Educate yourself before you no longer can, when censorship of the internet becomes a part of what makes America stand apart.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/show
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57360665-503544/sopa-pipa-what-you-need-to-know/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/technology/sopa_explained/index.htm
While President Obama has killed SOPA for the time being, this is only a temporary reprieve, as it could be allowed to be revisited as early as next month. The Protect IP act goes to the floor on January 24th, and poses just as much of a threat of censorship as SOPA, in the long run.
The arguments in favor of these bills, while they may sound reasonable on the surface, are anything but, when taken into the context of our federal government having the power to decide what we can see, learn, listen to, or watch and what we aren't allowed to.
They do not nor should they ever have this power, for good reason. No government (not even ours) is ever satisfied with using such a measure of power backed by force without increasing that power and force over time. It is not only possible, it is inevitable, that the power to censor the internet will extend to all kinds of materials they do not currently mention, should either of these measures pass into law.
We must all chose which side we will take- and yes, it's an all or nothing, black and white issue. Either you agree with censorship, or you do not.
I do not. Nor will I ever.
Now is the Time to Speak Up, Speak Out, and Speak before they give themselves the tools to stop you.
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
http://sopastrike.com/strike
http://blacklists.eff.org/
http://www.congress.org/
