Boycott SOPA app brings activism to Android

Many of us in the U.S. have been paying close attention to the development of SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act. This bill, should it pass, would enable the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to seek court orders against websites suspected of copyright infringement. Many fear that this would lead to Internet censorship, in turn violating the First Amendment. The broad language of the bill also has caused great concern that the government would be able to use the bill to shut down a website without legitimate cause.

So far the push back against SOPA has been felt far and wide. Most notably, GoDaddy reportedly lost 72,354 domains in one week after supporting SOPA, which caused the hosting company to change its position on the bill. This chain of events once again proves that in today’s capitalistic society, money and consumer’s purchasing power reign as the most powerful form of protest.

The Boycott SOPA app looks to combine that purchasing power with a free, easy to use Android app that can help you find out if the item you are about to purchase is the product of a SOPA supporter. The app relies on the ZXing Barcode Scanner app that is used for a myriad of other apps and functions – everything from price comparisons to nutritional information lookups.

Once both apps are installed, you can scan products and the app will either give you a green check, signifying the company does not support SOPA, or a red X, which indicates the company supports SOPA. This information can be used to dictate purchasing decisions, in turn denying revenue to companies that continue to support SOPA.

If you’re interested in protesting from the comfort of your Android phone, head on over to the Market and download Boycott SOPA for free.



source: ExtremeTech via Anonymous (@YourAnonNews)