A letter to my senators

I never realized how much I use Wikipeda until I came across this terrible image earlier today:

Today,  January 18, Wikipedia blacked out their entire site -- except for the pages on SOPA and PIPA -- in protest of the two bills.  

And then not too long after, I came across it again.  And again.  (Don't judge!  I need Wikipedia to look up Beatles facts.)

I think anyone who has been on the Internet lately has heard of SOPA and PIPA.  If you're not sure what these two acronyms mean, Gizmodo posted a pretty complete explanation [here].  SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA stands for PROTECT IP Act.  (And if you just can't get enough of those clever acronyms, PROTECT IP stands for Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property.)  [Source: Wikipedia :)]

From what I understand, these bills in the House of Reps and the Senate that are supposed to stop Internet piracy, but they will probably not do that and instead cause a bunch of problems that everyone will hate.  ...Well, okay, not EVERYone.

So as Wikipedia suggested, I contacted my local representatives.  Unfortunately, after I copied the email I wrote into my clipboard, I forgot to paste it and promptly copied something over it.  :(  So you won't get to read it.  But I basically just mentioned that voters would not be happy if SOPA and PIPA passed, and repeated some of the arguments that Google posted.  If I get a response from either senator, I'll be sure to post it.  Voting on the bills is supposed to take place on January 24th, so before then, make sure to sign the petition against SOPA/PIPA!