Please write to Congress to stop this bill.
UPDATE : Both PIPA and SOPA have been dropped by Congress! Over 13 million people flooded Congress with their protests.
The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled. “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”
“’This is altogether a new effect,’ Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing ‘an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically’ in the last four decades, he added.”
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You know those stories of 12-year-olds being arrested for downloading mp3s? Or that family who were nearly sued because they uploaded a video of their baby dancing to a song on the radio in their kitchen? If this bill passes in the US, expect that sort of thing to increase. It is essentially proposing to give the entertainment industry the power to censor the internet. The entertainment industry already has the law on its side in fighting piracy. They don’t need carte blanche to put a gag order on – or more specifically, put into prison – regular people and small companies that they feel are infringing copyright. The courts are already set up to allow them to fight copyright infringement. This bill will effectively allow them to use a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
January 18th, 2012 at 7:46 pm
Stop the insanity! Even artists who use their own work in performances can be sued! We do NOT need more censorship or protections on the internet. We need education–not more laws and gags put on internet usage.
January 19th, 2012 at 7:33 pm
The breathtaking arrogance and hypocrisy of these people in endlessly hailing the freedom of the internet in bringing down dictators during the Arab Spring, whilst attempting to severely curb ours. We should blitz all their websites and make very public nuisances of ourselves.