H.R. 3261, The "Stop Online Piracy Act", or #SOPA would allow the government to "suspend operation of, and lock, the domain name" of websites "dedicated to infringing activity."

Although the votes on SOPA and PIPA have been postponed, it is still very important that you let your elected officals know your views on these bills. The forces behind these bills are hoping that the public will lose interest so they can return to business as usual. Use the widgets bellow to send letters to your member of Congress and Senators. You can also sign up to recieve SMS text message alerts when there are important developments.

There are a number of serious issues with the way PIPA and SOPA try to tackle the legitimate concern of websites that infringe copyright:

• No one favors the theft of intellectual property.
• They sweep in every site that includes links, not just the "worst of the worst."
• They include a private right of action with few protections from abuse.
• PIPA removes innovators' ability to fight back when incumbents threaten intermediaries.
• DNS blocking sanctions government interference with the internet, making the internet more censored, akin to that of China and Syria.
• A bi-partisan, compromise bill already exists.

More information on PIPA and SOPA