As almost everyone who uses the Internet is aware, a lot of Web sites have blacked out today in protest of SOPA and PIPA, two pieces of legislation being considered which would severely impact the Internet in an effort to stop online copyright violation.
If either one of these bills were to pass into law, they would likely significantly impact us here at Fine Tuned Mac, since our content is all user-generated. Language in the bills could potentially make those of us who maintain and moderate FTM responsible for links to pirated content placed by users, and might even compel us to moderate all user input--a nontrivial job in the extreme.
The legislation is clearly a bad idea. But there's a part of the discussion which is not, I feel, being given enough focus. I've written about it extensively
here. I invite anyone interested in SOPA to read it and welcome your comments.
