Sky’s Blog

The SOPA and PIPA bills being considered in the US Congress allow blocking of domain names by someone who simply makes a complaint. Technically they apply only to non-US-hosted web sites that are pirating digital content, but once the “machinery” is in place, they could be used to block any domain whatsoever, and without due (legal) process. And also, technically, the only person who can complain and get a domain blocked is a digital (music, text, art) rights owner, but in practice this will be almost impossible to enforce.

There is no due process and no way someone who is wrongfully blocked can get themselves quickly unblocked.

And were this legislation to pass in the US, it would signal strong support for other countries similarly blocking internationally-hosted content based on their own national laws. (Many do it already, but let’s not set an example.)

Join me in opposing these bills. Notify your US Senators and Representatives.

This site will be participating in the Strike on January 18th, 2012.

See my post from yesterday on the art of Rich Holoch, KY6R.

See his photos directly on Flickr for even more.

Here is the second of his photo sets that I promised I’d feature:

Some weird and wonderful physical-art photos from KY6R. Rich Holoch has been by profession a database administrator (DBA), now an amazing physical-and-photographic artist, and for a long time an amateur radio operator (thus the “KY6R”). At one time I suffered the amateur radio thing myself, and although still licensed, I am far less an afficionado than Rich is. His interest is DX meaning distance and low power [QRP] amateur radio operation. A couple of watts of power and contacting someone on the other side of the globe. (Or maybe bouncing a radio signal off the moon and listening for an echo.)

I particularly like Rich’s approach of using found objects, which trigger nostalgia, and positioning and lighting them creatively. Some might describe his work as spooky or weird as well as completely intriguing.

I’m going to feature two sets of KY6R photos, one set today and one set tomorrow – here is the first: