What up! Nice to see you here. Maybe our blog pulled you away from Twitter, or you were directed to a post on Jeffrey Campbell from Facebook. Perhaps you came right off Google, our trusty guide to the information superhighway. Well, the future of the web might block entrance to sites like ours if the wildly contested SOPA (Stop Online Privacy) and PIPA (Protect IP) acts are passed. Even if you think SOPA means soup in Spanish and PIPA should be spelled Pippa Middleton, the unfavorable outcome championed by Congress and entertainment corporations will affect you…and me, our company, companies like us (and those not even remotely like us), plus the entire global commercial and social spheres as we know them.

Are you familiar with this movement? As a young American brought up in the age of free information, you definitely should be! Though the acts’ intended purpose is to combat piracy, experience shows that professional pirates will exploit loopholes in the legislation to continue circulating copyrighted work. As collateral damage, SOPA will suffocate the open, free space we have come to rely on for information, commerce, and communication by essentially allowing censorship with penalty for lack of compliance. If passed, the bills will permit the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement (including YouTube, Pinterest, news aggregators like Reddit, blogs, and social media networks). Additionally it may also prohibit PayPal, advertising networks, and other facilitators from conducting business with the potentially infringing websites.

Fight For The Future created an impressive video to acquaint you with the subject. The organization, plus many others striking today with blackouts and temporarily censored content, encourages us to sign the open petition (3 million names and growing) and join in on the fight.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We urge you to investigate the issue and petition Congress and its media conglomerate lobbyists to vote NO on the upcoming January 24 decision. While these bills aim to seek a solution for the broken media revenue system, the implications of their broad reach are a threat to the sustainability and competitiveness of the American tech and e-commerce industries.

Mashable has a good hub of information, with some highlights like SOPA Will Take Us Back to the Dark Ages and This Is the Internet After SOPA [PICS]. Educate yourself!

[Above image is a screenshot taken from Wikipedia today, January 18, 2012.]