Thousands of websites across the nation are “blacking out” in protest of the very controversial SOPA(stop online piracy act) and PIPA(protect IP act) bills that have been proposed to Congress. Experts are warning these bills could threaten the functionality of the internet.
Some of the nations most popular websites including Google, Wikipedia, and Reddit have all altered their websites, redirecting users to pages about why they are against the bills.
The intention of the bills are to stop online piracy and copyright infringement, but many of the popular websites are saying that this would stifle the expression of the internet. What does this mean for you?
Originally, media companies have always been trying to censor copyright infringement (i.e. blocking sound on Youtube videos). These bills have been proposed to block out-of-nation websites that “share” media such as thepiratebay.org. This is not what concerns most, but what does is the more extreme SOPA act, which quotes, “foreign infringing site” as any site that is “committing or facilitating” any type of copyright infringement.
The wording of that is what worries sites like Reddit and Wikipedia, who thrive off of user uploaded content around the world, and who is to say what is copyright and what isn’t?
UCF student Nick Lewitt is a strong advocate against both SOPA/PIPA bills saying, “I feel that the bills serve no purpose and the government should know that it’s nearly impossible to regulate the internet given that it is a global technology. Also, I believe that the internet should always be free”.
The bills go to Congress January 24th with SOPA being backed by 31 co-sponsors in the House and PIPA which is backed by 40 cosponsors in the Senate.
You can read more about each bill here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.03261: and http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:s.00968:
Also, Google is allowing people to take action by petitioning the bill here:https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
Knightnews.com will keep you updated with any pertinent information regarding both bills.
