SOPA Opera

From the CBC, a very telling paragraph that breaks down the great corporate debate over SOPA:

SOPA's backers include the film, recording, media and pharmaceutical industries while internet and technology companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, Yahoo and eBay have voiced opposition to the bill.

Ironically, while the issue at hand is ostensibly the ability of individual users to access free, unregulated information and pursue the creative and economic potential of the Web as a genuinely democratic marketplace, the argument has become more about which generation of mega company has the right to profit most off the public.

Even more rich is a Tweet from Rupert Murdoch about "Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery." This guy trying to take the moral high ground is like George R.R. Martin teasing some kid with a bowtie for being a nerd.

Although they both like speaking on behalf of the righteous mass, the truth is that most of the companies that power the media industry are highly secretive, suspicious, exclusive and run by very  wealthy people who don't spend much time using Wikipedia because they're too busy figuring out how to use the Internet to make money. That, in a nutshell, is why people like this are necessary.