SOPA : The Censorship bill that will Kill the Internet

Right now, U.S. congress is holding hearings on the first American Internet censorship system. This bill can pass. If it does the Internet and free speech will never be the same.

SOPA also known as the ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ is an attempt by Hollywood & U.S. corporations to pass through congress a bill which will allow them to punish sites who allegedly are ‘dedicated to the theft of U.S. property’.  But this bill isn’t going to just aim at peer-to-peer sharing sites in Iran, but will also clamp down onto many American sites and web companies potentially creating huge ramifications that will effect everyone’s use of the internet.  Sites like Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media networks as well as Cloud Computing could even be effected by this law.

At Think Up! We’re really scared about how this bill will impact freedom of speech and equal rights to information on the internet.  A wolf in sheep’s clothing, SOPA will give huge power to corporations and anyone who feel’s their rights have been infringed upon, to choke out and block access to sites which have supposedly been at fault.

Have a look at the video below for more information

Notice the nice ‘Stop Censorship’ notice that is blocking our Logo? If you run a website and are worried about you rights, please find out how you can add a censorship notice to your site and how you can help spread this information to others so that this bill will be turned down. Find out how you can help here!

For more in depth reading on the hazards of SOPA,  read the following articles..

• SOPA: Hollywood finally gets a chance to break the internet
• Protect the Internet
• House takes Senate’s bad Internet censorship bill, tries making it worse

Written by Andrew Sepic

Andrew has been helping small business in a variety of sectors successfully brand themselves for the past 7 years. While not designing and working with clients you can find him growing his own food or hiking in the green mountains.