Tuesday 6 December 2011

Internet Serious Stuff

Oh, Dear.  I should have guessed there would be a price to pay for being allowed to get chatty on my Blog.  My human, Andrew, says I should care about the future of the Internet.  Well I'm a toy cat, so that's difficult.  But I trust my human Andrew and I think he has done a little research of his own since he was asked to get involved..   

It seems there is a law being proposed in the US Congress which lots of serious Internet people think would have damaging and unintended consequences.  It goes under acronyms like SOPA or PIPA.  It's supposed to stop piracy.  This piracy is not about "Pirattes of the Caribbean" (which I like) but protecting copyright owners like tv companies and film studios who invest lots of money in creating the content we like.  As so often with laws, "the Devil is in the Detail".  People like Facebook, Google, Twitter and ebay have got together to say it will both fail in what it is trying to do and make life far too difficult for them and their users (like me). 

Anyone in the USA is asked to get involved by doing things like writing to their US senators.  You can find out more from Mozilla:  Look them up or (if you're foolinsh enough to trust a link given to you by a toy cat) go to:   https://donate.mozilla.org/page/s/SOPA?source=sopa_page

Outside the USA?  You can sign an international petition.  Look for AVAAZ or go to:  http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet/?mzla

You may like to check out these sites yourself to make sure you want to sign up to their ideas, get on their e-mail lists etc.  Figaro's Diary accepts no responsibility . . . . . . etc.

Is that all the serious stuff I have to do?  I'll just put up this little picture of me in California with the ocean behind me.  Andrew's using this for his avatar on Twitter - @Andrew1987Young.  I think he's still a little scared of putting up his own face.

Cuddle now please.

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