This posting is not about my Haiku, but about two bills that our Congress will be voting on January 24th. These two bills, Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, will give the Department of Justice the authority to remove or block access to all or parts of a website that is "dedicated to infringement activities." These sites do not even need to proven to have been committing infringement under these Bills, but only need to be accused of committing copyright infringement. Actions may even be taken against the sites before the owner/operators of the site have a chance to defend the site in court. This is a big problem, as it is an infringement on our rights of Freedom of Speech under the First Amendment.
Think about this, any site that hosts copyrighted material without permission could shut down, which is an obvious conclusion, but also sites that also link to copyrighted material could be removed under these laws. All it takes is one video, song, or paragraph containing copyrighted material and that site can be accused of copyright infringement and removed. This would give the government and entertainment industry enormous power in censoring what is available to the public, and we would never know, because no reference to a site targeted by them would exist.
If you are for free and open use of the internet, contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to vote NO on H.R. 3261: Stop Online Piracy Act and S.968: Protect IP Act.
To view information on either Bill or read them in full, follow the links below:
H.R.3261: Stop Online Piracy Act
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/show
S.968: Protect IP Act
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/show
You may also use either link to write a message to Congress letting them know you oppose these Bills, and ask that they not be passed. If you wish to call instead, follow the link below and choose your state and enter your zip code for your representatives contact information.
http://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Keep the internet free and open!
Nickolas Croy
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