Freedom Isn't Free

As darkness descends upon the internet, one fact shines still brightly among the gloom: freedom is no longer free. Freedom is a dangerous and unaffordable commodity which must be wrestled into submission at any cost, especially if you've got the muscles to do it.

I write this at what I consider to be a possible turning point in modern history; much has been written about the USA's SOPA/PIPA situation as well as the rough UK equivalent, the Digital Economy Act (I wrote about this a couple of years ago - see here), as we enter yet another chapter of the fight against piracy and copyright infringement - or, as I like to put it, Rupert Murdoch faceless corporations vs. the people. It takes some thinking to imagine a world without the internet as it is at the moment, to conjure an image of state-approved websites and lawsuits for the unapproved; the internet, brought to life by so, so many, controlled by so very few.

Certain things have changed already, that much is true - the face of P2P sharing has been given a few ugly scars thanks to the misuse of Napster, Kazaa, Usenet and BitTorrent (to name but a few), and even websites like YouTube are infinitely more judicious about the use or misuse of copyrighted material than they used to be. Threatening to censor websites in their entirety, however, is more than a step too far. Copyright holders - specifically distributors and the like - need to realise that it is they who should change, not the users. If a consumer sees value in something, they'll buy it; Netflix's streaming service is a fantastic example of the way media consumption has evolved and is still evolving. If I can watch a movie in HD via my Xbox, paying a small monthly fee, why the hell would I want to download it instead?

There will always be pirates on the internet - and you can rest assured they'll usually be three steps ahead of the authorities - but the vast majority of users consume media responsibly, and are willing to pay for it; the very fact that the film, music and video games industries, for example, are worth billions proves this fact. But SOPA/PIPA are about more than just the pirates; this is all about controlling the freedom of the internet in favour of the corporations who are regularly tarred and feathered by the masses. It's about controlling information at the source, throttling the truth and the views of those who make it what it is. It's about censorship, plain and simple, and it's this I cannot stand.

The internet gives power to the people; it was us that made it what it is today, in all its random, wonderful craziness. It belongs to us, and so it damn well should. Not being a US citizen, I can't ring my Senator and explain this to them, but if you're lucky enough to be in the US you can: icanhazcheeseburger.com has a full list of their telephone numbers, so get on the phone to support the internet if you can.

I leave you with this marvellous video from the aforementioned esteemed purveyors of LOLcats:

...What's That Coming Over the Hill?

Happy 2012 everyone! Now we’ve got the holiday season out of the way and have mostly sobered up, how’s about a look to the year ahead in American politics? Specifically – have you seen the latest bunch of crazy mentalists they’re calling Republican leader candidates? If Armageddon is coming this December, at least there’s comfort that these strange idiots will be no more.

As you may have guessed, I am not a US citizen and, whilst I have a ceaseless love for US TV shows and a lot of the culture in general, I wouldn’t want to be an American – particularly not an LGBT American, given the current state of affairs highlighted by the recent Iowa caucus. It never fails to shock me just how valuable an asset one’s religious beliefs and stance on homosexuality (or, in most cases, degree of homophobia) can be when it comes to getting votes. Two out of three candidates declared ‘winners’ on Tuesday’s caucus vote, the first step in determining this year’s Republican presidential candidate, have happily shouted their homophobic views into the world’s collective ears, and most of the other high-profile candidates have been vying for the Homophobe of the Year Award with gigantic smiles on their faces.

Michele Bachman, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum – these are the most high-profile candidates given the media space to vent their anti-LGBT views whilst their ignorant supporters swallow it all without even a drop of irony. Thankfully, Smiling Robot of the Future (model MORON4000) Michelle Bachman decided to give up the campaign trail thanks to poor results in Iowa, so we’ll no more have to put up with her sycophantic, Palin-esque rictus grins – at least not until next time around, anyway. Mitt Romney, Mormon-extraordinaire, and Super Preacher Rick Perry, who has now declared himself back in the race after taking 0.133546874546 seconds ‘out’ of the race to think about it, are pretty off the wall crazy homophobes, but the one left that really scares me, the monster that seemed to have come out of nowhere and swept the state of Iowa with him, is Santorum.

An Evangelical Christian, Santorum represents one of the greatest threats to the LGBT community, which is belligerence and ignorance in equal measure. He has repeatedly presented homosexuality as a defect, a sort of strange sexual fetish akin to incest, paedophilia, adultery and bestiality, whilst apparently being ignorant to the fact that, apart from our sexual orientation, gay people are no different to anyone else and deserve to be treated accordingly. If elected, he has pledged to instantly annul same-sex marriages granted under the Democratic government and ban the ‘practice’ nationwide; he has also promised to re-instate the notorious ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ rule for the US Army and Navy.

If at this point you’re convinced that a) I’m making it all up or b) that the Democrats have somehow infiltrated the Republican party and provided them with the most ridiculous, unelectable candidates, then I’m afraid you may need to hit yourself in the head with something large, blunt and heavy. In a world where Hillary Clinton (who is basically my hero of 2011) can stand up in a UN meeting and talk candidly and bluntly about how LGBT rights are human rights, there is absolutely no way that this outright condemnation and discrimination should be allowed to continue. All these people are doing is reinforcing the long-held prejudices borne out of the same hatred of difference that spawns racism and xenophobia and, while I am an advocate of complete freedom of speech even when I don’t agree with the speaker’s views, there is no way that in 2012 we as a community should be facing this kind of low-brow, backwards moral criticism from the leader of a political party. If David Cameron came out with this kind of crap (let’s ignore his recent ‘we are a Christian country’ speech for a couple of minutes) he’d be hung, drawn and quartered, then probably roasted on a spit and fed to the Queen’s Corgis for lunch. Why is this not the case in America? How is it that a modern, world-defining country at the forefront of so much internationally can be, with this issue and several others regarding minorities, be so irretrievably stuck in the dark ages?

Either way, Obama’s probably got a fairly easy ride of it this year. After all, if you had to choose between a guy who’s favourite pastime is shouting abuse into your face with a megaphone or a guy who was hyped to be amazeballs but is actually pretty useless (yet mostly harmless), who would you choose?