Why all the SOPA fuss??

As someone who creates content for the web, earns a living from it, and has had her content pirated numerous times, I do feel that we need protection against online piracy.

I do not, however, think that SOPA or PIPA are the legislation we need.

SOPA and PIPA are badly drafted legislation that won't be effective at their stated goal (to stop copyright infringement), and will cause serious damage to the free and open Internet. They put the burden on website owners, like myself, to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites like mine won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves.

Over the weekend, the Obama administration issued a statement, saying it would oppose PIPA and SOPA as written: "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

Learn more about the blacklist bill.

Detailed information about these bills can also be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia.

Tell Congress: Don’t censor the Web