Another Republican Assault On The Constitution

Republican hypocrisy knows no bounds. They preach the "less government, is the best government" sermon over and over, but they continually try to insert themselves into every facet of our lives. Within the next two weeks, the Senate may vote on a bill that would end the Internet as we know it.

If it passes, the "Protect IP Act" would give corporate copyright holders the authority to demand that the government shut down any website without a court order. All they would need is to allege that the website contains copyrighted material. 

This bill has been rushed through Congress because big corporate interests like Comcast, Pfizer, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have spent millions of dollars lobbying for this censoring legislation.

This bill is an outright attack on our free Internet. If it passes, the government could shut down a website like YouTube if a member does something like post a video of themselves singing a copyrighted song. The government could shut down The SOG City Oracle, Finding Tampa, The Ybor City Stogie, Whatever Works, The Liberal Curmudgeon, Beach Peanuts, Re/Creating Tampa, America's Voice, and even Notyourmomma'skitchen under the pretext of copyright infringement simply because they take offense at something we post on our blogs.

This gives corporations and the government the ability to determine what information you can consume on the Internet — a dangerous practice which, when committed by the Chinese and Iranian governments, is denounced by the American people and almost all of our elected representatives.

Internet companies including Google, Mozilla, Facebook, and Twitter, say that "the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites."

Right now, only a small number of Democratic senators are standing up to corporate interests and voicing opposition to the bill. And the only way we can stop this outright attack on the free Internet is to have more senators commit to vote against the legislation. No matter whether your senators are Republicans or Democrats, it is important that you urge them to take a stand for Internet freedom.

We need Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio to come out in opposition to this bill and vote against Internet censorship.

Call Sens. Nelson and Rubio and tell them to protect our free and open Internet and oppose the Protect IP Act. Click here for a sample script and the number to call.