Like many things the U.S. Government tries to slide past American Citizens, SOPA/PIPA hasn’t gotten a lot of media attention, until recently. Now, The Great Internet Blackout Is On, and the world is taking note.
One word of caution before I go further…
Be careful what you read, watch or hear from news sources. Many News Outlets fully support SOPA/PIPA and will distort the facts to favor their position.
Currently, there are two bills before Congress, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. These two bills would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on U.S. business.
Want to know what is really going on?
Watch the video below, but make sure you watch it to the end. (FYI: This video is getting a lot of traffic now. If you don’t see it on the page right away, be patient or watch the video on http://www.fightforthefuture.org/pipa)
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
While the video above is specifically targeting the Protect IP Act (PIPA), SOPA is just as dangerous.
These bills give the entertainment industry, major corporations and the U.S. Government, the power to censor the internet, under the guise that it will help the U.S. economy. However, this type of bill will be harmful to small and home business, who cannot afford the drastically expensive filtering technology, necessary to keep from being in violation of PIPA/SOPA, if they are passed.
Don’t think this is a big deal?
Let me show you some of those who do oppose this garbage legislation.
Have you ever heard of WordPress.org?
How about WordPress.com?
You’ve probably used Wikipedia before, right?
I know you know who Google is!
Do you know who Ryan Gosling is?
There are many, many more, popular websites and social communities who adamantly oppose SOPA/PIPA as well. Facebook and Twitter oppose SOPA/PIPA, but chose not to take part in The Great Interent Blackout.
Bamajr.com is running in opposition to SOPA/PIPA.
Now it is time for you to participate. If you don’t have a website, or you are unwilling to “Black it out” I would still make your voice be heard.
Go to sopastrike.com/strike and sign the petition. Their you can also get the information necessary to call your representatives and more information about SOPA/PIPA.
Have a nice Blackout!
About bamajr
Some measly banner, showing how Bob Parsons and GoDaddy are flip flops, holds no wait with me. However, they have officially recanted their support of SOPA/PIPA. Though, you'd have to pay real close attention to their home page to know they are against the legislation, now.
<img src="http://bamajr.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/GoDaddy-DO-SOPA-PIPA-150×150.jpg" alt="GoDaddy Day Of SOPA/PIPA" title="GoDaddy-DO-SOPA-PIPA" width="150" height="150" class="aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-6104" />
Here is a hint…
It is almost to the bottom of their home page.
Oh, I'd like to add…
I voiced this same opinion on GoDaddy's blog, and they deleted my post. They let others post similar comments, but not me!
Gee… I wonder why?
Maybe because I included links to bamajr.com, where I call them out about it.
Here are a few more:
Craigslist
O'Reilly – a publisher of Copyrighted media.
Rackspace
Tucows
and as a post on technorati.com pointed out, quite a few more.
I’m glad to see the Virtualmin.com website in participation.
I did not see this yesterday, but Matt Mullenweg, co-founder of WordPress.org and the founder of Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com) posted about his thoughts and where he stands in relation to SOPA/PIPA, in his "BBC VIEWPOINT ON BLACKOUT" blog post.