Best Thing on the Internet Today: #SOPA author is an online pirate!

Now that it is well past midnight EST and I’m no longer keeping new content off of WIMN’s Voices as part of the SOPA Strike against online censorship, I can finally post my favorite thing on the Internet on Jan. 18.

Hipster puppies? A perennial favorite, but no. A video of the Muppets edited to look like Miss Piggy is singing “F*ck the Pain Away” by Peaches? LOVE, but… no. And despite how many laughs I get from the oh-so-wrong Annals of Online Dating, that didn’t win the ‘net today, either.

So, what was the best thing on the Internet on the day that Wikipedia went dark and Google redacted its name in protest against potentially devastating SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act)? Why, it’s the way-too-good revelation that Lamar Smith, SOPA’s author, stole a photograph without permission and used it on his official campaign website. That’s right, folks, the man responsible for this censorious bill is an online “pirate” himself — which could result in his campaign website being tossed offline lickety-split should SOPA pass:

(Graphic via http://jeromiewilliams.com)

This national day of action against SOPA (and PIPA) is just the latest in a long line of battles media justice activists have been fighting to ensure that access to information and innovation online doesn’t get sacrificed to corporate interests on the alter of Big Media lobbying cash. Since it’s now 1:00 am (and since my guess is that most WIMN’s Voices readers are already familiar with these bills) I’m not going to write a long description of why SOPA and PIPA are such threats to creativity, prosperity and security online. Instead, I’m going to thank all of you who blogged, wrote, signed petitions, tweeted, changed your Facebook avatars to “Stop SOPA” icons, or showed up in person to anti-SOPA protests… because your activism is working. Members of Congress are already dropping the bills like the campaign-endangering sinkholes they should be.

For more information on how and why SOPA and PIPA are a threat to your ability to the Internet as you know it, check out the extensive resources at:

MAG-Net, the Media Action Grassroots Network’s SOPA page

Fight for the Future’s Stop American Censorship page

Free Press’s SOPA page

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 11:10 pm and is filed under The Blogosphere, Commercialism, Political Dissent, International Media Activism, Media Justice Now, Media Policy Reform, Technology & Communication, WIMN’s Executive Director’s Blog, Issues in the News, Outrages & Responsibilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.