A petition is a request of action against a person or person's in the form of a document signed by numerous individuals. Years ago a petition usually required strenuous activities to get that piece of paper signed. Before online petition, people went door to door, set up massive rallies, and traveled all around to gather followers to sign the petition and make a difference. Now all a person has to do to act is sign on to the internet and make their voice heard on a subject of their choosing.

Online, you can create a petition against basically anything that you want, and it is almost guaranteed that others out there have the same feeling as you do. Whether you make a petition in protest to the RIAA restrictions for online music downloading, or something as small as protesting an American Idol candidate, people will be there to sign on with you quicker, and from places all around the world.

The benefits of online petitions are substantially better than petitions of days past. When an old petition was signed, it would take a long period of time to get to the subject of the petition. Now when an internet petition is signed, signatures will be added up and the petition can be sent directly to the subject of the petition.

Internet petitions have gained widespread media attention. In February 2007, an online petition against car tracking and road pricing on the United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair's own website. The petition swelled at over 1.8 million signatures and shocked government ministers while the petition gained international attention.

With the current political popularity happening in America right now, petitions are being used heavily to protest removing the U.S. troops from Iraq, or petitioning for more troops to go in to Iraq. Political activists, while using rallies still to send out the subject of discourse, are now handing out flyers to websites for followers to sign petitions online rather than doing so at the protest rally. A person doing this and or something similar adds to the word of mouth and furthers each person's chance to get more signatures on their petition.

The biggest benefit of online petitions is the fact that they gain media attention better than handwritten petitions. Petitions against Metallica for their suing of Napster started a massive debate on internet music sharing, and greatly hurting loyal fans who only wanted to download and enjoy their music.

So if you have a gripe with a government figure or even a band that has let you down, an online petition is a great way for you and others all over the world to get the word out against them.