Archive for January, 2012

Copyright and the Right

Last night’s Republican presidential candidate debate featured a question on SOPA, leading all four remaining candidates to register their opposition to the bill. Their positions are consistent with the growing trend on the right in the United States as it the Republicans that are increasingly opposed to SOPA and PIPA with Democratic supporters left to wonder why their representatives remain so out-of-touch with the popular view of the public (this morning Democrat Senator Reid announced a delay in the vote on PIPA). In fact, it isn’t just Republican politicians who are opposed to overbroad copyright reforms: the right-leaning press and conservative think-tanks are expressing the same views. None of these groups or politicians can be accused of being soft on crime or weak on intellectual property. Rather, they recognize the need for government to tread carefully and to ensure that legislative initiatives do not undermine basic freedoms and personal property rights.

The opposition to SOPA is not limited to the right in the United States. In Canada, Blogging Tories, which aggregates dozens of right-leaning blogs, went dark in support of the SOPA protest and the National Post was the only major Canadian paper to publish an editorial on the issue, concluding:

On Wednesday, Wikipedia and a handful of other sites will shut down in protest of SOPA and PIPA. They have our full support. Governments should not be in the business of propping up outdated business models, nor of blocking legitimate speech. This draft legislation would do both.

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January 20, 2012 13 comments News

Why My Website Went Dark Yesterday

The Toronto Star runs a special op-ed in which I discuss why I turned my site dark for 12 hours yesterday. The article (Toronto Star version, homepage version) reiterates how SOPA could be applied in Canada and emphasizes that if the U.S. passes the legislation, it is very likely to […]

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January 19, 2012 20 comments Columns

Why My Website Went Dark Yesterday

Appeared in the Toronto Star on January 19, 2012 as Michael Geist’s website went dark to protest U.S. restrictions on Internet Yesterday my website, michaelgeist.ca, went dark for 12 hours with thousands of posts replaced by a single page warning against proposed U.S. legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act […]

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January 19, 2012 Comments are Disabled Columns Archive

Canadian Media Coverage of the SOPA Protest

SOPA and PIPA may not be Canadian laws, but the protest associated with them generated significant Canadian media coverage. On a remarkable day that saw many U.S. politicians pull their support for the legislation, Canadian coverage included: Canadian Press – Canadians join website blackout protest against SOPA National Post editorial […]

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January 19, 2012 1 comment News

Storify Version of My Tweets on the SOPA Protest

I’ve created a Storify version that chronicles my tweets of the SOPA protest as I pointed to articles and video of interest with a Canadian focus.

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January 19, 2012 Comments are Disabled News