TALKING SPACE IS OPPOSED TO SOPA AND PIPA

What is SOPA and PIPA?

The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, is a bill proposed in the House of Representatives in the United States along with its US Senate counterpart the Protect IP Act, or PIPA. These are bills that are designed to prevent copyright infringement and to fight against sites who currently have copyright infringing material.

That doesn't sound too bad. What's the problem?

SOPA and PIPA will attempt to prevent copyright infringement in a way that is more harmful than helpful. These bills will allow companies to shut down a website that contains or links to a website containing copyrighted material. This would mean that by linking to certain stories in our show notes and playing certain sounds on our show, the US goverment would be allowed to shut our website down and therefore preventing you from listening to our show. Talkng Space isn't the only internet site that could be greatly affected by this. Here's a video from http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa describing in better detail what these bills are capable of.

Wow! What can I do to help prevent these bills from becoming law?

The best thing to do is to contact your local representative if you live in the United States. You can visit this site by clicking here to find your nearest representative and send them an email. If you live outside of the US, write your local State Department, Foreign Affairs Ministry, or any other local form of government and warn them of the implications it could have if passed.