SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) has been on the news and around the internet a lot lately, and for good reason. It is stated to stop piracy, like illegal downloads of movies etc…but its broad terms may have severe consequences. Per this article on BBC:

The US government and rights holders would have the right to seek court orders against any site accused of "enabling or facilitating" piracy. This could theoretically involve an entire website being shut down because it contains a link to a suspect site.

First of all, before I go any farther, if you are not familiar with SOPA, please watch this short video. It explains it so well.

I’m all for busting down piracy. But, this act is just too broad. In terms of having a blog, if I linked to a site that happened to have a copyright infringement or pirated information, they could take away my domain or even worse. And that is just for my little blog. Think about big sites like YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr. The terms of this act are too broad, and left open to the wrong interpretation, could seriously hinder free speech on the internet.

While SOPA has been taken off the House floor, PIPA remains at the Senate, set for a vote on January 24th.

Tomorrow, many big companies are participating in a 12 hour black-out to show their support.

Here at Smexy, you will be redirected to a “STOP SOPA” page the first time you visit, and then you may proceed to the blog.

If you would like to participate, I am using this WordPress Plugin. There is also a ribbon you can put on your header if you so choose.