As you might have heard, many internet-based organizations such as Wikipedia, Google, reddit, and Craigslist are protesting today about two pieces of pending legislation in the U.S. Congress: The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

As all legislation is, the bills have ostensibly admirable names and goals, but both bills are fatally flawed and could potentially significantly restrict the freedom of the internet in this country. (That would be "Braveheart free," not "penniless hippie Phish fan free.")

SB Nation and Vox Media (its parent company) have posted a statement on the front page of SBNation.com officially opposing SOPA, and I have linked to it above.

Normally, we try to stay out of the political fray as much as possible, but this literally could cause the shutdown of a large number of websites that rely on user-submitted content, including our own, so I feel that it's important to raise awareness and make SB Nation's official position known.

UPDATE: For anyone who wants to know more about the technical details of SOPA and PIPA, and why they are potentially catastrophic in their current forms, you can read an excellent legal overview from the Wikimedia Foundation's general counsel, Geoff Brigham, and a technical discussion from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is a non-profit that works to ensure a free Internet (among other things).