Stop American Censorship — a campaign from Fight for the Future

Stop American Censorship — a campaign from Fight for the Future

Today, 18 January 2012, we are seeking to stop SOPA and PIPA now. These two bills, the first a US House, the second a US Senate, purport to stop piracy but they are such poorly drafted bills that they actually lay the groundwork for a regime of censorship that would, as virtually every major Internet organization has recognized, destroy the freedoms that have made the Internet and Web a vehicle for economic and cultural growth.

I have proposed to the Apache OpenOffice podling, where I intermittently contribute, to support the protest.

And I blacked out my other blog, www.luispo.com, in support.

I support the protest.

And for the remainder of the day, I ask you, too, to support the protest, if not by blacking out your site or your posts, then by looking at the bills and reading over the discussions. And then by doing what is really very effective: if you are a US citizen, contact your representative and express yourself. This is an election year; your voice counts.

And if you are not a US citizen, keep this in mind: The US is hardly exceptional and the laws that are in circulation and not yet enacted, also work to diminish freedom and weaken community and return us to a regime that didn't work and cannot work this century--but which can still make the oligarchs even richer, and at your expense.