Unless you’re living under a rock today, or have been on vacation, you’ve likely noticed a ton of sites that are “Blacked Out” in protest of the possible SOPA bill or PIPA bill that could get passed soon in the United States.

I’ll be honest. I pay little to no attention to the news and nod off when people are talking about politics. So I hadn’t looked into what SOPA or PIPA was until today actually. (Don’t throw stones at me!) Too much of the news online and offline is full of rhetoric and opinion so I pay it no attention these days. Dealing with 3 screaming kids in our house is WAY more important!

But, this SOPA thing is a big deal. Or PIPA depending on what gets pushed more.

It would virtually close down nearly YouTube Channel, website, blog and Facebook page. Because if you post any content from someone else the government would have the power to shut your site down. So let’s say you have a personal blog and on it you post a video of your 1 year old dancing to the “Macarena”, if the record label found that they could shut your personal blog down without warning. Eventhough it’s an innocent video. Or what if you posted a status update that was a lyric from a song or quote from a movie? Could they shut down your Facebook or Twitter account? Who knows..

I’m all for making sure people don’t illegally pirate music and movies. As that does damage the entertainment industry and hurts everyone in the long run. But this is way too much.

So.. How can you get involved?

Well to see a huge lists of sites that are involved and to directly send an email to your Congressman go to http://americancensorship.org/ They also have some resources for your website that are simple to install.

Google has also setup a site where you can sign a petition online: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

There is another online petition here: http://sopastrike.com/strike

You could share the video above or one of the ones below on your social media accounts:

You could also change your profile image on Facebook, Twitter , Google+ and other sites into one of the stop SOPA images below or share the Infographic below them:

No matter what you do, do something…