If you visited our site yesterday, January 18th you may have been surprised to notice that our url redirected you toa website that shared information about a bill that is in front of Congress called SOPA. SOPA is an acronym for Stop Internet Piracy Act and on the surface it seems to be a good idea for those who create movies, music and other intellectual property because it would protect them from thieves who steal their creative work and profit from it.
However, the details of this plan move beyond the protection of intellectual and creative property. The details of this proposed bill call for any website that could possibly allow the infringement of a copyright to be closed down. This means that any website, including our favorite sites like Youtube, could be permanently shut down simply for creating the space that may possibly allow someone to infringe on someone else’s copyright.
This hurts the dissemination of information and creativity that the internet thrives on. Just imagine how our advances in communication will be reverted back in time. We have all learned to adjust to the changes that the internet brought into our lives and many have learned to profit from them. If this bill passes, we will all have to go back to reading newspapers and waiting for someone to tell us the world news instead of watching and reading as our internet friends report it as it happens.
To help stop this bill you can visit AmericanCensorship.Org.