Corporate supporters of HR3261 (SOPA) and S968 (PIPA) demand the ability to take down any web site that affects their profits -- without due process or judicial oversight -- in the name of combating "online piracy." Hoping you won't notice or care, quite a few of our Public Servants want to give them that right.
Believe it or not, Monster Cable (remember "Monster Park"?) considers craigslist a "rogue site" for blacklisting and takedown under PIPA - apparently 2nd hand sales of stereo cables by CL users is reducing Monster's sales of new cables. (reddit).
SOPA/PIPA authors and supporters insist they're only after foreign piracy sites, but Internet Engineers understand this is an attempt to impose "Big Brother" control over our Internet, complete with DNS hijacking and censoring search results.
<RANT>What could be more anti-American than jack-booted thugs throttling our free speech, poisoning that greatest of American inventions, the Internet, while devastating perhaps our most successful and competitive industry? There's got to be a better way to sell more stereo cables.</RANT>
★ ☆ ★ Tell Congress you OPPOSE H.R. 3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) and S. 968 "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) ★ ☆ ★
Supporters of SOPA: RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, TimeWarner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters, Rupert Murdoch, Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI)
Opponents of SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX)
Where does your Member of Congress stand on SOPA? (Project SOPA Opera)
SOPA and PIPA Are Too Dangerous To Revise, They Must Be Killed Entirely
Congress needs to hear from you, or these dangerous bills will pass - they have tremendous lobbying dollars behind them, from corporations experts say are attempting to prop up outdated, anti-consumer business models at the expense of the very fabric of the Internet -- recklessly unleashing a tsunami of take-down notices and litigation, and a Pandora's jar of "chilling effects" and other unintended (or perhaps intended?) consequences.
There is still time to be heard. Congress is starting to backpedal on this job-killing, anti-American nonsense, and the Obama administration has weighed in against these bills as drafted, but SOPA/PIPA cannot be fixed or revised -- they must be killed altogether.
Sen Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep Ron Wyden (D-OR) are championing an alternative to SOPA/PIPA called Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) that addresses foreign sites dedicated to piracy, without disrupting basic Internet protocols, or threatening mainstream US sites like craigslist.
Tim O'Reilly, a publisher who is himself subject to piracy, asks whether piracy is even a problem, and whether there is even a legitimate need for any of these bills.
Learn more about SOPA, Protect IP (PIPA), and Internet Blacklisting:
http://sopastrike.com/From a post to facebook:On Jan 18th, sites will go dark to protest the internet censorship bills. Urge the biggest sites to join the strike: Sign the Petition.
Participating? Add your site to the list, and spread the word.xxdd