Safe the Free Internet

Today is the day the internet goes on strike. Well, not the entire internet but a lot of big websites are. SOPA/PIPA, two bills the US Congress wants to enact are threatening the way we consume information on the web. Wikipedia decided to blackout their English version of the website for the entirety of January 18 2012. A lot of other sites will follow suit. The funny Oatmeal decided to blackout his site too today in protest of SOPA/PIPA.

Over here in The Netherlands we just had our own little SOPA/PIPA-like situation. Brein, a company which says they are acting in the interest of creative professionals, was granted a motion by a Dutch judge in the court of The Hague to block The Pirate Bay by the internet providers Ziggo and XS4ALL. So if you are a customer of one of these providers you will soon not be able to use The Pirate Bay. 

Though I don’t condone spreading illegal material like movies, music and other media which some people worked hard for to make I do think censorship is not the solution. Censorship is not the way to go when protecting Intellectual Property. By blocking one, another will spawn. The internet has been started as a free way to share information all over the globe. Don’t let them censor us. Don’t let them stop the free internet. Make sure your voice is heard every way you can. Use the free internet to do so!