Power Plays in Shakespeare and on the Internet

Today many major websites and services are on strike or otherwise protesting a controversial bill, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and its sister bill, PIPA. I have enlisted in the cause, putting a banner across my Google+ and Twitter profiles so people know where I stand on the matter. It's midday on January 18, 2012, and news is that the bills' sponsors have withdrawn them, bowing to the enormous pressure that's been exerted by the barrage of protests. When you shut down Wikipedia, people notice.

In addition to raising great concern about the influence of lobbyists and the ignorance of Congress regarding the interent, the SOPA event has unmasked the efforts by corporations to seize control of the knowledge commons in order to protect business interests. The coup was foiled, but had the bill passed, whole domains could have been shut down with little more than an accusation of infringed copyright. The result would have more than censorship; it would have made possible abuses of power while encouraging otherwise compliant netizens to make their way into the dark net where the exchange of knowledge and goods is less constrained.

Coincidentally, today Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, was banned by the Tucson School Board in Arizona,