Reblogging.
Although I am no longer located in the U.S., for those of you who are, I cannot stress enough how important this is. The manner in which these bills are currently written presents a threat to many internet sites. Love your Tumblr blog? Try to imagine being without it… or Facebook… or Flickr… Twitter… eBay… Google… or hundreds, if not thousands, of other sites.
Both SOPA and PIPA are designed to punish all users of a site for the actions of a few. If only one person, knowingly or not (often, the case is not), link to a copywritten image, song, or text, an entire website could be shut down indefinitely due to the “crime” of facilitating copywrite infringement. That means, for example, if you post that totally awesome Harry Potter picture… YOU could get Tumblr shut down entirely, while the government launches an investigation.
Like YouTube? If you post just ONE video of something… say, your cute new kitten playing with its tail… and you just happen to have some music playing in the background… all of YouTube could be shut down because your video features copywritten music. No kidding. We already have something similar in Germany, where individual videos on YouTube are blacked out due to a song in the video (even just as background music) by a band or record label that did not come to an agreement with an organization known as GEMA. We have this here. It sucks. It is bad. Trust me, you folks do NOT want this.
I will be making no new posts today, in support of the blackout, but since, for now, the internet remains free, I will be back tomorrow at midnight.
Today, if you can, PLEASE contact your Congressional representatives if you are in the U.S.. Even if you are located outside of the U.S., please do blog about this also, and let your followers be aware of what is happening. So many people still do not know about this.
Wikipedia’s site also has some good information and easy-to-use links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Thanks to all of my wonderful followers for reading this important message.
Alright, my blog is officially in black out mode in protest of SOPA & PIPA.
To Take Action: Grab a code for your blog
Direct Links to Petitions AGAINST these Bills:
I hope everyone takes this seriously. Be back tomorrow!
