Great Description of SOPA/PIPA
This morning Boing Boing had a link to this wonderful explanation of the creepiest aspects of the SOPA/PIPA legislation that's working it's way through the House and Senate. As with the other Khan Academy videos I've seen, it's excellent - what's new is only the subject matter. And in this case, the essential points of this very bad legislation.
What amazes me is not that this was written - government is pushed by money, that's a given. No, it's that they made it like so much other legislation with regards to illegal activity - an accomplice is as guilty as the perpetrator. But in the world of computers, you can easily force an accomplice without their knowledge - posting to a blog, posting in general.
That's the thing that I think the law hasn't caught up to: The ability for someone to implicate another so easily. It's got to be understood that there's a difference between supporting the activity, and supporting the mechanism of the support (posting). But I have no belief that they'll get this right in the next 20 years. It's just not their technology.
So I'm sad to say that I'll live in a time when the law makers are hopelessly out of date with the technology I make a living from. Sad.