Is it time to celebrate?
Well, yes… maybe… no…?
Do I have time to wait for my wiener suit to get back from the cleaners?
If you watch the news, most of the reports appear to be saying that SOPA and Protect IP are dead!
That would be awesome if it were completely true but is it?
Altogether, it looks like our grass roots effort to educate each other and the elected officials, on the dangers of these two specific pieces of legislation has provided a pay off, at least for now.
Faced with more facts, but more importantly an overwhelming public outcry, most of the support for these bills has withered. Even some of the earliest and most ardent supporters of these bills appear to have jumped ship.
However, while we are celebrating it would be wise to post guards outside the door of the party, to keep a watchful eye, and here is the reason why…
The battle is not over. There is just too much money and power at stake for Hollywood and other “entrenched powers” to simply walk away. To illustrate the heights of frustration and resolve, the Motion Picture Association of America’s chief, the retired Senator Christopher Dodd, on FOX news, blew his cool and leveled a clear threat to the pocketbooks of those elected officials who withdrew their support of SOPA and Protect IP. Elsewhere in the news, we are seeing the spin-doctors depict the online blackout as misguided and unwarranted hysteria. Only time will tell if people buy this line.
To add to the mix, all over the world, other governments are considering similar legislation, (Example: the IT legislation which is soon to be debated Ireland) which due to their “vagueness of language”, have the same potential to erode Internet freedoms in much the same way SOPA and Protect IP would have.
But in this lull, what do we do?
It’s paramount that we go forward this month, creating wealth in the “new economy”, working hard, creating valuable memberships, and paying our taxes… but we as a community, must never forget how bad things could have gotten or what we must be prepared to do, to defend the freedoms and opportunities which our beloved Internet has created for us!
As membership site owners, all of us have created vibrant and strong communities, which look up to us, for actionable information. Therefore, I believe we have a special responsibility to remain vigilant, so that if necessary we can go to our members for additional leverage against the special interests groups, who seek to take the world back to pre-1990’s when the control of information and its dissemination resided in only a few.
However, while it is easy as business owners to get caught up in the politics and policies affecting the Internet, if we do nothing but sound alarms of impending doom, we run the risk of becoming ignored.
That said, it’s vitally important that while we are being extra vigilant on the one hand, on the other hand we really need to get back to making our memberships and our advertising as helpful, and as entertaining as possible to find and retain the members we rely upon.
Perhaps even for our own well-being it would be good to distance ourselves from the adrenaline and stress of last week.
I for one would love to get back to writing posts for you as “edutaining” as the one about “German Nudist seeing Members Shrinking”
Therefore, in my best John Cleese (Monty Python) impersonation, let’s switch gears by saying…
“Now for something completely different!”
I will dance to the song of your choice in a hot dog costume!
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