Rare Political Opinion - SOPA

I normally prefer to keep my political and religious opinions to myself, but circumstances being what they are, I feel I need to say something.

Many websites around the world will be "going dark" tomorrow, January 18, 2012, in protest of SOPA, the so-called Stop On-line Piracy Act.  A lot of folks don't know what this hoopla is even all about because it's not really in the news and I believe it should be.

Here is a link to the bill's text itself.  I urge you to read it for yourselves.  You can also read the Wikipedia article I linked in the previous paragraph.  However be warned that someone has called into question the neutrality of said article.  Hence whey I've linked to the bill itself.  There is more information out there and I urge to to read it and form your own opinions on the matter.

For me personally, I believe no good can come of SOPA.  Copyright laws have always been a civil court matter and should remain so.  I believe as currently written, SOPA violates the First Amendment Rights of all American citizens.  The language is too open ended and can easily become a slippery slope of lost freedoms.  Are there valid issues the bill is trying to address?  I believe there are.  But I do not agree with the current outlines and wording currently therein.

In addition to voicing my concerns with my Representatives, I'm going to do one thing.  Tomorrow I will "go dark" as well.  From Blogger, from email , from Facebook, from any form of e-commerce- really from the Internet in general.  I'll be watching the news on television for a change and working on non-Internet projects.

Again I urge you all, especially my American readers, to read the available literature (including the bill) while you can and form your own opinions.  If you agree with me please call your federal representatives' offices today.  Heck even if you don't agree with me, call them anyway so your opinion counts in the way they vote.  It's America after all.