Opposing Censorship. Opposing SOPA.

The internet is abuzz with opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). With these two acts, the United States Congress would drastically change Intellectual Property law. And not for the better. Many content creators oppose the restrictions of this act. In fact, many websites, like Wikipedia, are shutting down today. I’ll admit that I didn’t know much about SOPA and PIPA until today, but from what I’ve read, I have to add my voice to the opposition.

Just for today, I’m turning my blog black. In addition, I’m changing the header to an image of Big Brother. Like many of the images on my website, it’s an original work of art that’s derived from a copyrighted work. (What can I say? I’m a big fan of Photoshop.) In this case, I took an image of Big Brother from Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial, and turned it red and black to match the color theme of the rest of the page. Then I recreated the “Ingsoc” logo from George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty Four, inserting the image of Big Brother into the “V”. Feel free to share this image on your own blog or social media page. Go ahead, as Seth Godin likes to say, ideas that spread, win.