You may or may not have heard about the issues with SOPA, a bill being put up before Congress, but I’d like to fill you in. Tomorrow 1/18 you will find that many sites large and small have “gone dark.” This means that there will be no posting on some and no website access on others. When I say large and small, I’m talking about popular sites like Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla and many more including my own. This issue is too large to ignore and we have to take a stand against censorship.
The Huffington Post does a very good job of explaining how SOPA could affect us all:
“SOPA was introduced as a bill that allows law enforcement to stop and prevent the sharing and selling of copyrighted property such as movies, games, and music. Sounds like this bill is a good idea! No, it’s not.
SOPA works like this: in order to stop you from downloading or streaming music and movies, the U.S. Justice Department is allowed to serve court orders on websites that “engage in, enable, or facilitate” infringement on copyrighted content. Any company that believes its copyright is being infringed upon can accuse a website of copyright infringement and can easily allow that website’s domain, or address, to be blocked. This bill could allow a site like the Huffington Post to be blocked indefinitely if even one of the thousands of articles on the site includes something that would be considered a copyright infringement. Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, and sites like these would be affected the most. Numerous search results in Google would be blocked by SOPA-related court orders. YouTube, the home of hundreds of thousands of videos made using copyrighted music, video, and images, would be engulfed into oblivion by SOPA claims. You posted a copyrighted picture on Facebook? Theoretically, all of Facebook could be shut down because of it.”
Please join with me today in protesting the censorship of websites. You can visit the American Censorship page where they will make it very clear and easy for you to take action. Write an email to Congress. Sign the petition. It will only take you a minute, but the result could have a huge impact. It was announced that SOPA has been shelved until February. This is a great sign, but it’s not over. Make your voice heard!
Alli is a Chicago based wife and mother of two children. She has turned money-saving into a game and enjoys searching out the best deals to help you save money! Alli shares her insight, tips and up-to-the-minute deals for local and national retailers and brands. Her hope is that you will play the game and learn to save money at the same time!