People are PISSED about PIPA and they’re sooo NOT stoked about SOPA. 

And by people, I don’t just mean your 487 Facebook friends who posted (and re-posted) their outrage. Websites themselves (and BIG ones) are protesting the upcoming bills. Study Breaks’ blogger Taylor even blogged about SOPA previously, meaning we kinda started this whole revolution, so naturally I’m jumping on this rage-fueled bandwagon.

Because if there’s anything I love–it’s a good rant. (See my 20 minute bitch sesh about Katy Perry)

Anyways, I never previously thought about how a simple acronym like SOPA or PIPA (the first of which reminds me of sopapillas–delicious–and the second of which I pronounce “Pippa” in honor of Kate Middleton’s sassy sister) could affect me.

Okay, maybe I’ve given some thought to certain ones–like RSVP (especially now that we’re all bombarded with Facebook invites), VIP (naturally comes with free champagne), BYOB (duh) and MIP (which a few years ago was a major threat for me with said free champagne and byob-ing). But, per the ushe, I digress.

In my opinion SOPA and PIPA’s scary-factor is most evident  by the scope of sites that are rebelling. Google black-barred its name, Mark Zuckerberg posted his protests (and got nearly half-a-million likes, the popular bastard) and–gasp!–Wikipedia blacked out for 24 hours.

Now this last one is particularly shitty. Sorry I’m not sorry–if loving Wikipedia is wrong, I don’t want to be right. It was just yesterday when, before interviewing an agent for an upcoming behind-the-music piece (stay tuned), I Googled “What does an agent do?” Naturally, Wikipedia popped up, but it was BLACKED OUT. So, without the information thrown together by millions of strangers with little to no credibility or liability, what was I supposed to do?

Well in this case, I started off my interview with “So… what exactly does an agent do?”

But had I been trying to write a paper on, say, Abraham Lincoln, you can bet your ass it wouldn’t have been possible for me to call him up like “ABEEEE! WASSSSUPPPP!!! So about that whole assassination thing…John Wilkes Booth–quite the dick, eh?” I mean, granted Wikipedia isn’t the best source of credible information and isn’t technicalllllllly condoned by professors. But it’s a hell of a starting point.

So, that said, I’m not liking the sound of the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the bills for which  are currently circulating in Congress.

But don’t take my word for it; do your research.  (Primarily because I don’t know what the HELL I’m talking about and I got shit to do today.) This article is full of links (like FAQ’s about how SOPA will affect you) to help you understand exactly what the menacing intentions of these delightful sounding acronyms are, while this video explains PIPA. You can also just read the actual bills if, like, you’re feeling intellectual: Bill text of SOPA and Bill text of PIPA.

Then again, in a great twist of irony–why don’t you Wikipedia it?