Here at Pixar Planet, we believe in providing you, our Pixar Planeteers, a safe and friendly online community that is free of censorship and the allowance of everyone to express their views of their fandom justly. Unfortunately, the freedom of speech is currently being challenged in two bills in the US House of Representatives and Senate respectively, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). While under the guise of a supposedly affective anti-piracy legislation, SOPA and PIPA, if passed through the House and the Senate, will allow the government and the corporations that have supported the bill to censor any website as they are against under the guise of “anti-piracy”.
As you can see on our header, Pixar Planet’s logo is covered by a black censor strip in the foreground. This is our way of letting you know that SOPA can affect your freedom of speech, which is crucial with online communities like Pixar Planet. Education and knowledge about these two bills are important to each online user, especially on how it can effect you.
[size=135]You can find more information about SOPA/PIPA here & why you should be against it:
fightforthefuture.org/pipa[/size]
Many other sites, including major websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, and others, are taking action above and beyond, including 24-hour “blackouts” on their sites. At Pixar Planet, we strive to provide a community that everyone can access, so we will not be taking a drastic expression like them. However, we will be leaving our censored logo on our forums for a week starting today as our form of protest.
What can you do to stop these bills? Get knowledged up and involved. Read all about it and get to understand these laws. Talk about it on your social media sites and get others informed and involved. If you’re a US Planeteer, write to your House & Congress representative. If you’re outside the US, reach out to the US embassy in your country and tell them that these bills arn’t considering global interests. In any way, education and activism is the key for these bills to be repealed.
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The Walt Disney Corporation currently supports PIPA and SOPA. While we share most of our interests with Disney and Pixar, as we are a fan site dedicated to Pixar, we are not behind their support for these bills. We understand that their support is mainly based on following many positions from others in their industries, but it isn’t a valid excuse for supporting a bill that severely haemorrhages the internet while doing very, very little to achieve it’s goal, curbing piracy. Please consider writing to Disney, explaining as a Disney•Pixar fan, that you are against this bill. If you’re a Disney shareholder, we ask you to consider to using your shareholder rights.
From all of us at Pixar Planet, we thank you for your time to read this message, and we hope that you join us in creating awareness for these two destructive bills.
