On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, the US Senate will vote on the SOPA internet censorship bill. Nerd Reactor will join Reddit, Destructoid, Cheezburger and many other sites on the fight against SOPA, a poorly written anti-piracy bill, on January 18, 2012, by shutting down the site for a day from 9am to 9pm PST. We’ll be leaving a message that will help visitors understand why SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are bad for the internet and what they can do to help. We’re all for companies getting money for their creative works, but this bill isn’t the answer. It will create a terrible future for the internet.

It was a tough decision between the core Nerd Reactor guys, because we knew that January 18th would be a busy news day. We figured that by joining in on the blackout protest, we can deliver a message to let people know what it would be like if SOPA becomes law. Sites would get shut down just because they didn’t check their links, or because users/commenters posted up copyrighted works without permission. We’d have to police every single thing and check links to make sure the site being linked doesn’t have any infringing copyright. We’re talking about millions and millions of pages on sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. If we fail to do that, our online ad revenue will be frozen, and Nerd Reactor can be blacklisted or be taken down.

The biggest crusher is that it’ll affect every person who uses the internet to post on sites like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Sites will be more careful about what’s being posted and published, therefore restricting freedom of speech.

Giant sites that are against SOPA includes Google, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla and Wikipedia. GoDaddy retracted its statement that it was for SOPA. Razor and Team Red 5 sent out a big F’ YOU message to SOPA during CES 2012.

And who is supporting SOPA? Well the MPAA, RIAA, and the ESA. These guys are out to protect only themselves. Well screw that!