If you use the internet, SOPA and PIPA stand to affect you. A quote from a group working to prevent the bills’ passage:

It’ll give the government new powers to block Americans’ access websites that corporations don’t like. The bill would criminalize posting all sorts of standard web content — music playing in the background of videos, footage of people dancing, kids playing video games, and posting video of people playing cover songs.

This legislation will stifle free speech and innovation, and even threaten popular web services like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

— Source

If you use the internet — and I know you do — please take five minutes to go watch the video from that site. If you come away from it nervous that content you like to create or view could be taken down by the bill, I’d encourage you to write your legislators. If you’re not so worried about that, then consider the proposition that web services you use and love, that add richness to your life and help you connect with friends and family, could be affected.

For a little more info about the bad things these bills mean, give this post on WordPress.org a quick read too.

To write your legislators in 15 seconds or fewer, visit http://americancensorship.org/ and scroll down to the “Take Action” section just below the intro section at the top. Fill in your name, email, address, and zip, and submit the form. It’s easy.

A few years ago, Representative Ted Stephens, of Alaska, made the news by shaking his old man’s fist at network neutrality, railing nearly incomprehensibly about delayed email delivery, Netflix, and the internet as a series of tubes. This is the kind of person who’s voting on SOPA and PIPA.