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Stop SOPA

Armchair activists now have a tool that can transport their SOPA protestations into the real world: Boycott SOPA, an Android app that scans barcodes and tells you whether an object's manufacturer/publisher is a supporter of the much maligned Stop Online Piracy Act.

If yous've ever scanned a barcode on your Android phone to look upwardly a book or CD on Amazon, Boycott SOPA works in exactly the aforementioned way: First you have to install the ZXing Barcode Scanner app, but then yous just get around pointing your telephone's camera at production barcodes. Cold-shoulder SOPA gives you a big red cantankerous if the product is distributed by a SOPA supporter, or a green tick if information technology'south "clean." Much to my chagrin, Coca-Cola supports SOPA — but Smirnoff, on the other hand, does not. If you ever needed a sign from To a higher place that you ought to drink more, at that place it is.

Scanning nutrient isn't actually where Cold-shoulder SOPA is at, though: Really, information technology's all about scanning books, CDs, movies, and games — products that are protected past massively militant groups similar the MPAA, RIAA, and BSA who are spending millions on buying off Representatives to shoehorn SOPA through Congress. If yous scan a random selection of media in your DVD rack or bookcase, yous'll be unsurprised to meet that almost every object is produced by a visitor that supports SOPA. It'south worth noting that the app isn't perfect, though: It relies on a user-curated list of SOPA supporters — a list that isn't complete nor publicly visible. The app developer claims that the list will be regularly updated.

Boycott SOPA Android appTechnicalities aside, though, the ultimate goal of Boycott SOPA is to alter your shopping habits. The idea is that you should scan everything that y'all buy at the supermarket, and refuse to put whatsoever SOPA-backed products into your handbasket. It'southward a very grandiose idea, and in a twenty-four hours and age where shoppers regularly eschew a pick of products on principle ("damn babe-killing multinationals!"), or buy entirely local produce, Boycott SOPA fits correct in.

Inadvertently, though, the developers of Boycott SOPA have given the states a tantalizing hint of how applied science empowers consumers. Imagine for a second if you chopped "SOPA" from the name of the app and simply called information technology "Boycott." Imagine if in that location was an Android app that permit you cold-shoulder whatever you wanted. If you lot had a personal beefiness with Coca-Cola — which has very long tendrils indeed — you could plan the app to pick up anything produced by Coca-Cola and its manifold subsidiaries. Likewise, if yous want to stick it to publishers or artists that refuse to brand their songs available on Spotify, you could tell Boycott to block them.

You could even take it 1 step farther and make Boycott the i-stop-shop for all of your political needs. Imagine if you lot could browse a cereal box and detect out that the visitor'due south CEO likes to hunt rhinos, ride elephants, and eat shark fin soup — at the same time. Imagine if you lot could browse a video game box and immediately come across all of the agile legislation, the Representative sponsors and supporters, and how much money they've received from industry lobbying. Y'all could fifty-fifty go as far as equipping the app with facial recognition, so that you can point your phone at a Senator's face on the Television set and rapidly discover out whether what he's saying actually jibes with his real globe behavior and voting record. This isn't a futuristic concept; we could do this right now with the tech we have.

Download Boycott SOPA for Android

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