Adam LUncategorized

As Blue Jersey readers who came to our site today have seen, we made the decision to “go dark” as part of a massive online protest against two Bills that would do great damage to internet freedom by allowing the Government to censor and block web sites that corporations don’t like. The two bills are as follows:







The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, H.R. 3261) is on the surface a bill that attempts to curb online piracy. Sadly, the proposed way it goes about doing this would devastate the online economy and the overall freedom of the web. It would particularly affect sites with heavy user generated content. Sites like Youtube, Reddit, Twitter, and others may cease to exist in their current form if this bill is passed.

The Protect IP Act (PIPA, S. 968) is SOPA’s twin in the Senate. Under current DMCA law, if a user uploads a copyrighted movie to sites like YouTube, the site isn’t held accountable so long as they provide a way to report user infringement. The user who uploaded the movie is held accountable for their actions, not the site. PIPA would change that – it would place the blame on the site itself, and would also provide a way for copyright holders to seize the site’s domain in extreme circumstances.







The reason why so many sites, including Blue Jersey, took this action today is that PIPA is scheduled for a vote in the Senate next week, on January 24, and as of now, Senator Menendez appears to be in favor of this bill, while Senator Lautenberg hasn’t given a definitive “no” for his vote..







What we are seeing as of now







This is not a partisan issue as there are members of both parties opposed to these bills. Throughout the day today, as well as to a lesser degree in the past few weeks, many members of Congress have weighed in with their views. Additionally, ProPublica has a list of where each of the NJ Congressional delegation stands on these bills, and, as noted above, Senator Menendez is in favor of these horrific bills per this list. Now, his twitter stream seems to indicate that he is potentially wavering (at least we hope).







ACTION ITEMS







Both Senators haven’t exactly given the warm and fuzzies with respect to PIPA, and we are hoping that they take stronger positions against censorship. For starters, you can:







Tweet out to @SenatorMenendez and @FrankLautenberg. A sample tweet can be as simple as Stand up for the Internet, our future & #BlackoutSOPA. #PIPA and #SOPA equals censorship!

Sign Google’s petition to tell Congress you oppose SOPA/PIPA

Call your Senator with 1 click. That link will connect you directly – just enter your phone number





Facebook and Twitter are also great for letting your friends and followers know what to do…..

More info

SOPA blackout

publicknowledge.org: “This Bill Seriously Screws with the Internet”

sopaopera.org: The who and why of the Congressional debate on the Stop Online Piracy (SOPA) and the PROTECT-IP Acts

Steve Blank: Why The Movie Industry Can’t Innovate and the Result is SOPA

Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy

************************************