SOPA: Letter To My Congressman

Congressman Bilirakis:

I would like to first say that I am honored to have you represent me in Washington. My family has valued our friendship with you and your father for decades. I am always confident that you will represent the 9th District well by stopping the liberal agenda whenever possible.

I am writing to you in regards to the current “SOPA” bill. As a professional blogger and YouTube Partner with over 600,000 views, I have some concerns about the details in this bill. First off, I want to make it clear that copyright infringement and piracy is wrong, and when it is discovered it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law within the current legal framework. However, in SOPA, it appears to me that powerful entities would be able to (with very little cause or evidence) effectively shut down websites that they felt were in copyright infringement. Seemingly giving one side an unfair advantage.

This could have devastating effects on thousands, possibly millions, of independent blog/websites just like my own. I think that a balance needs to be struck, where copyright laws are strictly enforced, but at the same time we do not give corporations with well paid lobbyists the ability to use the courts to arbitrarily shut down independent websites that would not have the legal resources to fight back. 

I ask that if you are asked to vote on the current version of SOPA, that you vote NO, and would work towards a compromise that would both protect copyright laws and at the same time protect smaller websites from frivolous infringement claims that would put them out of business. 

While I am not an expert in copyright law, I do know a lot about technology and blogging, and I would be happy to speak with you about this issue should you have any questions. 

Sincerely,

David Banther 

As seen on ABC News with Diane Sawyer!

Well, I guess I could only technically claim this! Yesterday I was contacted by a producer from ABC News asking if they could use some of my YouTube footage I had taken of a life boat drill on a cruise, for their story covering the tragic cruise ship accident that happened in Italy. I of course said yes! I always like to take videos of unique things/places when I travel, because I know people search YouTube for vacation information. Not knowing which video they would use, I had to wait until the 6:30 PM news. Click here for the link where you can watch the segement in which they used my footage. At 45 seconds you will see a shot of my wife walking down the hall of the ship with her life jacket, and at 55 seconds you will see some footage I took of our muster station. Pretty cool!

Lessons Learned:

1. ALWAYS put your branding/URL in your videos! They used a video of mine that had no branding, so I received no free advertisiment. No big deal, but would have been nice.

2. When filiming something, always know you never know when and how that footage will be used once you put it on YouTube! That footage they used was from 2008, long forgotten!

How To Get A Free Audiobook!

Who doesn't like a free audio book? I am pleased to annouce that this website, along with my YouTube Channel, are parternering with Audible, the largest online provider of digital audiobooks and audio content, to offer you an amazing deal. You can sign up for a free trial, with absolutely no obligation, and get one free audio book that is yours to keep. I currently reccomend the Steve Jobs Biography! Let me know in the comments if you take advantage of this offer, and what book did you download?

Sign up here.

Happy Listening!

Why I am voting for Newt Gingrich in the Florida Republican Primary

If you have followed me on Twitter for any amount of time, you know that I am a Conservative Libertarian. While I think the Republican Party establishment has largely left its small government, pro-individual rights roots; I still think it is the best vehicle in which to advance liberty in Washington. I was a Hermain Cain supporter (due to his tax plan), but now that he has dropped out of the race my full support goes to Speaker Newt Gingrich. Unlike establishment candidate Mitt Romney, Speaker Gingrich offers a real plan to over-haul our archaic and inefficient tax system, you can read his plan here. Economics and fiscal policy are big issues with me.

To the point of this blog post, I was interviewed by my local paper, The St. Petersburg Times about Speaker Gingrich. You can read that article here. I got the interview by responding to a reporter on Twitter, which goes to show it never hurts to speak up!

Who are you supporting for President, and why? 

Do you like the Facebook changes?

Facebook has pushed out an update to their user interface, including a change in how you see your top news stories (well, what Facebook considers to be YOUR top news stories), and a live "Twitter like" feed that updates you on what your friends are doing on Facebook. I think the changes are ultimately good, however as with all change it is greeted with some resistence. I think Facebook is having to become more compeitive with the recent sucesses of Google+. 

My local news station, Bay News 9, interviewed me via Skype (while I am traveling in Seattle) asking my thoughts on the recent changes. You can watch the video here. Do you like the changes?