What Do SOPA, PIPA And NDAA Mean?

SOPA: Stop Online Piracy Act  & PIPA: Protect IP Act:

• These laws, "Apparently aims to stop the piracy of copyrighted material over the internet on websites based outside the United States. But critics say the bills would profoundly change the internet."

—DemocracyNow.org (01/17/12)

• "We call these the censorship bills, because effectively what we would have is a situation where the government and private actors could censor the net. So, U.S. citizens would basically get a different version of the internet, different from what you might get in, say, Italy or even China."

—CORYNNE McSHERRY (She is the intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 01/17/12

• "We’re going to do surgery on the internet, and we haven’t had a doctor in the room tell us how we’re going to change these organs. We’re basically going to reconfigure the internet and how it’s going to work, without bringing in the nerds, without bringing in the doctors"

—REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives) 12/15/11

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#NDAA: National Defense Authorization Act

• Forget about the idea of Innocent Until Proven Guilty. This "would open the door for trial-free, indefinite detention of anyone, including American citizens, so long as the government calls them terrorists."

—Forbes.com

• "This is so broadly written, it would become a permanent feature of United States law, so that 10 years, 20 years down the road, any president could still use this power to have the military pick up people and indefinitely detain them without charge or trial, potentially for years, potentially for life.”

—CHRI ANDERSON (American Civil Liberties Union) 

"It is your responsibility, right and obligation as an American and a World citizen to warn your friends and family, and create awareness about these issues."