Natalia Antonova

Last year, Russian Internet users got a little sick of Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia - his face with its searing gaze, used on banner ads asking for donations to Wikipedia, became an amusing meme.

But now that’s everyone’s had a good laugh, perhaps it’s time for Russians to take Jimmy a little more seriously - after all, he’s shutting down Wikipedia in an effort to draw attention to dangerous legislation making its way through the U.S. Congress.

Now, for those of you who have no idea what some of my fellow Americans are currently up to in Congress, here’s a quick re-cap: there are two bills making their way through the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, Pipa (Protect Intellectual Property Act) and Sopa (Stop Online Piracy Act), respectively. The bills are poorly written and extremely broad, and if they are passed and signed into law, the repercussions could be severe. In a nutshell, they would fight piracy in such a way as to severely limit Internet freedom - and play directly into the hands of big business.

Russians, who are all too familiar with hastily written legislation that goes on to screw up lives and professional careers (recall Russian scientists taking to the streets to protest unwieldy bureaucracy recently), should pay close attention to what’s happening in the U.S. right now with regard to anti-piracy laws.

The fact that Internet piracy thrives in Russia is, of course, unfortunate (hey, as as writer and an aspiring screenwriter in particular, I’m not automatically fond of the idea of people stealing my stuff), but then again, anyone who lives here knows this is rather a symptom of how unfairly the consumers are treated. After all, few people want to deal with shoddy service (and this goes for online shopping too, which is still fairly new to Russia), surly salespeople, and jacked-up prices when movies and music can be downloaded for free. For as long as consumers lose out in Russia, piracy will unfortunately continue.

The Internet is an uncivilized place, but civilizing it with the aid of bad laws is not the answer. Even if one can’t spare the cash for Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales’ cause for Internet freedom is something to get behind, ironically or otherwise.