HailWV.com & SOPA/PIPA

HailWV.com is officially taking a stand against SOPA & PIPA, joining sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit in a protest on Wednesday, January 18th.

During this time, we will NOT be posting ANYTHING on our site, we will NOT be updating our Facebook or Twitter accounts. I don’t care if WVU chooses to hire their next Defensive Coordinator or Bob Huggins finally knocks out Jim Burr that day, we will not be posting for 24 hours.

You are probably asking yourself, “You cover WVU sports. Why are you taking a stand on something political?”

I realize politics is a dangerous and divisive activity, and getting involved in ANY way, shape or form can divide you from your friends and family. However, after the jump is a brief explanation of why we’re against SOPA & PIPA.

The blogging community has long been an alternate media source, and HailWV.com, as part of the Fansided.com network, is no different. We strive to provide you, the reader (and hopefully WVU fan) with information that is often ignored by the media, or information that they won’t touch, mainly because they’re afraid to.

Having said that, we take great pride in utilizing the 1st Amendment in getting you this information. The 1st Amendment allowed us to be fully supportive of WVU AD Oliver Luck and Head Coach Dana Holgorsen. It gave us an outlet to lobby against former Head Coach Bill Stewart. It also gives us an outlet to make fat jokes about John Marinatto and sing the praises about the Big 12.

But… if SOPA and PIPA pass through the US Congress, this site could be shut down simply because someone (namely, the University) doesn’t like us talking about them. That can’t happen. That means sites like us, The Smoking Musket and Couch Fire Sports would cease to exist. We would all be shut down WITHOUT DUE PROCESS simply because someone complained. Having access to information on the World Wide Web is a basic human right that the jack-booted thugs in Congress want to take away from us because they are in bed with companies such as RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, TimeWarner, and Comcast (aka CommunistCast.) However, other companies such as Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, and Tumblr are against these 1st Amendment-stifiling bills.

Also, WordPress, the company that we use for our blogging software, is also against SOPA & PIPA.

While we cannot do a full-out blackout like Wikipedia is doing, the most we can do (due to the fact that I don’t have full access to this site), we can stay quiet for 24 hours, just to show you all what would happen if SOPA becomes law.

In fact, for a great reference on how bad SOPA & PIPA are, please check out the always-excellent site UpRoxx Media.

If you are a fellow blogger reading this, I urge you to show your support for the 1st Amendment and join us in this protest.

If you are not a blogger, but a citizen that cares about the 1st Amendment, I urge you to call your Congressmen & Senators and urge them to oppose SOPA (House) and PIPA (Senate.)

I realize I may alienate some people by taking a stand, but, dammit, last time I checked, this is America, and I have a right to say whatever I want on this site! (And, goodness, before the morons start asking, yes I did get clearance from Fansided to do this.)

In closing, all I have to say is U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!