

This is the civil rights battle of the 21st century - lootsauce
http://www.andrewluetgers.com/2012/01/22/he-civil-rights-battle-for-the-21st-century/
The new avant-garde is made of hackers, amateurs, makers, DIYers and entrepreneurs. If only we all knew how revolutionary and politically charged what we do really is.
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indexzero
I don’t like censorship as much as the next guy, but to compare PIPA/SOPA to
the Civil Rights movement is insulting.

Don’t get me wrong this is __important __, but it’s not in the same boat as
destroying the toxic thinking “you’re not as much of a person as I am”

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lootsauce
I lumped SOPA/PIPA together with the arab spring and OWS, its a broader
discussion. But to address SOPA/PIPA, I do consider freedom of speech a pretty
important civil liberty, the bills literally wanted to achieve the same level
of control that Libya and China have over the internet. Now consider how
essential these tools are for political action, how they empower individuals.
There will be an ongoing battle to determine who controls that power. It IS a
civil liberty issue and I believe it is going to be THE defining struggle for
this century.

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invalidOrTaken
Possibly true, but general to the point that it's difficult to know how to
respond. Are big things happening? Definitely. But this sort of thing isn't
driven just by changing minds, like the civil rights movement of the 60's. The
future has to be _invented_ as well as protected.

It would probably be easier, saner, and more clear-headed to take things piece
by piece. SOPA was wrong, and we're all glad it's dead. It seems the attention
of many people is turning towards the political process, whether that's
manifested in OWS, Rootstrikers, aggressive pro-Internet legislation efforts
like @spolsky suggests, or just electing Ron Paul and seeing what happens.
Great! But keep it modular, present, and practical. People's attention and
faith are limited resources, and they can be wasted by asking them for too
much too soon.

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lootsauce
The tech community is not a group of political people, we're too busy making
things. But we've been forced into this position by epic stupidity and greed.
Your points are well taken but the fact of the matter is we need to rise to
this occasion and take responsibility for our world. No one else will do it
for us. If that sounds to hard to people dont cry on my shoulder when it gets
old or uninteresting, we need to stop being a bunch of easily distracted meme-
junkies and actually get motivated by something other than bite sized chunks
of internet candy. Have a mission, get committed. The best way I can imagine
to do that is to form a unified front, a self identified group that have a
good clear understanding of a generational struggle. And that's what this is.
The civil rights for 21st century story basically summed that up for me I
guess.

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jinushaun
Right to download illegal content? Here I was thinking it was gay rights...

