For anyone interested in keeping free speech alive on the Internet, and/or anywhere else, read this article about why SOPA/PIPA must be stopped. There is also a video attached that outlines how this bill threatens free speech and expression on the Internet.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

To me, SOPA/PIPA reduces our cultural inheritance and history, and our opinions and experiences surrounding it, into base commodities. It will punish people based on biased perception, and upon the self-interest of a minority.  This is not to mention the potential it has for controlling the expression (or lack of it) of masses of people through curtailing the function of  the biggest, most effective, and most democratic communication channel the world has ever seen – the Internet itself. SOPA/PIPA has the potential to foil the ability of populations to communicate with one another, denying them the power to affect change to make their lives better as they see it on an international scale.

SOPA/PIPA goes against everything this blog stands for. And if you consume content on this blog, and on others like it, it goes against everything you stand for, too.

If you’re as freaked out as I am, please  write to your member of congress about SOPA, or your member of parliament (Canada), or member of parliament (UK). I choose those three based on the audience of this blog. But, if you hail from another country, find out how to oppose SOPA/PIPA in your country.

U.S policy like this isn’t a domestic issue. It attacks the very nature of the Internet, and is therefore international in its scope.

Thanks, everyone.

Rob

editor-in-chief

The Delete Bin.

UPDATE, Jan 29th, 2012: And as I suspected, this very same effort to shackle free speech on the Internet is being sold to us here in Canada in the form of Bill C-11, despite the SOPA/Pipa (temporary) defeat. Learn more here on Michael Geist’s article about Bill C-11, and consider sending your concerns to your local MPs.