User blog:Breakingmikey/SOPA/PIPA Blog

I'm not too sure if this blog is acceptable, but I've been going through multiple wikis and I'm seeing them doing a censorship on their logos, or wiki word-mark. Please note that this blog has conflict between the United States' Government so if you don't want to get offended, please don't read for your own good.

For those of you that don't know the SOAP and PIPA act, the United States Congress is proposing two laws that address the problem of wide-scale unlicensed distribution on the Internet of movies, television shows, songs, trademarked goods, and patented pharmaceuticals (medication :P).

What is SOPA and PIPA?
SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) would direct search engines in the United States to block Internet sites outside the United States that are primarily engaged in distributing unlicensed content. PIPA (Protect IP Act) would block websites located in the United States as well, or in other words, blocking websites in the United States that does the same I mentioned above. Or read the following to see what it basically is. :P

"The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months." —This is what the SOPA act is. Source: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.

What's going on and who's affected?
Currently, the Obama administration is putting a stop to these proposals. It wants the Internet companies and the content companies to get together and come up with more functional and less destructive solutions, meaning that don't threaten Congress about this, that would be ugly to watch. :/ If both proposals became law, the government of the United States would determine on application if a website was primarily engaged in unlicensed distribution. A court might hold a hearing but only if the people who run the website showed up. Otherwise, the site would be blocked by an order directing all websites in the United States with search engines or links to refuse to resolve any results or clicks to the blocked address. Meaning that Wikia might be shut down, and that's not good for Wikian Staff members, the many different admins of wikis, the editors of wikia, heck even vandals of wikia. Or if you go on google to search up something and the website you click on is blocked, then that's what it's basically explaining.

SOPA, which would only block websites outside the United States, is a complete embarrassment to a country that has avidly supported the freedom of all peoples to express themselves openly particularly in the face of oppressive regimes. The role of the Internet in populist liberation movements is well-known and the tools used by these movements come from the people and companies that built the Internet and the Web -- not from motion picture companies and sellers of consumer goods. If the United States blocks websites over a Tom Cruise movie or a Rihanna song, other countries are certain to be encouraged by this to find cultural and political reasons to block websites from the Unites States and will refuse to open their borders, virtual or otherwise.

Other
To know information, please visit this blog from Community Central and read the up-to-date information about these two proposals.

Right now, most website like Google, Reddit, Cheezburger, Wikipedia, destructoid, deviantArt and many different wikis are holding a blackout, protesting against these two acts. Some websites are going dark (a simple message about how the PIPA/SOPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit, link to resources to learn more, and suggest ways to take action). To learn more about the Blackout, visit Wikipedia and see what they're doing. For more information about these acts, please visit any search engine website. Trust me, it's there. xD Or this wiki called IP Law Wiki, it has a lot of information on the blackouts.

I'm not suggesting anything to the admins or the fellow Fan Fictioneers on this wiki, but to support the blackouts, I think it'll be great for us to petition against this act that could severely damage this wiki.

Thank you guys for reading and support some of the website blackouts that's happening. - ★    ♥   Mikey    ☮    The star is the guide  ★  01:37, January 19, 2012 (UTC)