Dear StartUp Beat Readers,

While the site is technically not "blacked out", StartUp Beat joins the chorus of thousand of other web sites protesting SOPA and PIPA legislation by conducting an editorial black out and not posting any new stories today. Instead, we're linking to a very insightful article by Mashable's Lance Ulanoff about the possible consequences of SOPA:

SOPA Will Take Us Back to the Dark Ages

...and a "take action page" from Google:

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

SOPA would negatively affect countless web sites, and indeed permanently alter what we have come to know (in most countries) as a free and relatively open Internet. For small sites like StartUp Beat in particular, it could be devastating....

...StartUp Beat will be back with new stories tomorrow, but in the mean time, consider what legislation like SOPA could mean for all of us.

Thank You,

Brian Kovalesky, StartUp Beat Editor