One topic has become very big for all the Internet businesses and users during the last few months - the voting of 2 laws that according to many experts will result in censorship of online information: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its sister bill - Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). As PIPA will be voted by the US Senate on January 24th, we would like to take the chance and ask you to spare a few minutes and state your opinion about these laws. SiteGround, which is Sl’s Repository’s web hosting service(which is really great by the way!), has launched their own STOP CENSORSHIP campaign that we at Sl’s Repository joined.
What is SOPA/PIPA all about
As you might have already heard, two pieces of copyright infringement legislation are pending both in the House of Representatives and in the US Senate - the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). In a nutshell, both bills attempt to make it easier to shut off access to content that is alleged to be copyright infringing. This may not sound as a bad idea, but we believe that as drafted, SOPA and PIPA will give the US government unseen power to censor the information on the web for the whole world and we believe that if accepted and applied these laws have a strong potential to change the Internet for worse by taking away what we all love it for - the freedom of speech.
In a recent development leadership in the House of Representatives has indicated that SOPA will not be coming up for a vote anytime soon which is a small victory itself for the whole Internet community. On the other hand however, PIPA, the Senate counterpart bill to SOPA, has 90% of the problems SOPA has and is very much alive, and very much a threat which is why we should keep voicing our strong opposition and do our best to stop the bill.
To learn more about the bills check out this video, or read about it on SiteGround’s Blog by clicking on the Stop Censorship Icon above.
What can be done
We believe that more people should become aware that Internet, as they know it, is facing a serious change, more people should care and more people should express a strong position built on principles. Recently we have seen the topic being turned into a money making technique by several other hosting companies. We believe that this is dangerous as it makes their position look driven by profit seeking rather than principles. We want you to take a minute to think about the bills, and if you find them as inappropriate as we do, to join us in opposing them by sharing this article on your favorite social network.