SOPA and Why We Need to Stop It

As most of you may have heard, Congress is considering a new piece of legislation called SOPA, or Stop Online Privacy Act. The goal of this law is to, well, stop online privacy, and it will give the US government the power to censor or take down any site they want without a hearing or trial.

You may be thinking that this won't be a problem as long as you don't do anything illegal, but if passed, SOPA will have consequences for all of us, from casual internet users to bloggers like you and me.

For instance, if you link to another website or blog that contains content that has been accused of copyright infringement, that entire post could be taken down from the Internet. Gone, just like that.

Or say you like to vlog. If just one user posts a video that infringes copyright on Youtube, Youtube could be taken down like that, and your video won't be there anymore.

And in case you think these are all overly dramatic arguments, the latest word from Congress is that they're stacking five pro-bill speakers against one against. There's not much we can do to stop this, but you can sign this petition, talk to your local congressmen, and spread the word.