STOP the Stop Online Piracy Act!

Wait! You mean be against the people who are against online piracy? Does that mean you’re for online piracy?

Well, no. It means I’m against the government’s definition of online piracy. If you haven’t heard and educated yourself on SOPA and PIPA (bills in the government right now) please read up on it here.

Basically, if this were to pass, it would change the internet as we know it. Of course, stealing movies and music and copyrighted material from the internet is bad. And that should be stopped. But this bill is so broad that if a company or store did not want to be mentioned on coupon blogs, they could SHUT THOSE BLOGS DOWN with no warning.

If another blog wanted to dominate, they could start claiming copyright infringement on any other blog that posted deals similar to theirs (which, of course, happens because we are all after the same deals). By sending a certified letter to Google, WordPress and Paypal, just about anyone could have my site removed from search engines (Google), block my site (WordPress) and freeze payments I should receive from advertisers (Paypal) and just like that, I’m done.

And if you’re thinking that, surely, there were some way to keep abuses of power and baseless claims from happening you are sadly naive about the way the government works. If someone wrote a letter to Google claiming I was an “offender”, by law, Google would have 5 days to act or protest the claim. Now, do you think Google cares enough about me or my site to go to bat for me? NO. I’d be toast. I’d get no say or no chance to defend myself.

And before long, the internet would be run by the people/companies with the most money and best lawyers…because those are the ones that will come out on top in this. This is censorship in it’s most grotesque form. The internet is a place of information and sharing. Not a “winner-takes-all” world.

Many sites are “going dark” today in protest. I value my readers and want you to be able to find the information you came here to find, so I will not be taking my site down for the day.

BUT if YOU value the information you receive here, please make sure you continue to receive it.