Wednesday, January 18, 2012



An unprecedented wave of online opposition to the SOPA and PIPA bills before Congress shows the power of a free Internet.

It was quite the day wasn't it? Most noticeably was the blackout by Wikipedia and the self censorship of Google as well as many other giant websites.

Many in our little world of the fandom either censored their sites or suspended them temporarily. All of this in protest of SOPA/PIPA.

House Bill 3261 was introduced to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Sounds like a good thing to me.

After all, in the world we live in, where everything is accessible by a click on the Internet, piracy runs rampart. However, SOPA/PIPA were written so poorly that it would introduce censorship and hold sites accountable if deemed they were hosting content in violation of the act. A criminal charge. And the Justice Department would be given free reign to shut down sites, censor sites, and charge them with criminal conduct without due process.

Sounds like the Patriot Act all over again. Something I was not in favor of and still do not agree with. 

Our country was formed and based upon the rights of the First Amendment.

Why are we so willing to give up these rights that our forefathers fought and died for?

That is what the passing of SOPA/PIPA says to me. It may seem a bit extreme to some, but that is exactly what it boils down too. The First Amendment. And yes, the arguments of big business, giant website advertisement and commercialization are there, they will always be a part of any argument. But it was the attack on the First Amendment that made us all stand and take notice.

So those who stood up, voiced an opinion, pro and con, I applaud you. This is democracy at it's finest and what we, the citizens of the United States of America believe in.

As for SOPA/PIPA...the out cry was heard...your voices were heard. 

The fight isn't over, but I firmly believe legislation will be re-written to properly and correctly address the issues of what SOPA/PIPA were initially supposed to accomplish without kicking the Bill of Rights or poking the Constitution.

And in case you missed some of the happenings that went on today, I've listed a few of the most notable that I came across...

  • The Obama administration's response to the We The People Petitions on SOPA and online piracy.
  • A must read interview from The Washington Post with Sen.Ron Wyden and his year long fight to stop SOPA/PIPA.
  • The Wall Street Journal posted the new hurdles for SOPA/PIPA in the legislature.
  • The American Library Association voiced concern for the first amendment, intellectual freedom, and privacy rights.
  • Wikipedia offered a full explanation pro and con including the exact description of the statute.

And in the fandom, there were a multitude of tweets, twibbons in protest, and re-tweeting of information as well as some specific posts from...

  • Twitarded and Project Team Betaas well as many other fandom sites censoring themselves to show what the Internet would be like if SOPA/PIPA was to pass.
  • The Sunflower Awards brought awareness to piracy affecting the blog holders in the fandom on their site .
  • Luvrofink and Ooza joined forces setting up a sound cloud to voice opinions.
  • BoubieD expressed her concern on her blog regarding corporations and SOPA via The Huffington Post
  • Twilighted self censored themselves as well as posted on their header information regarding censorship and piracy.
  • And me? I suspended my blog, went Twitter silence, and suspended all feeds from my affiliates.

And one of my favorites...

SOPA / PIPA in animated GIF form
Pirated from The Oatmeal with their blessings.






That's a lot of "alleged piracy" I just committed. Might as well look pretty if I am going to be shut down...

{ 1 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. This was fucking brilliant Hunny. Seriously.

    I did everything I could by putting those ribbon thingies on my Twitter and Facebook and refraining from tweeting all day, unless it was about #SOPA.

    I WANTED to black out my blog, but even following the instructions, I couldn't do it. I tried for four fucking hours! lol.

    I'm not an American, but I still protested because as a banner maker, I use 'copyrighted' images in my banners, and even though I'm not an American, I could still be held accountable and FINED for having shit ON MY OWN BLOG.

    Fucking ridiculous.

    So yeah, I did what I could. At least I did SOMETHING and I tried, right?

    Anyhoo, LOVE the gif at the end, hilarious!

    Love ya blog and you Hunny! xo

    p.s. Btw, you should have a reaction saying 'fucking awesome', because that it what I wanted to click instead of 'cool'. ;p

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