice about pushing the people too far.
Hell, if they can give talking like am out-dated stereotype it's own day, we can atleast give one to protecting our rights.
