SOPA & PIPA...should you be concerned?

I am joining sites like Etsy, Google, wikapedia and more to protest PIPA and SOPA that is trying to pass through congress. contacting my local Representative and Senator and anyone else I can to protest SOPA and PIPA. I just contacted my senators, representatives etc. to tell them how I felt on this. If we don't speak out...others will make decisions, we may not like, for us. Go to http://www.house.gov/ to find your local rep.  and go to http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm  to find your local Senators.  

 Here is a list of great, unique items from etsy you can get to help support the cause and get the word out:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/Nzc4NTcyNHwxODU1MTE1OTUz/sopa-and-pipa-take-a-stand

You can read about Etsy's stance on this here: http://www.etsy.com/protect-innovation  

You can read firefox's stance on it here:  https://donate.mozilla.org/page/s/SOPA?source=snippet

You can read google's stance on it here: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

 Wikapedia's stance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act  More of an explanation of SOPA.

 

According to google:

More about SOPA and PIPA

Members of Congress are trying to do the right thing by going after pirates and counterfeiters but SOPA and PIPA are the wrong way to do it.

1. SOPA and PIPA would censor the Web

The U.S. government could order the blocking of sites using methods similar to those employed by China. Among other things, search engines could be forced to delete entire websites from their search results. That’s why 41 human rights organizations and 110 prominent law professors have expressed grave concerns about the bills.

2. SOPA and PIPA would be job-killers because they would create a new era of uncertainty for American business

Law-abiding U.S. internet companies would have to monitor everything users link to or upload or face the risk of time-consuming litigation. That’s why AOL, EBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga wrote a letter to Congress saying these bills “pose a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job-creation.” It’s also why 55 of America’s most successful venture capitalists expressed concern that PIPA “would stifle investment in Internet services, throttle innovation, and hurt American competitiveness”. More than 204 entrepreneurs told Congress that PIPA and SOPA would “hurt economic growth and chill innovation”.

3. SOPA and PIPA wouldn’t stop piracy

To make matters worse, SOPA and PIPA won’t even work. The censorship regulations written into these bills won’t shut down pirate sites. These sites will just change their addresses and continue their criminal activities, while law-abiding companies will suffer high penalties for breaches they can’t possibly control.
There are effective ways to combat foreign “rogue” websites dedicated to copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting, while preserving the innovation and dynamism that have made the Internet such an important driver of American economic growth and job creation. Congress should consider alternatives like the OPEN Act, which takes targeted and focused steps to cut off the money supply from foreign pirate sites without making US companies censor the Web.