I am more than surprised we do not have a thread on this subject. A subject that would have an impact on to everyone using the internet.
Stop Online Piracy Act, SOPA for short, is a bill that the US goverment is debating wether it should pass or not. The bill has already been approved and the decision wether it will be passed or not will be done in 21st of this said month.
What is the bill about?
The bill is supposedly giving full power over copyrighted material to big corporations who think they own the internet and everything put there. This bill basically and straightforwardly said allows multimillion corporations, such as music and film businesses to full out censor and shut down websites if they bloody please. Since a lot of people even these forums follow many sites which reside in the USA domains, there is a big threat that such sites can be shut down by the companies who think the content within the specific sites break their copyrights.
This can and will have a huge impact to everyone around the globe. Not just people in the US but everyone. Sites such as youtube, facebook and other large social media sites are in danger of being brought down.
Without going too deep into details, I'll post some very informative links here which I advise you to read and/or watch.
First link is naturally wikipedia which explains everything in great detail.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_ActSecond link is from TotalHalibut on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwuXNv8fJMQuite obviously a lot of people are upset about this bill. Not only does it threaten the freedom of speech but it also harms every normal internet user. Pirates dont actually give a flying damn about this because they will find a way to go around this anyway.
I dont want to sound dramatic but this bill has been a horrible idea when it was conceived.
There's gotta be people on these forums who have been following these events other than just me. If this is totally new to you, consider it a wake-up call.