by Kathleen Fitzpatrick — Modern Language Association
January 17, 2012 – 12:37
To the MediaCommons community,
MediaCommons and its constituent projects (In Media Res, The New Everyday, #Alt-Academy, and MediaCommons Press) have decided to join Wikipedia and other major internet publishers in a 24-hour blackout, to begin at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18, in protest against legislation currently before Congress that we believe would cause grave harm to free and open communication online, and particularly to critical media studies projects such as ours.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was recently shelved by the U.S. House of Representatives, but the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) is still active in the U.S. Senate. Both pieces of legislation pose a threat to the ability of networks like MediaCommons to explore new modes of media reuse and remix in scholarly communication. (The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an excellent summary of SOPA/PIPA’s potential effects on free speech and innovation.)
We hope that you will join us in making the voices of scholars heard: contact your elected representatives, join the protest, and spread the word.
All best,
Kathleen Fitzpatrick, for the MediaCommons editorial board:
Avi Santo
Richard Edwards
Kari Kraus
Nicholas Mirzoeff
Jason Mittell
Bethany Nowviskie
Alisa Perren
... read more »
