Many websites are dark today in protest of two bills before Congress right now. The danger if the bills pass is that the Internet will be crippled, sites will be taken down for suspected copyright infringement/piracy without due process, ordinary people will be prosecuted for doing so much as posting a video of themselves singing a copyrighted song or quoting a copyrighted work.

I’m not tech-savvy enough to take my sites down and get them back up, so my support is this: watch this video and see the dangers, then contact your senators and representatives. Tell them that SOPA and PIPA are not going to solve the problem of piracy and they are likely to cause more problems in the long run.

I realize this post doesn’t fit in with the purpose of this website, but it’s important. I purposely only use articles that are before 1923 and therefore out of copyright. I believe that even if I were to use more recent articles, it would be considered fair use under copyright law. But if I did use more recent articles, under SOPA or PIPA my site could be shut down and I could be prosecuted.

Carol Foltz

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.