In lieu of blacking out my blog – considering that wouldn’t really accomplish much, not many people would notice – I’m just going to post some links for info.

This really is a major issue. SOPA started out as a good(ish?) idea and a lot of major internet companies supported it. But as happens with government the bill was changed and re-written to a point where what it is now would affect almost everything on the internet. Especially blogs and other interactive communities. It hands the power of censorship to companies – they can decide what violates their copyright and gives them the right under law to submit requests to hosting providers to shut down sites – and the hosting provider must comply within 5 days. The bill also includes DNS blocking, which is the same censorship method used in countries like China. That’s some scary shit there.

Wikipedia (who is blacked out today): https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/SOPA/Blackoutpage Click on the “Learn More” for info and enter your zip for your reps info to contact them.

SOPA Infographic: http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html

A post about how these bills would affect you: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/how-sopa-pipa-can-affect-you/

The Day The LOLcats Died (video): http://icanhascheezburger.com/2012/01/18/funny-pictures-videos-the-day-the-lolcats-died-pipa-sopa/

Courtesy of the Oatmeal:

I really urge everyone to do more than think about it, please call your reps today. This bill really cannot pass.