Stand Together for a Free and Open Internet

I have never been the one for politics  It is a gray area that I do not like to venture into, but I have a reason to this time.  For the past few months, a bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act along been building up steam in the US Senate.  Originally starting out with noble intentions to stop online piracy, which has run rampant over the past decade, SOPA has been twisted in ways to destroy the very foundation of the Internet and restrict everyone's freedom of speech on this enormous online forum.  Over the weekend, US President Barack Obama and the White House said they would not support SOPA thus putting it on the shelf, but not dead.  Meaning that SOPA can come back at anytime to be passed through the US Senate.  With SOPA on the shelf, more focus has been put on the Protect IP Act (PIPA for short), which is just as detrimental to the well-being of a free and open Internet.  Many companies such as Electronic Software Association (ESA), ESPN and EMI Music Publishing support SOPA and PIPA, but that list is dwindling little by little.  To protest SOPA and PIPA, today certain websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit are blacked out completely.  Other sites are protesting in their own way such as Google blacking out their logo.

One such way gamers are protesting is through a campaign known as Stand Together.  Started by Craig Skistimas (founder of ScrewAttack.com), Graham Stark (Web Video Producer for Loading Ready Run), James Portnow (Writer for Extra Credits and CEO of Rainmaker Games), Daniel Floyd (Editor on Extra Credits) and Mark Kern (CEO of Red 5 Studio) through a video calling gamers to arms to do their part.  What part do you ask?  To petition and protest that the ESA, as it is believed to represent the video game industry and its community, to remove support from SOPA and PIPA and until they withdraw support from SOPA and PIPA, we gamers are called to ask  boycott E3, the ESA's biggest source of revenue.  We are also called to ask our favourite gaming websites, Youtube channels and journalists to join this cause and not to attend/cover E3 until the ESA changes their stance on SOPA and PIPA.  Sign the petition, http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-esa-petition-and-boycott-e3 and start spreading the word to as many people as you can through e-mail, Facebook, Twitter or any other social media website out there.

Before I leave you guys today, I want to say something.  That even though I fight against SOPA and PIPA, I believe online piracy needs to be stopped some way or another, but not through the extremist ways of SOPA and PIPA.  Nobody is perfect and I have pirated things in the past and you have most likely done so as well.  If you truly oppose SOPA and PIPA, show that you do not support piracy.  Delete every bit of pirated games, software, music, video and any other source of pirated material from your computer, external hard drives, modded systems or other storage devices.  So let us all stand together stop SOPA and PIPA along with turning a new leaf as a community away from online piracy.  It is the only way we can make nothing like these bills ever gets thought up again.