[Foundation-l] "We are the media, and so are you" Jimmy Wales and Kat Walsh OpEd in Washington Post

Jussi-Ville Heiskanen cimonavaro at gmail.com
Sat Feb 18 09:24:49 UTC 2012


My read on this is that we did accomplish something for all time. We
established that we matter. "We" meaning the larger we, not wikipedia
google or any player, but the real body politic.

SOPA & PIPA are not dead, but they are in the long grass. ACTA it
appears is going the same way (hopefully) because the European Union
now includes countries who in living memory have experienced what it
means for ones life to be controlled by nameless bureaucrats. The mass
uprisings against ACTA in those countries reminded the Germans of
their slightly less recent past, and that may or may not be able to
tilt the balance.

We need to keep a keen eye on all three, and do what we can to finally
tilt ACTA decisively over.

The law where we can do most good though, right now, is OPEN. We need
not wait on events to unfold. Today we should focus on educating
people that it is not a better written, more moderate law than SOPA or
PIPA, but is in fact much worse, more draconian. Educate people about
its flaws, and tell them to keep an eye on their legislators, so that
if they make even the slightest move to make OPEN a reality, they will
hear from somebody. And it will be those same people who got the
lawmakers attention the last time. We.




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