Tuesday, 15 November 2011 20:31

American Censorship Day is Tomorrow

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censorship-InternetTomorrow is the American Censorship Day. This is a time when many websites (DecryptedTech included) will replace their front pages with a simulated takedown notice. However, the code will also allow you to send an email to your representatives in congress as well as find more information on SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and just how dangerous it really is. We have already told you how serious this act can potentially be and now it seems that the many web businesses are waking up to the potential of this act.

Today several companies including Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Zynga, Yahoo, AOL, LinkedIn, Twitter, eBay, Mozilla, and many, many others have signed an opposition letter to this bill. In typical congressional fashion only one opponent of SOPA was invited to the hearing. However, multiple corporations and organizations that are in favor of this have been given the right to speak. This is most likely to make it appear that opposition to the bill is small (or limited to only one company that is currently in multiple patent and copyright legal fights).

However there is hope that the join signed letter will allow Google to show that opposition is not limited and is growing. Outside of these larger companies that will have a voice in the hearings next week there will be other voices that will stand out against this. As we mentioned before tomorrow many websites will great you will a simulated take down notice and it is not just sites like Torrentfreak , but also sites like Reddit, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, BoingBoing.

The odd thing about this bill is that the congressional supporters are trying to say that it will help create jobs. I am not sure how squashing free speech and shutting down companies encourages job growth but that is what they would want you to believe. This bill would also create a government run DNS black listing system which if it is like anything else run by the government would be a massive vulnerability and something that could be horribly abused.  To make things worse some of these same congress men and women spoke out against the censorship that was (and still is) happening in Libya, Syria, Iran, and China. It really makes no sense and if you look at the logic of the bill it is straight out of the MPAA and RIAA mindset. In fact it is exactly what they have been asking for all along.

We urge you to contact your representatives and senators; let them know how you feel about this. It really is the only way to make sure this never passes.

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Read 2909 times Last modified on Tuesday, 15 November 2011 20:41

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