Stop Freedom of Speech: Support SOPA and PIPA
In the past, if the gov
ernment wanted to shut down freedom of speech, they had to work diligently to find the press that was printing what they didn't like, and shut it down.
But in the modern era, if the government wants to shut it down, all they have to do is tell IP providers, "don't let anybody in our nation connect to these websites." That's what's happened in China, and now it's what SOPA and PIPA intend to do in America.
Their stated reason is to stop piracy and protect trademarks and copyrights, which we support. But it would mean sites like Facebook, Wikipedia, Twitter, MySpace, blogs, and many other sites would have to police every single post under threat of their site being cut off from every single person in America. There would be no right to a jury, no right to a trial, no "innocent until proven guilty." Besides that, those sites couldn't afford to do that and stay in business.
Currently, someone who sees a violation can report it, and the violation can be removed. But under these laws, a violation could mean blocking the entire website. Even Wikipedia, which has worked since the beginning to remain objective, is going black on January 18 in protest because this could mean a threat to the Internet as we know it.
If you live outside of the United States but post or visit any internet site in America, or you access any part of the internet from America, SOPA and PIPA could affect you too.
For more details, go to https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house-principles-supporting-free-speech. To see the bills, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act of HR.3261) is at https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house-principles-supporting-free-speech and PIPA (Protect IP Act of 2011 or S.968) is at http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/show.
The following sites associated with The Loveshade Family decided to go on strike on January 18 in protest: The Loveshade Family, Alden Loveshade, Lorien Loveshade, Discordian Division of the Ek-sen-triks CluborGuild, and the associated Miley Spears. We chose not to put the Loveshade Family Blog on strike because it specifically addresses this issue and allows people to make comments.
While the Order of the Pineapple site decided to place a banner with a link to the protest, it decided not to go on strike because January 18 is Pat Pineapple Day and the day the Order is presented.
Comments
If you want to stop pirates, you don't start shooting every ship on the sea! I really hope these don't pass. How can we be free without freedom of speech?
Posted by: TawTew the Naturally Perfumed | January 17, 2012 05:39 PM
My site signed up. It will be black on January 18. Don't make internet freedom illegal!
Posted by: Miley Spears | January 17, 2012 09:36 PM
I don't usually post comments in our blog, but this time I'll make an exception. This is the email I sent my representatives about SOPA:
I believe very strongly in protecting copyrights. Unfortunately, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is seriously flawed and will lead to blocking of legal content and raise serious problems for free speech online.
Law enforcement could block access to sites that have "infringing material" even if it's slight and the website administrators were not responsible. One small problem could lead to blocking an entire website. The existence of sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and MySpace could be essentially eliminated because of a minor action by one user.
While proposed changes to the bill might help with some websites, still many sites exercising their right to freedom of speech could be blocked by search engines.
The U. S. government should not support just those people whose copyright is being violated, it should protect those who are exercising their right of expression. A bill this broad threatens one of the most fundamental rights of all Americans, the right to freedom of speech.
Please set aside this bill in its entirety, or reformulate the bill so it is narrowly focused on providing an effective and adequate remedy to those content producers whose copyright interests are infringed by the online activities of others, without impacting non-infringing content.
Posted by: Alden Loveshade | January 18, 2012 08:06 PM
Congress doesn't know what it's doing. They can have my freedom of speech the same day they pull my Winchester from my cold, dead hands.
Posted by: Tom T. Trucker | January 20, 2012 07:48 PM
SOPA and PIPA were both dropped by Congress today. We won! For now.
Your site, www.loveshade.org, was one of the few who participated in the very beginning in November to protest, and we and those who value freedom of speech are indebted to you.
But we need to stay vigilant. Variations of killed bills can be reintroduced.
But for now, freedom of speech and freedom of the press online are preserved.
Posted by: Alan Wilson | January 20, 2012 09:04 PM
Praise the Lord that we won. We are fighting an eternal battle against those who would take our freedoms away. Thank you for posting this.
Posted by: Vernon Avaritt | January 30, 2012 11:06 PM