SOPA/PIPA: How to Stop Fear

The open source community is particularly at risk with the passage of either of these two pieces of legislation, because the wording gives media companies a license to not only hunt and kill sites that host pirated copy, but also the tools that media companies claim enable downloading. That includes a lot of DRM-free and open source software.

But here's the thing: as I watch the various protests online today, it's important to remember that we have the opportunity to reach out to lawmakers and provide better and more effective ways to deal with online theft of copyrighted material.

The open source community, both here in the U.S. and abroad, has been a force of great economic change in the technology sector, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. But it is also a potential source for social change...