Day of Virtual Rage

Today is official “shutdown SOPA and PIPA” day on the Web. You’ve probably heard that Wikipedia is down for the day, and even LOLcats has a protest popup.

The White House told Congress it’s the bills that need to be taken offline, so to speak, and to take another approach to curtail online piracy. Politico reports the bills are on “life support” and even some former sponsors are changing their minds.

I personally think dealing with online piracy is going to take big-time international cooperation among nations. I question whether there is anything the U.S. Congress can do unilaterally that will have any impact. Blocking sites? Hah. Hackers will always find a way.

That said, I really do wish someone would find a way to deal with jerks who steal other people’s intellectual property. I’m not making any money from this site any more, but people who steal and re-publish entire articles from my Buddhism site are depriving me of page views for my work, which really is money out of my pocket. But the worst offenders are in Asia, where even the mighty New York Times Company’s lawyers can’t get to them.

Anyway, if you want to weigh in, Tim F. suggests how.

One Million Signatures to Recall Walker

One million recall petitions were filed today in Wisconsin, almost twice as many as needed to trigger a recall election against Gov. Scott Walker. The petitions have yet to be reviewed, of course, but a summer recall election seems pretty certain at this point.

A substantial number of recall petitions also were filed against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four GOP state senators including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau.

Go, Wisconsin!

Gov. Walker was in New York City today for a fundraiser. Um, New York City?

Walker was scheduled to hold a New York City fundraiser Tuesday afternoon hosted by Maurice Greenberg, the founder of financial services corporation American International Group, according to a copy of the fundraising solicitation posted on the website of the New York Daily News.

Did you catch that, Wisconsin? Walker may be the best governor American International Group can buy, and the heck with Wisconsin’s residents.