Stopping intellectual property piracy may be a a valid goal, but H.R. 3261 (SOPA) is not narrowly tailored to just reach criminals; as written, it would chill speech, kill jobs, stifle innovation, threaten the security of the Internet, and give the government the power to completely shut down entire websites if they are merely suspected of having infringing content.  If this worries you, please contact your Representative today.

What’s at stake and why should I care?

Flaws and consequences include, but are not limited to:

• Compromising the DMCA safe harbors for online intermediaries
• Giving the government authority to block domains without due process
• Interfering with linking and search engines and the DNS, while not actually being effective
• Making uploading copyrighted content a felony, punishable by 5 years in prison
• Threatening jobs, innovation, speech, security
• Undermining the U.S.’s ability to discourage repressive regimes abroad from censoring citizens

What can I do as an individual or as an organization?

SOPA is slated for markup this Thursday December 15, so concerns should ideally be voiced as soon as possible.  You can call and email your House Representative by visiting FightForTheFuture.org. They have a great web tool where you enter your zip code, are given talking points, and then are directly connected to your Representative.  There are other useful tools on AmericanCensorship.org for websites to “censor” their sites and logos, to demonstrate the potential effects of this bill.  You can also send people to IWorkforTheInternet.org to post pictures of themselves to show that the Internet has created jobs, and these jobs are threatened by this bill.  You can share this post with any people or organizations and encourage them to act and spread the word as well!

What else should I know?

There are many prominent and diverse groups and individuals who have expressed opposition to this bill.  This is not the only option; there’s an alternative bill proposed entitled The OPEN Act.  Also, the first round of anti-censorship advocacy was incredibly successful, and generated millions of emails and thousands of calls, as this infographic shows.  If you participated in that, participate again; if you didn’t participate, now’s the time.

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