10 Reasons We Need To Stop SOPA & PIPA

Imagine life without Google. Life without Facebook. Life without Twitter. Imagine getting papers done for school without the help of Wikipedia and Spark Notes. Imagine losing your job because your employer doesn’t need your help anymore. Or even worse, imagine your entire company going under because it’s mission is now illegal. Imagine having to look for jobs in the newspaper. Imagine having barely any jobs to apply for because 1. you can’t find them and 2. what you learned in school isn’t useful anymore. When I picture this world (which our parents basically grew up in), all I see is black. And that is all you will see right now when you head to sites such as Wikipedia, Google, WordPress, and Craigslist.

If you haven’t heard, for some reason Congress wants to pass these two crazy bills – SOPA and PIPA. They believe the bills will put an end to piracy and counterfeiters. However, all they will do is rid of our freedom of speech and destroy the amazing world of knowledge we have spent years building – the internet. The plan is to block any site where you can post pirated videos, pictures, text, and information (aka to instill communism in America). What congress needs to learn is that there is a big difference between sharing and piracy. There is a big different between promoting yourself/your brand and piracy. They need to learn how the internet has affected America in a positive way. Without it, the economy would be worse – and I don’t think anyone can imagine it worse than it is now.

If these bills pass…

1. This blog won’t exist – or any blog for that matter.

2. Kids won’t be able to research information for homework online… and no one will be able to research and read reviews for movies, tv shows, restaurants, vacations, job openings, books, doctors, ETC.

4. If you love watching television and movies on the internet, you won’t be able to… Even if you used to pay for it…

3. There will be no porn (sorry boys).

5. Artists won’t be able to put new music out there… And new artists won’t be able to broadcast their talents online. Imagine a world without Justin Bieber? He wouldn’t have been found if wasn’t for YouTube (covers of songs are not piracy).

6. There will be no social media.

7. Even though this is Congress’ great idea to take down online pirates, it won’t work. In fact, it will only make things worse.

8. There will be no Facebook.

9. The economy will become even worse (did you think that was possible?)… meaning there will be millions of layoffs and no jobs.

10. America will become China.

I think we are in the clear with the young, hip, internet-loving Obama as our Prez… I mean he and every other politician out there relies on and uses the internet just as much as we do. So, personally I think we are safe to think these things won’t happen. However, the passing of these bills is seriously being considered… so we can’t just blow it off. All you have to do is sign this ONLINE petition, because if you don’t, the idea of an online petition may never exist again.