You may have noticed that a number of your favorite sites are not available today as they voluntarily black out their sites in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills racing through the US Congress. We have joined in by censoring our logo for this day of action.

These bills (and others like them both in the US and abroad) have the power to drastically alter the very fabric of the Internet. Sites could be taken offline for simply linking to other sites.

This is not the way to attack the problem of piracy or anything else governments deem a 'problem'. We (as do many others) believe it would be a huge mistake to allow anything of this nature to become law. The Internet needs to remain free and open and no one should have the power to alter that.

Even though this is a US bill, if these bills were to pass, the effects would be far reaching and global - don't think you would not be affected if you are not a US citizen. Furthermore, there is talk of SOPA and PIPA being shelved, that is great - but that doesn't mean they won't come back in some other form.

If you have a website (and even if you don't) please consider joining in this day of action to make your voice heard. Read more about what you can do at americancensorship.org and one of the few non blacked out English Wikipedia pages. Tucows also has a great description of things over at their blog, as does Google - give them all a read.