Most of you know that today, January 18, is a national day of protest against SOPA and PIPA. Although SOPA is now DOA, and I see no way that PIPA can survive the promised filibuster by my Senator, Ron Wyden (D-OR), I am happy to join in that protest until the last nail is in PIPA’s coffin.

Do not try to look up “Internet Censorship” or “SOPA” or “PIPA” on Wikipedia, the giant online encyclopedia, on Wednesday. SOPA and PIPA are two bills in Congress meant to stop the illegal copying and sharing of movies and music on the Internet, but major Internet companies say the bills would put them in the impossible position of policing the online world. Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, says his site will go dark for the day on Wednesday, joining a budding movement to protest the two bills. “This is going to be wow,” Wales said on Twitter. “I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!” Several sources said members of Congress, reacting to the online objections, were pulling back on parts of SOPA and PIPA to which Internet companies object. But the protest movement continued for the time being. Click Here for More: SOPA and PIPA Explained Other sites, such as Reddit and Boing Boing, have already said they would go dark on Wednesday. And some of the biggest names online, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, have vocally opposed the proposed legislation, though they have not said they are joining the online blackout…

Inserted from <ABC>

The original intent of this legislation is to stifle the epidemic of intellectual property theft. Because it increased Internet censorship, Republicans jumped aboard without considering the consequences. Because the entertainment industry unions support it, Democrats jumped aboard without considering the consequences.

The consequences are that any web site that has copyrighted material or even links to another website with copyrighted material, PIPA allows government to shut down that website without notice or warning of any kind, no matter if the violation is inadvertent. For sites like You Tube, Reddit, or even Politics Plus, this puts an insurmountable burden on Webmasters to police everything visitors upload instantly or be shut down.

I have no objections to a reasonable anti-piracy law that would allow the federal government to obtain a court order to shut down a site for piracy, if the webmaster of that site is provided notification of the specific material to be removed and refuses to remove it. But PIPA is not a reasonable anti-piracy law.

Contact your Senators and Say NO to PIPA!