My Short Take on SOPA & PIPA Bill

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I was supposed to finished my research task today but it seems that I will not be able to do that since most of the websites where I can get  the information I need are blacked out. And yes, including Wordpress.org.






















This is in line with the protest against proposed US anti-piracy law.  The proposed legislation is to Stop Online Piracy Act aka (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act aka (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate.

I believe that we don’t have to be a U.S. citizen to take charge here. As an everyday internet user we also have to speaks out about this internet censorship. With that I do also signed the online petition.

Here's my short take on this proposed bill:

SOPA & PIPA Bill is intended to protect against online piracy by granting broad new powers to the U.S. Government when it comes to blocking access to sites that deliver pirated content. Yep it all sounds good. But if this bill gets passed Social Media sharing will also be limited as users might not be able to upload and share images, videos, clips, or any type of copyrighted content WITHOUT permission. In the long run, this bill would be a great way for Governtment and Corporation to control the information that reaches us.

Although the bills' drafters says that the laws aren’t intended to be used that way, it's just hard to think that it is NOT impossible to happen. Its just scary though that many of us only hear about important things/ news because someone shares a link or a video on facebook, twitter or some other social media sites and these stories are often shared by someone who stumbled across an article on one of the thousands of websites which could  be stand in danger of being banned, if one of these bills gets passed.

It makes me sad to think that if our ability to share and spread information is limited, chances are many of these important issues will go unnoticed by majority and spreading information about these other causes, as well as discussing and protesting them will become far more difficult.

Yes it would really be nice to stop Piracy, but please, NOT our Liberty.