November 16, 2011

Today, November 16th, Congress holds hearings on the first American Internet censorship system. This bill can pass. If it does, the Internet and free speech will never be the same. Join Mozilla to stop this bill.

According to free culture organization Fight for the Future, “this bill gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting “creativity”. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.”

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like YouTube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet.”

Learn more about the Protect IP Act and contact your Congress member online.

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

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Photo Credit: NoiseMicu