SOPA is the product of years of lobbying by the piracy-hit media, film and music industries and would make it easier for copyright holders and the US government to cut off access to websites accused of containing illegal films, music and TV programming.

Some Internet sites today are providing restricted service in protest to the American legislation known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).  If made into law, it would give additional powers to the US law enforcement agencies and copyright holders.

These additional powers could ultimately take down innocent websites who provide information and reference material.  More seriously, search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing may be asked to remove information from search results even if there is no proof that piracy is occurring on the destination website.  Social networks like Facebook and Twitter may also be affected.

Though this legislation is American, it will affect users in every country, it is global and will have a devastating effect to the Internet.  What you and I take for granted today, freedom to research and obtain information from a variety of sources will be crushed for all future generations.

Whether you just read a blog or two or use the web to seek customers for your business, or if you are a student who uses Wikipedia to write essays or a professional to write reports for your company, or if you use social media sites to communicate with your friends and family, or even if you use search engines, like Google, to find things.  In short, everything on the internet will be subjected to the restrictive anti-free speech and anti-free information policies of SOPA, whether the sites are hosted in the United States or not.

A worst case scenario is a situation where the US creates a Chinese style firewall in which sites can get blacklisted merely on an accusation.

If you think US law relating to the Internet still doesn’t affect you, you need only look at the case of Richard O’Dwyer, a British Citizen who created a website called TVShack.  This website held a comprehensive index of TV Shows, synopsis and reviews along with links to other websites where you could download the shows.  It’s important to note that Richard, and his website do not infringe copyright at all.  (The website he’s linking to is most likely the copyright infringer).

Richard is being threatened with extradition to the US over the alleged violations of US copyright law even though he is a British Citizen who lives in the UK and everything he did was on servers based in the UK, and those servers did not even host the copy-written material.  There shouldn’t even be a case against him, let alone being extradited to US.

Do you think a British Citizen will get a fair trial in America at a time when they’re attempting to enhance their copyright laws? – (No, neither do I).

SOPA is opposed by over 40 internet giants, such as Google, Wikipedia, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, eBay, AOL, LinkedIn, Reddit, PayPal, Tumblr and The Huffington Post to name a few.

This is the most threatening piece of legislation which affects the Internet as we know it today, nothing like this has ever happened before.  SOPA will severely inhibit people’s access to online information no matter what country you live in.

SOPA is a piece of badly drafted legislation that cannot stop copyright infringement (copyright infringers will always find a way)! SOPA’s wake will cause serious damage to the free and open Internet.  SOPA will put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites.  Small sites won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves.  Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn’t being infringed.  Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines and this is the framework for future restrictions and suppression.

If you’ve read this far, thank you this post is a combination of text from several websites (listed below).  If SOPA was already in, the article you have just read would likely illegal.  Do you think I should be fined or go to prison for providing this information to you?  SOPA will create huge barriers to research information online.

So now you know how SOPA affects the Internet, and how it may affect you.  What are you going to do?  Browse away or learn more about it?

H.R. 3261 – Stop Online Piracy Act (Full Text Of The Bill)

Why SOPA is Dangerous

Wikipedia Information

Wikipedia’s Blackout

Black Wednesday

SOPA Blackout

How PIPA and SOPA Violate White House Principles Supporting Free Speech and Innovation

20 Ways SOPA Can Affect The Internet

Richard O’Dwyer

Internet Companies Against SOPA

Internet Giants Act Against SOPA

STAY UPDATED

Related articles

• SOPA Author Attacks Wikipedia, Schedules Debate on Bill (mashable.com)
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• Catching up with SOPA (and Hello, IPKat Readers!) (ipkitten.blogspot.com)
• SOPA vs. PIPA: Anti-piracy bills, uproar explained (digitaltrends.com)
• SOPA / PIPA Will Destroy PC Gaming (gametwonk.com)
• Wikipedia 24 hour black out – a protest against SOPA and PIPA (liberatemedia.com)
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• What is SOPA/PIPA and Why the Web is Going Dark on January 18, 2012 (aisjournal.com)
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• Everything Marketers Need to Know About SOPA (hubspot.com)

On 13 January 2012, at around 21:00 local time, the Costa Concordia ran aground on a reef off Isola del Giglio and capsized, resulting in the deaths of five of the 4,229 people on board. As of 15 January, about 15 people were still unaccounted for. Three people were rescued from the ship that day, over 24 hours after the accident: two South Korean passengers and an Italian crew member.

An Italian broker and industry experts believe the ship is a constructive total loss, with damages to be as high or higher than $500 million. Costa has not confirmed the fate of the ship yet.

Here are the pictures it’s demise.

She dances for the man at home
She works for him all the time
She never rude, as she tells him
“I’m dancing to this rhyme”

She dances at the crack of dawn
And music brings her mood
She can’t be late, can’t take too long
He’s looking at her, so shrewd

She dances at the kitchen stove
Dinner is served by nine
He says “this foods an hour late,
She must be out her mind…”

She dances at the party night
She dances to her needs
She dances ’til she feels just right
She dressed in widows weeds!

She works so hard, she depreciate
For the man who just don’t appreciate
And though he takes her love in vein
She just could not stop, goes and breaks his name

She danced the night that they fell out
She swore she’d dance no more
But then she did, she did not quit
And she danced right out the door!

She danced through the night
The night was her life
She danced to the beat of her own

Then she learned how to cry
And she made us stand by
Because she knew she was needed back home,

Cuz’ she’s a slave,
She’s a slave,
She’s a slave, to the rhythm of home
Cuz’ she’s a slave,
She’s a slave,
She’s a slave, and she’s not fearsome

What was it like in 2011? Take a look..

And now for the “I can’t tell if you’re looking at me, but you’re still fit as fuck” look!

Via http://instantjoy.tumblr.com/post/11667152156