SurfGuitar101.com Offline to Protest SOPA / PIPA

Dear Friends of SurfGuitar101.com:

+I am closing the site today to protest two pieces of legislation in the US Congress: the so-called +Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA in the House, and the so-called +Protect IP Act, or PIPA in the Senate. I hope to draw attention to these acts and +urge each one of you to read up on them. Then, please contact your representatives and ask them to withdraw +their support for these bills. +

I too am concerned about protecting copyrights and intellectual property. But these bills have provisions in them +that go too far. They allow media companies to ask the government to remove sites from the Internet without any +due process or oversight. The burden of proving that no coypright violations are present will fall on site operators. +Major tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter oppose these bills. The engineers that built the internet have +also spoken out, pointing out that the provisions in these bills will not prevent piracy, but in fact will create +security problems and disrupt the operation of the Internet. +

+The Internet is quite possibly the greatest invention of my lifetime. It should be a tool for free expression, +democracy, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Instead, the media companies are failing to innovate or embrace +this new digital age, and they are asking the US government to essentially bail them out. We cannot let the US goverment +join the ranks of despot countries like China, Iran, Syria, and North Korea and censor their citizens' use of the Internet. +

Here are some links that I ask you to look over. They explain the issues far better than I can.

SOPA at a glance, a nice infographic from americancensorship.org
Stop the + Great Firewall of America - New York Times editorial
SOPA + Is a Symbol of the Movie Industry's Failure to Innovate - from entreprenuer Steve Blank
Overkill on Internet Piracy - from The Washington Post
New Anti-Piracy Legislation Would Break the Internet Without Stopping Piracy - from Reason magazine
AmericanCensorship.org - information and resources
SOPA Opera - Where do your members of congress stand on SOPA + and PIPA?
Stop the Internet Blacklist + Legislation - The Electronic Freedom Foundation provides this page to easily let you send an email to your + representatives. Just enter your zip code.
Protect the Net - popular blogging site Tumblr.com's + information and resources for contacting your representatives
SOPA Entry on Wikipedia
Growing Chorus of Opposition + to "Stop Online Piracy Act" - from the Center for Democracy and Technology
SOPA: Hollywood + Finally Gets A Chance to Break the Internet - from the Electronic Freedom Foundation
Fight the Blacklist: + A Toolkit for Anti-SOPA Activism - from the Electronic Freedom Foundation
OpenCongress.org - News about SOPA & PIPA as well as resources for + contacting your representatives

+Thank you for your patience and understanding. I firmly believe that even small community websites like ours +would be threatened if bills like this were allowed to pass.
+-- Brian Neal +

+Contact your representatives now +

+ +