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Lets Get Personal: #StopSOPA

Every once in a while I do a more personal post here on The Money Drain, not only as a way to connect with readers, but also to give some insight on the type of person behind what I’m trying to do here.

As you have seen just by coming to the site today, The Money Drain is participating in the protest against SOPA and PIPA, two bills that are going through congress to censor the internet. Initially claimed to be a bill to “stop piracy”, it is essentially worded in a manner that would affect way more than just piracy and affect how people all over the U.S. (and even the world) would browse the internet.

Sites like CNN, YouTube, and Wikipedia wouldn’t exist. Sites that give holistic medicine information would be wiped out as an endangerment to public health. I imagine half the internet would be blocked, perhaps more.

We all know how many posts, news articles, personal finance websites etc. talk about how the government is becoming more of a machine financed by big business. Between bail-outs and Corporate personhood, we are moving into the direction that businesses will be the new government, depending on who is willing to fork over the most money.

How many of us have made posts about how awful Bank of America is? How many of us complained about the proposed debit card fees? Now, what would happen if Bank of America and some other “greedy banks” paid enough to the government to regulate this type of internet news writing? No, the bill is not “supposed” to be directed at censorship of opinions, it’s supposed to direct towards piracy but come on. If you give an inch, they will take a mile.

Again these are my personal opinions on the matter. I grew up on the internet, making my first website in 1994. I enjoyed the geocities communities, the online chatroom gaming, old school proggie programs, remembering the days of Netscape and all the wonderful things that just kept popping up on the internet as it grew. To see the internet become this big portal of regulated information on what the Government feels is appropriate… it’s against everything we of the internet age grew up to believe in.

I fully support open-source software such as WordPress and OpenOffice, but if these bills pass they will no longer exist.

A lot of bills lately have been gradually stripping the rights of Americans, and I am a strong advocate of your liberty and YOUR rights. There’s no reason for us to sit back and let them be taken away. That’s why The Money Drain is blacked out today.

Read more about SOPA and PIPA on eff.org

About Crystal Groves, Google+

Crystal Groves is a farmer, web developer, musician, blogger, and personal finance enthusiast from the back hills of Maryland and Pennsylvania. She started Money Drain as a project to encourage people interested in fixing their financial situation to share their stories and learn from the stories of others. We all make mistakes, but in order to change we have to make changes.

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