Achtung! Kein Eintrag erlaubt!
Attention!  No Entry Allowed!

To show what it would be like to have government censorship of the Internet, entry to the 352.Infanterie-Division’s website for today is VERBOTEN.  SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively.  SOPA is short for the "Stop Online Piracy Act," and PIPA is an acronym for the "Protect IP Act." ("IP" stands for "intellectual property.")  In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in many people's opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet.   To learn more about SOPA and PIPA, and how they might affect your life and your freedom of speech, please visit Wikipedia's Page. This is America – this isn’t Germany in the 1930s and 1940s where the Gestapo makes sure you run your business and your lives in a manner in which the government approves.  We live in a country that guarantees freedom of speech - in speech, in writing, and ONLINE.  In a world in which politicians and the government regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, many websites will not be able to survive.  Congress says that by enacting SOPA and PIPA, they are trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but this “cure” is much worse than the “disease.”  Part of the mission of the 352.Infanterie-Division is to educate the public.  This is an excellent opportunity to learn about freedom of expression - a freedom so many Americans take for granted today.  This is a freedom that Germans and Axis-conquered nations did not have during WWII.  If you expressed an opinion that wasn't popular, according to the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, their form of censorship was to make you disappear.  While we don't face such extreme forms of censorship here and now, we still have the problem of the government deciding what is and isn't proper, which could lead to a violation of our right to free speech.   Go here to voice your opinions to your senators and representatives.  Make sure you let them know that you OPPOSE SOPA and PIPA, and they should vote against it. Come back and visit us again tomorrow. Danke!  Bewegen mit!