Internet on Strike

Tomorrow, Jan 19th, some sites on the World Wide Web will shut down to protest PIPA, the reincarnation of SOPA. SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261 ) written by Representative Lamar Smith and several other Congressmen.  The blackout is meant to both protest the legislation and to simulate the possibility of the U.S. government ordering the shutdown of websites due to potential copyright material.

The bill was originally drafted to protect the intellectual property of various U.S. organizations such as the Motion Picture Association of America and Universal Music from piracy on the web, especially by foreign countries. My fellow colleague Mike has written about this issue and has considered some of the dire consequences, including infringement on free speech.

The blackout protest by several large tech companies to boycott the legisliation came from a combination of pressures;  SOPA (and its predecessor PIPA) was written by policymakers and have angered a great number of internet users, causing them to call to large online corporations for support.

Websites such as Wikipedia.org, Reddit.com, and BoingBoing.com will be going offline tomorrow, so prepare accordingly. Sites such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook also oppose the SOPA legislation but have stated that they will not join in the blackout. However, there is wind in the interwebs that they will be joining in a collective protest action. Voting for PIPA on the senate floor will take place on Jan 24^th.

By: Elton Li

(Photo by Paul G under a Creative Commons license)