Who Stands Up for the Internet?

Image via Wikipedia

Currently, there are two bills in the American Congress that everyone who even touches the Internet needs to know about. They’ve been bandied about in different areas, discussed on multiple forums, but nothing has really been said in the mainstream media about them. Until today, when a number of the big sites have decided to organize a protest by blacking out their sites for one day, Wednesday, January 18, 2012.

Those bills are:

SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act

PIPA, the PROTECT-IP Act

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Both of these bills would allow the U.S. Department of Justice the power to shut down access to “rogue sites” not located within the United States for “copyright violations.” The DoJ would be able to force website operators to block domain names (http://www.domain.com/) for sites that contain copyrighted content or who host links to copyrighted content, make advertising agencies pull their advertising from a site listed as containing copyrighted content, hurt the security measure already in place on the Internet and more.

The effect of the passage of these two bills would be a increasing number of forced ripples of silence through the Internet.

Until there’s no one left.

My site will be blacked out tomorrow, January 18th, 2012, from 8am to 8pm, to show my support for Wikipedia and other websites who are going on strike.

For more information:

The Truth About the Economics of the Blackout Bills (from EFF)

How PIPA and SOPA Violate White House Principles Supporting Free Speech and Innovation (from EFF)

How SOPA Would Affect You: FAQ (from CNet)