Today there are no doubt a plethora of jokes bouncing through the interwebs. Whether this is reflective of the mindset in Washington or an attempt at stealth advocacy, I’ve noted the following from Public Knowledge, a public interest group focused on intellectual property rights.

Public Knowledge Slams New Intellectual Property Legislation

As the title of this post suggests, this is indeed an April Fool’s joke. The execution is a bit subtle, but those who dig into the comments embedded in the associated legislation should figure it out.

At the risk of further ruining the joke, I wonder how effective it is to devise a piece of legislation that cobbles together worst case scenarios for content users and throw it into a gag. It’s worth noting what parts of their gag legislation are reflective of actual legislation, but I’m not sure how many people will read deeply enough into this that weren’t already aware of the issues.

So let me raise this question, independent of the April 1 baggage – how effective can worst-case alarmist scenarios be in evoking meaningful action? Does it depend on the issue?