Kos wrote an excellent diary about the Internet censorship bills yesterday, as did rlk, &DavidSegal diaried the latest on Ron Wyden's plan to filibuster the Senate version.
For those who are just hearing about this, these un-American bills are direct attacks on the Internet as we know it. They will let any corporation or government entity shut down any website & bury it in legal red tape on just the accusation of copyright infringement, or even that they might commit it in the future. Not only that, but the way in which they would do this would ruin Internet security, actually encouraging "darknet" havens for actual online pirates while making the net unsafe & hard to use for legit users. (See the links for the details, along with what this would mean for posting boards, social media, YouTube, Daily Kos...)
Kossacks before me have put it well — these bills propose using an H-bomb to kill an ant, & will make the Internet into a row of pay-to-play corporate billboards. We cannot let this happen.
As for the politics: from the beginning one of the main truths of this whole episode has been politics making strange bedfellows:
On the Senate side, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), authored by Senator Patrick Leahy, has unfortunately not just gotten the support of the likes of Chuck Grassley, but also Democrats such as Sheldon Whitehouse & — in a galling betrayal of his campaign promises to protect net neutrality — Al Franken. Meanwhile, opposition to the bill includes Ron Wyden (who is leading the filibuster & still taking names), Jim Moran, Maria Cantwell, & — interestingly enough — Rand Paul.
In the House, the very Rovian-named "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) has about twice the number of Republican sponsors as Democratic ones, but a coalition has formed against it as well, & it too is an interesting mix — it's not every day that we see Nancy Pelosi & Michelle Bachmann on the same side! For that matter, California Rep Zoe Lofgren has joined with Darrel Issa to craft an alternative to SOPA that won't put Silicon Valley out of business.
That's pretty much the "information" section as I know it. The Action Panel shall begin below the Kos Wingding.
Now is the part of the diary in which I ask, in the words of Keith Olbermann after Citizens United: "What're you gonna do about it?"
Certainly we in the netroots can keep on calling to encourage those who oppose PIPA (the one which is coming up hard & fast), as well as to give those Democrats in favor of it a quick education (or WTH where needed).
What will likely be better for us in terms of getting the media & politicians to pay attention, however, is help from the Occupy movement — which, after all, has relied on the fast, people-based communication of Twitter, Facebook, & YouTube, all of which are at risk of being destroyed if these bills become law. Something along the lines of sit-ins & teach-ins in wayward senator's offices.
Also, as some commenters suggested yesterday, we should get House members publically talking about their positions on SOPA. We should not only encourage Pelosi to bring it up on trad-media outlets, but do what it takes to encourage the Republican opponents as well. (Believe me, it as strange & unexpected to me as to you to see Tea Party Nation, Redstate, & even Michelle Bachmann suddenly find themselves on the same side as the netroots on an issue, but if it means a chance to get Bachmann to talk about a real anti-American plot in a way that the media can't help themselves but report, someone should seize that chance.)
Any more ideas? Let's share them in the comments. The floor is open!