Official Blog of the Raging Grannies Action League

Make no bones about it, our beloved internet is in serious danger…

and here is why.

Last year legislative measures were introduced in the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives, S. 968 (the “PROTECT IP Act”) and H.R. 3261 (the “Stop Online Piracy Act”).  Their primary purpose, as we see it, is to help Hollywood keep rolling in the profits. Passage of these bills would mean that so-called “rogue” websites could be censored when they infringe on copyright law.

BUT…the language in both of these bills is written with a very broad paintbrush. Their passage would have a huge impact on the work of human rights advocates who speak out against injustice on sites that could easily be labelled “rogue” websites. It’s a slippery slope when censorship reigns. 

The indymedia network that thrives on open publishing (and our favorite www.indybay.org here in the San Francisco Bay Area) would be subject to censorship, defeating the very purpose of its existence.  Similar platforms created to provide anonymity to whistleblowers could become major casualties of these bills.

All to save Hollywood’s bottom line? 

It’s not often that Raging Grannies align with the likes of Facebook and Google. We’ve protested at Facebook about their lack of privacy considerations, and at Google because of their flip-flop on internet neutrality.  (After we demonstrated last time at Google we wound up on  Jon Stewart’s ‘The Daily Show’ and in a New York Times photo).  But this time we are on the same side with the two internet giants. They too have come out AGAINST these Hollywood generated bills.

We are keeping track of who supports PIPA in the Senate and SOPA in the house through this useful site.  And we are taking action.

Our Senator Dianne Feinstein has disappointed us before by not standing up for Social Security…she disappoints us again by being a co-sponsor of PIPA. We are sent her an open letter with the photo above.

And we applaud our local Silicon Valley Congresswomen Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo who say NO to SOPA.

US Senators from California Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein are listed as PIPA co-sponsors. You can contact Senator Boxer at (202) 224-3553 and Senator Feinstein at (202) 224-3841. In other states, reach out to your own US senator.

Tell them the PIPA is dangerous…it could be used as a tool for online censorship.  Tell them what websites YOU use that could become toast, and why you think it is important that we have a free internet.

Please tell your Congressperson to vote NO on SOPA. 

Our friends at the Electric Frontier Foundation and Save the Internet help us stay up to date on what can be done to keep the internet free of censorship. We proudly stand together with them for internet freedom.