They pulled both SOPA and PIPA, yah!

But...(and you knew there was going to be a but):
SOPA Defeat Is Not the End Of Hollywood's Ramped-Up Fight Against Piracy (Analysis)

This is what Hollywood is saying and what they are planning: push for more criminal federal and international enforcement, use the courts to get civil injunctive relief, and keeping rewriting the copyright laws in their favor. Remember the lawsuit against Youtube is still to be decided. Imagine Youtube being out out of business just like Megaupload (although Youtube is not even coming close to pulling some of the boneheaded Megaupload moves).

"SOPA protesters roundly cheered when DNS-blocking was taken out of the anti-piracy bills before Congress. But just because Congress won't explicitly approve such measures doesn't mean that they won't happen. In piracy cases going forward, Holllywood can ask sympathetic judges to grant such relief anyway."

Since I know we're in it for the long haul and that the efforts to silence speech in favor of corporate interests will continue, I plan to carry on with the SOPA Boycott in March.

Nor am I alone in coming to this conclusion:

"The MPAA studios hate us. They hate us with region locks and unskippable screens and encryption and criminalization of fair use. They see us as stupid eyeballs with wallets, and they are entitled to a constant stream of our money. They despise us, and they certainly don’t respect us.

Yet when we watch their movies, we support them....They use our support to buy these laws.

So maybe, instead of waiting for the MPAA’s next law and changing our Twitter avatars for a few days in protest, it would be more productive to significantly reduce or eliminate our support of the MPAA member companies starting today, and start supporting campaign finance reform." 
More "On The Next SOPA."

Note: To give as much support to small independents as possible keeps things in balance, I think.



The late and great Mr. Johnny Cash sums it up for me as follows:



May your walls fall and may I live to tell


There is a time to bow, and a time to give the finger, as it were.

In other news, I have been feeling very tired these past few days. No doubt this is due to a combination of the cold weather and everything being icy (I cannot get the back door open, and I almost got myself in a car accident on three separate occasions), and the fact I am about to be indisposed. I have also been having trouble sleeping. Vivid dreams... One night, I dreamed I was at a convention (surprise!). Someone wished to have a discussion, but karen_jk wanted to rest, and we went to a spot by ourselves. I lay down to sleep, right next to this wall that was composed entirely of glass, then felt vertigo when I looked down (we were in a high rise building). So I moved away from the glass, but somehow the floor began to tip sharply and I rolled toward the wall, and then fell down the building because the glass has disappeared. At which point I told myself, It's just a dream, and I was once again walking on the level floor where I had been lying. Then I thought that even if the floor should tip once more, I could fly, and that is exactly what happened next: the floor began to tip, I slid, and started to fly instead of falling.

So, I am going to rest this weekend... Read. Meditate.

I did have an extremely nice dinner with sheryll yesterday; it was wonderful to see her. I asked her all about her latest travels and we talked about interesting cooking shows. I also had a lovely breakfast with Reverend Eric, and we joyfully discussed all manner of heretical and subversive ideas.

Next week, I am really getting into work on The Severus Snape Paradigm (speaking of heresy and subversion). As I told sheryll yesterday, I have been sitting with my fingers hovering over the keyboard, because once I truly get going, then it will get written, and eventually, be read by someone...

I have overcome my reticence before, and shall be going so now.

Your devoted
Logospilgrim, the quiet professor