With sites going dark all over the Internet today, in protest of the bills going through the United States legislature, we here at SourceForge are going to mostly leave it to our sister site, Slashdot, to keep you informed of the events of the day.
We are, of course, concerned at how these bills, or future versions of them, will affect Open Source, giving companies the ability to shut down projects and project hosting sites like SourceForge, with little or no evidence, and with no due process.
We encourage you, if you are a citizen of the United States, to educate yourself about these bills, and contact your legislators to let them know how you feel about them. The events of the past week show that they may in fact be listening.
Some useful resources include:
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Google: End piracy, not liberty
- The Net Coalition
- Vote For The Net
If you are not a US citizen, we encourage you not to be complacent. History shows us that other nations follow in the steps of US law, even when that law is not supported by the people of either country. Start now to educate your local, regional, and national leaders about the dangers of this kind of legislation, and encourage them to put pressure on their colleagues, and on other governments, to resist legislation that favors big business at the expense of the individual citizen.