Wikipedia, Google protest piracy bills World BigPond News
Most of us grew up with "the right to liberty", yet liberty is not license.
LIBERTY = freedom from captivity, slavery, unagreed'to restrictions, etc.
LICENSE = excessive freedom of action or speech, departure from a rule or convention
If you are an artist and have worked hard to create something unique, you know the commercial impact of piracy. But it is a piracy of the heart, as well, as ideas are lost "between the cracks" and people lose their inspiration to make a contribution. Piracy of copyrighted material without proper citation and permission is wrong no matter by what media it is done, and doubly so for personal gain!
Today we are also witnessing privacy (an amazing concept) being freely exchanged for access to everything. I'm unsure where this will lead us. But I have observed that if you have a beautiful chocolate cake on the kitchen counter and young children, that they want it all.
Anyway, my desire and hope is that the protest that is taking place today has sent a thought-provoking message to the 'powers that be' to tread carefully and precisely through this mine field of dreams. The future will remember today as a new type of unexpectedly powerful protest.
