U.S.W.G.O. participating in protesting SOPA/PIPA bills by a front page blackout

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
North Carolina, North Carolina, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) January 17, 2012 -- U.S.W.G.O. is now engaging in a front page blackout on their main website of http://uswgo.com/ to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA; H.R.3261) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA; S.968).

When usually you visit USWGO Alternative News you notice a regular website with categories updated with news, a article slideshow carnival which features news articles, and a hit counter. Now it only shows one image asking people to bombard senators and congresspeople with phone calls asking them to Vote Nay on SOPA and PIPA.

The image states "Don't like This page going away......Well if the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or Protect IP Act (PIPA) passes then this website will go away. Don't Like it??? Then contact your senators and congress and tell them to vote NO on the two Unconstitutional censorship bills."

U.S.W.G.O. founder, Brian D. Hill, explains why the front page blackout is necessary. He says that "The Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act are both bad bills. They add more restrictions and Communist Chinese style censorship controls to an already bloated and corrupt copyright laws. We need to reform the copyright laws instead of creating more restrictions and controls on peoples Freedom of Speech and Freedom of The Press. The only reason I didn't do a full website blackout is because I got very important articles on there against the copyright war that people need to take a look at. I also got other factual articles, opinions, and commentary people need to read on our news website but I do take the SOPA and PIPA protest seriously because I am sick of Powerful Big Media robbing content from small bloggers and putting copyrights on it then turning around and threaten to sue these people. It is a Heist!!! A Robbery!!! It's copyright fraud!!!"

U.S.W.G.O. Alternative News and Production Committees position on SOPA; H.R.3261 and PIPA; S.968 is that they oppose both bills and want them thrown out of the Congressional and Senate chambers in U.S. Capitol building for violating the U.S. Constitution and it's Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights specifically grants Freedom of Speech, Freedom to peacefully assemble against the Government, Freedom to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, and Freedom of the Press.

Mr. Hill in his final statement of the issue is that "Even if the Constitution has a copyright provision, the founders of America never, and I mean Never wishes to use copyrights as a guise to censor information that is of the facts and truth. Copyright should only apply to creative content in nature and should never apply to only the informational facts in newspaper articles or information consisting only of the facts and is not creative. The bill of Rights protects the right to have free and open access to information in the media that affects our every day lives so quoting from somebody in your news article, with credits of course (I don't condone plagiarism), should be protected under the Bill of Rights and not considered copyright infringement as it infringes upon the rights of the press. That is the Exact reason for Fair Use provisions under the copyright act of 1976. Part of the reasons for Fair Use was to protect the reporters from copyright infringement allegations so that they can report the truth without fear of repercussions, so that bloggers can criticize the government and any business, and grant people the rights to a political parody. Copyrights should never stifle the freedom of the press!!!"

Mr. Hill is trying to get his North Carolina senators office of Richard Burr to permit a 10-30 minute phone conversation with the senator himself so that Mr. Hill can explain to the senator many valid and legitimate reasons to oppose the two bills. Mr. Hill even wants to tell him a true story story of what all Righthaven LLC put him through, and the fact they abused the law to terrorize him into almost giving up his Freedom of Speech in a settlement agreement that was going to make U.S.W.G.O put out a fabricated press release and gagging Mr. Hill from even mentioning the word Righthaven without a $10,000 settlement violation penalty.

Righthaven LLC has now had PR trouble thanks to Mr. Hill going to the Media and was even on a NYTimes article titled "Buying Copyrights, Then Patrolling the Web for Infringement - NYTimes.com". Not just PR trouble but the facts of the law that four Federal Judges have ruled that Righthaven LLC does not have standing to due to their Strategic Alliance Agreement where the newspaper corporations maintain control over the copyrights granted to Righthaven LLC in the copyright office even though the SAA grants that the newspaper at any time can retake the copyrights back from Righthaven. Although Righthaven claims they re-modified the SAA to grant them standing to sue but the Nevada and other state appeals court is still reviewing whether Righthaven has any standing in the court of law to be able to sue bloggers like Mr. Hill.

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