SOPA/PIPA Plug

A Note on Internet Piracy:

The Sound a Doggy Makes is a work of parody and social commentary. As such, much of it's content will include clips, stills, or other media taken from original sources not in an effort to extract monetary gain, but to discuss in an open-forum the works in question. I will (attempt to) never compare Snooki to the Venus de Milo, but they're both artistic constructs and one is certainly more immediately relevant than the other, culturally.

The point: The Sound a Doggy Makes, under SOPA/PIPA would be immediately removed from the internet, my website URL banned, blocked, and appropriated, and I would personally end up under suspicion of internet piracy and copyright infringement on a mass scale. And Viacom would probably beat my ass.

So today, I am not blacking out my website.

1. Because I'm here and I have no plans to go anywhere

2. Because I want you to read this while Reddit, Wikipedia, and about 40% of the webcomics I would normally read each Wednesday are down, and

3. Because I suck at coding and a black image was the best I was comfortable attempting.


I encourage you to spend the 5 minutes it takes to add your name to the petitions to kill these ridiculous bills.

If you need a short version: SOPA and PIPA would allow certain connected and wealthy companies to block from the American people any website they believe is sharing copyrighted materials. Artistic works and legitimate parody, even freely available content would not be exempt. The bills are written by people who are scared of the internet because they don't understand how it functions, and therefor the broad, yet simple simple terms result in over-reaching power for those who would control public thought.

Just remember: It was also illegal every time you popped in a VHS and recorded a baseball game because you were going to be out of the house.

Fight tyranny. With piracy, if need be.


Signed,

David E. Zucker, Rev., ΦΒΚ

Writer, Internet Privateer