How a Four-Person Hosting Company Helped Stop SOPA and PIPA
Proud to give a shout out for some friends and former co-workers!
"When SOPA and PIPA reached mainstream awareness back in January, it was Internet heavyweights like Wikipedia and Reddit that garnered the most attention for their 24-hour blackouts protesting the bills.
What the average Internet user may not realize is that behind the scenes, web hosts and infrastructure providers were part of the change at a very basic level, traveling to Capitol Hill to meet with Senators and Congressmen one-on-one. In one instance, a group of web hosts actually convinced a Senator to change her vote immediately after hearing how SOPA and PIPA would negatively impact their hosting businesses.
It is not just web hosts with huge budgets and lots of staff that are able to send representatives to Capitol Hill. Richard Feller, a principal at Hedgehog Hosting, is one of four employees at his Fairfax, VA, web hosting company, and he made the trip to Capitol Hill twice to meet with Senators and Congressmen in his district.
“This is our first range in the political world and we kind of stumbled into it,” Feller says in a phone interview with the WHIR."
http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/how-a-four-person-hosting-company-helped-stop-sopa-and-pipa