Have you been reading about our lovely Congress lately?
Me, to be honest, not really. I was over all of the political BS that has been going on.
However, looking on various websites such as Craigslist, Wikipedia, and WordPress, they all have blacked their websites out encouraging people to sign petitions and letters to send to our Congressmen to stop the passing of SOPA.
What is SOPA you ask? It’s an acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act. o_O?! Still confused? Let me break it down as best as I can…basically this bill is aiming to crack down copyright infringement that restricts OUR access to sites that host pirated content. We all remember the various copyright infringement battles – Napster and Limewire, right? This legislation’s goal is to cut off pirate sites’ supply by requiring U.S. search engines, advertising networks, and other providers to withhold their services and block users’ attempts to reach certain websites! Thus, this not only threatens online speech, but it also gives the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet’s infrastructure. Meaning that this legislature will impose harmful regulation on American business by allowing the Department of Justice and copyright holders to seek court orders against websites accused of “enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.” Also, the bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. WTF? WE could even go to jail for this when people who upload copyrighted content received warnings from YouTube to remove the video.
Supporters such as Time Warner and other Motion Picture Companies say that copyright infringement has taken jobs. While I do believe that copyright infringement is a problem, is it necessary to pass these two laws? This means that social networking, blogs, and various search engines are at high risk of being censored, at the same time the Internet has provided so many opportunities such as networking, created jobs, researching countless information, hell even found people places to live! YES, fighting online piracy is important, but why shut down our digital voice? And they’re complaining about the loss of jobs?? IF this bill passes, how many people are going to lose their jobs because of it??
If you don’t think Big Brother is not in our business, WAKE the HELL UP! This bill gives Big Brother even more “right” to watch and monitor us!!
What are anti-SOPA companies doing?? They are blacking out their websites! Check out Google, WordPress, and Wikipedia to name a few. They all will have information about this legislature and how it can cripple the Internet all together!
If you haven’t done so, GOOGLE SOPA/PIPA, sign petitions, call your Congressmen!! Make your voice heard 🙂
Okay. I’m done. Go educate yourselves!
As My Pen Hit The Pad.... 