The US’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a bad idea. Its list of opponents is long and impressive. It gives the entertainment industry over-broad and over-vague powers to shut down websites, both American and foreign. It promotes censorship. It chills innovation.

And in the final analysis, it won’t even do what it was meant to: stop online piracy. Even people who are marginally disposed to pirating content will find it very easy to circumvent SOPA’s provisions and constraints. So it will just be a penalty on everyone else.

In protest of SOPA, this website is dark on January 18, 2012 and January 23, 2012.

Find out more, and take action, at americancensorship.org. In the meantime, watch this video:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.