So no to WHAT? (I’m sure is what you are thinking…)
You may have found your favorite website “black” today.
This is in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill.
Under the pending legislation of SOPA and PIPA, websites could be blacklisted from search engines, advertising networks and Internet Service Providers via court order or shut down due to a copyright infringement lawsuit. (Sites like Kansas City Mamas or other favorites like Youtube, Tumblr, or Wikipedia.)
I understand there needs to be some regulation regarding content placed on the internet (think movies, music, published works, etc.) – but this blanket legislation puts sites like mine (and many others) in jeopardy because we use photos under the Fair Use Act and could be targeted for copyright infringement, shut down without warning, with no chance to defend ourselves. There is a great article from Mashable with more details.
Help stop this bill and tell your congressman to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA. It takes seconds.
I called my congressman (Iowa) about this several weeks ago. He stated he is for the proposed bill in that it stops copyright infringement from international websites which is primarily where most illegal activites are hosted. He commented this law has no impact to domestic websites. What are your thoughts on this?
I think he isn’t educated on the entire bill. The way it is currently worded makes one understand that the government can choose to shut-down a website immediately, without warning (or trial), at their discretion. While the scope of copyright infringement scares me, it is the power of the government to shut down sites without warning or the chance to rebuttal that worries me.
As I said before, I don’t believe in sites that take “copyrighted” information like music, movies, books, and publish them for the masses to take for free is right. Same would hold true if someone took one of my articles and posted it on their website…however, I wouldn’t want that site to be “taken down automatically”. Like any published content, they should go through the proper legal channels.
Shared. Thanks for sharing the link!