What? My tumblr account and music blog has been censored?! (Or: Getting to know the PROTECT-IP and SOPA bills)

As I typically do a few times a day, I recently went to tumblr to check the other tumblr music sites I follow. All the posts’ images were blackened out with the word CENSORED! written across them. My immediate reaction was: “Is there some Internet censorship cause happening somewhere that I didn’t know about?” To which I quickly learned the answer was yes. Tumblr was using the screen blackouts (a one-time only act) to draw awareness to two bills currently in Congress; the PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Hearings are being held in Congress today about these bills and today is American Censorship Day (which you can read more about here).

What does this all mean? If you need to familiarize yourself with the PROTECT IP Act, click here to download the bill; you can also click here to download the SOPA bill. More information can be found at The Electronic Foundation, and you can read this open letter to members of Congress expressing concerns about the bills from Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, AOL, Mozilla, Twitter, eBay, Yahoo! and the Zynga Game Network. Below, watch the video about the PROTECT IP Act created by Fight For The Future.

Please take a few minutes to learn about what these potentially very harmful bills are about. And if you are so moved, please register your support with your political representatives. I did.

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