Tomorrow, on January 18th, Beats Per Minute will join Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing, The Free Software Foundation, and tens of thousands of other websites around the Internet in going offline to oppose SOPA and PIPA, the looming US legislation that would create an impossible Internet censorship regime and export it to the rest of the world.
If either bill is passed, Beats Per Minute would cease to be able to operate as it does presently. We would need to clear every image and track we post with each of the rights holders before publishing, and if we were suspected of copyright infringement of any kind we would be essentially pulled from the web without due process.
We believe that this new system will undoubtably be abused by rights holders, competing outlets, and the government to effectively censor unwanted voices.
So take the time tomorrow to read up on the bills (links are below) and spread the word to your friends and family about these devastating pieces of legislation that would destroy the web as we know it.
Thank you.
-Evan Kaloudis
CEO & Publisher, Beats Per Minute
Technical Explanation of SOPA and PIPA
Stop American Censorship
SOPA on OpenCongress
PIPA on OpenCongress
