My name is Michael Tucker and this semester marks the second half of my fifth year in college. Ive decided to take my time and do it right, along side working a full time job. Balancing the two isn't always easy and its put me behind a bit. Now that I have settled on my major as Mass Comm, after switching from Comp Sci after 4 years, I look to have about 2 years left including this semester. At least my Minor is done (Since I was so far in, I made Comp Sci my minor and it was finished then and there). In the past few years I've bounced around jobs a bit. Was night manager at Dairy Queen for a while, made trophies and t-shirts, a bit of construction, managed Blockbuster for 3 years and currently am managing a car wash in Villa Rica. For now. I am already looking to change that job after a year. Its not that I am a lazy person or a bad worker, I have enjoyed all my jobs, I just like to do different things, experience it all, and what better time to do that than college. I've spent nearly my entire life between Carrollton and Villa Rica, though I was born in Kennesaw. I've tried moving away from this town but at times it seems to be a black hole that just keeps sucking me back in. When I am not at work or school, what little free time I have is spent with friends. Usually we are hanging out playing some video games, watching movies, or just killing time. As far as my interests, other than games and movies, music takes up alot of the background noise in my life. And I am not afraid to say I am a geek. From Star Wars to X-men, Dr. Who to Sherlock Holmes. I enjoy hobbies and the best ones I've found I guess would make me a geek.
Now on the important matters. Surely by now you've heard about SOPA and or PIPA. The two bills going through the Senate and House at the moment that could very quickly destroy the internet. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are both very similar in their goal, stop piracy of digital media. This in itself is a great thing, many companies are losing money from piracy. Here's where it gets tricky though. They are aiming more at overseas piracy, not so much local. And their means of doing so is less than savory. Were these bills to go into effect, anytime you wanted to post something (you personally or a website itself) you have to make sure of one BIG thing: What you are posting, whether its a link, image, video, or audio, can not be from a site that has EVER had pirated material on it. If so you get the fine and both sites involved get put on a blacklist. It gets better, not only do you have to make sure that your source has never pirated, but also any site that has contact to that source. Good luck with that. Also, say you have an old home movie of your kids growing up, and in the back ground Metallica is on the radio, or The Cosby Show is on TV. If that video were to be posted somewhere, oh lets say everyone's favorite social media site Facebook...yeah thats piracy. You get fined, and Facebook is shut down. With these bills there would no longer be any open source site, or social media, or many other sites, all because of the guidelines laid out in the bill. Sure, for now they are put away, after protests, virtual and physical, took place Jan 18th. But Lamar Smith (R- Texas), who is pushing these bills through, has already said that he will try again in February, so while you aren't hearing about it for now, don't forget it, that's exactly what they are hoping for. Also its worth noting, other countries are trying the same thing, Canada has a bill nearly identical to SOPA going through legislature now, and in Europe, a Global version is being mediated over.
WARNING: Shoulda SOPA/PIPA pass, the following content will be considered piracy.
SOPA According to Wikipedia
Yes, the link is from Wikipedia, a major information sharing site and the video is from YouTube, the most popular video social media site. With SOPA and PIPA, these sites will be closed.
Oh, and one more thing, on Jan 19th, the US Feds successfully shut down a major site called MegaUpload. It was a popular file sharing system operated from New Zealand I believe (point is, out of the US). This was without the help of SOPA or PIPA. This shows that the government already has the power to stop piracy, as it claims that is all it wants, without further restrictions to our internet. Why need more restriction?
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