If you have a moment, call your Senators to voice your opposition to The PROTECT IP Act, which threatens activism and whistleblowing both in America and worldwide.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other public interest groups, including Public Knowledge, Fight for the Future, and Demand Progress are asking the public to call in to the Senate and voice their opposition to The PROTECT IP Act (the sister bill of the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act, or, SOPA).
Both PROTECT IP Act and SOPA were drafted in order to stop online piracy with groups such as the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) heavily lobbying Congress for passage.
It is believed by many, from Google to EFF, that blacklisting sites with pirated content will adversely affect the channels of communication used by activists, rebels and whistleblowers.
While SOPA is stuck in committee, the under-the-radar PROTECT IP Act has been fast-tracked out of committee and is set to be rushed through a Senate vote, according to EFF. In the Senate, only Rand Paul, Maria Cantwell, Ron Wyden and Jerry Moran have voiced opposition to the bill.
EFF provides some talking points for calling your Senator:
Hello, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I am a constituent of the Senator.
I think S. 968, the PROTECT IP Act, is a bad idea, and I hope the Senator will stand against it.
PROTECT IP is overbroad, and could be used as a tool for online censorship. Further, it creates a bad precedent internationally for fragmenting the Internet.
Thank you for your consideration, and for acting against this dangerous bill.
For a list of Senators who oppose and support PROTECT IP (complete with phone numbers), head over to EFF, and sign Demand Progress’ ‘Stop Censorship’ petition.
November 29, 2011 at 10:31 pm, Whotheman2006 said:
America is known for freedom of speech, apple pie, white picket fences and the american dream but not in my life time I would imagine America becoming like China, in terms of preventing freedom of speech
November 29, 2011 at 10:31 pm, Whotheman2006 said:
America is known for freedom of speech, apple pie, white picket fences and the american dream but not in my life time I would imagine America becoming like China, in terms of preventing freedom of speech
December 01, 2011 at 2:24 pm, Thatguy401 said:
Congress should be more concerned with its inability to run government then trying to police ones and zeros..