古人の跡を求めず、
古人の求めたるの所を求めよ。

Seek not the paths of the ancients;
Seek that which the ancients sought.

– Matsuo Basho

I’ve been watching this issue develop for a while. As an Australian living in China (currently), I don’t have a direct vested interest in US politics. Plenty of countries, including the one I live in now, have terrible laws regarding the Internet and publishing freedoms for regular citizens. However, I have a deeply vested interest in human rights, civil liberties, and most importantly, free and open expression. If SOPA and PIPA pass, the US will be taking a strong and likely irreversible step towards limiting free and open expression. It will be the thin edge of the wedge for the US, and other countries will be pressured to follow suit.

Any tool that empowers people can be used as power to exploit or oppress people. Most people know that “knowledge is power”, but I would also say that tools are powerful. The Internet is an information and knowledge tool. Very powerful. But greater than that, the Internet is a communication tool. Except for basic biological necessities—water, food, warmth, love—the ability to communicate is fundamental to our humanity and everything we believe in, hope for, and do. At best, technology only augments our potential for human expression and communication. Losing technology doesn’t dehumanize us. However, the Internet has been, and is still being, developed by an international community of people and organizations who believe in an open and accessible Internet for all people. The contents of SOPA and PIPA threaten this aim and should be dropped completely if they are not changed to accord with constitutional rights and judicial process. See here for more specific details.

Watching this issue from outside the US, I don’t know that there’s much we can do. But there is one thing—write about it. Or watch and share the video below. Use the Internet to voice your criticism of this kind of legislation. If it passes, the fight won’t be over but it will have become a lot harder and it will come to our shores soon.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Here’s two great iOS apps for anyone studying Chinese: Pinyinizer and Pinyin Typist. Pinyinizer adds Pinyin to written or pasted Chinese text, displaying the Pinyin transcription above the original Chinese characters. Pinyin Typist lets you write Pinyin with tone marks. This should be a standard iOS keyboard option but it’s probably not even on Apple’s to-do list. Both have straight forward interfaces, making them excellent Chinese-English language tools.