SOPA Update

Just so you're aware, SOPA itself- the so-called 'Stop Online Piracy Act'- that has been put on the backburner, alongside its sister bill, PIPA. (Not killed. On the backburner.)

However, what seems to be happening now is that bills similar to SOPA are being presented, over and over and over again, under a different name every time, until eventually one of them breaks through Congress. The latest attempt, numbered HR 1981, has been given the name "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act", a name which, like so many bills before it on every topic under the sun, is merely a blatant attempt to garner votes regardless of the bill's actual content. You name a bill the 'Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act', and the implicit threat is 'vote for whatever garbage is in here or else we're going to tell the voters that you're against protecting children from pornographers and we will destroy you'. Don't get fooled by the name. It's just another SOPA-type bill- in fact, it's sponsored by Lamar Smith, the same guy who sponsored SOPA- and it has to go down like any other SOPA-type bill.

Specifically, what HR 1981 wants to do is give your internet service provider the ability to track your IP at all times, just in case they ever suspect you of anything and want to go over your browsing history to see if, in fact, you've ever done anything they can nail you for. Warrant unneccesary. If you don't want that kind of invasion of privacy to happen to you, HR 1981 needs to die.

Just giving you the heads-up.