~A Vote~

If you visited Frog's Lilypad yesterday you were rerouted to the Strike Against Sopa and Pipa page. I'm pretty sure some of you were probably scratching your head and wondering what is going on.  Yesterday was a blackout day against censorship on the internet.  I'm a small blogger and really don't get that many visitors but I wanted to show whomever watches this type of stuff, I'm not too thrilled about this. There are tons of other sites that joined in on this. Many completely closed their sites down like Wikipedia,while some only blacked out their logo like Google.  We took a stand against the government and those in Hollywood who are funding these bills.

Still confused? I was when my husband and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago.
My friend and fellow homeschool mom, Tiany summed it all up quite simply. ~

SOPA & PIPA may sound like cute cartoon characters, but no, no warm-n-fuzzy going on here. SOPA is an acronym for Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA is an acronym for Protect IP Act.  So why are online users, business owners, bloggers and  social media enthusiasts in an uproar? Here’s why…  

SOPA and PIPA are two bills backed by movie studios & Time Warner, that have been introduced to Congress. These bills would basically censor the web and impose regulations on American businesses.

As written, authorities and rights holders would be able to get court orders to force broadband providers, hosting companies, payment services and search engines to cut off websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Currently rogue websites based overseas can offer pirated material such as unlicensed film streams out of reach of American law.

The problem is that these bills are flawed, there are simple ways to get around them. These bills will allow US businesses to be shot down with the “YAY” of one judge… frightening!

Can you imagine YouTube going black, frozen, dead?

Unfortunately, my Senators are cosponsors for this bill. It's amazing when money talks what people will do.   I'm not big into politics as most of you know, but I will speak out on something that is going to take a freedom/right away from me. I signed a couple of online petitions yesterday and I sent emails to both of my Senators.  I saw a comment on another site regarding this,"Does Piracy go on? Yep. But is it the government's job to stop it? Nope. Piracy is a private sector problem. It needs to be solved in the private sector. Not through the government." Too much government control is one of our country's problems.

If you enjoy surfing the web and watching all those "how to" videos, I urge you to send a letter to your Senator and ask them to not vote for these bills. I read somewhere the voting is to take place on the 24th; now I can't seem to find that date. Don't wait too late to let your voice be heard on this matter.