The Internet Takes A Stand Against SOPA and PIPA

It’s the 18^th of January 2012, mark it down, for this is a day for the history books, this is a day where the people rise up against control, this is a day that the people say no to legislation being forced upon them against their will by a government and its representatives that they elected to serve them.

Today is a day of protest.

Will blogged a lovely little roundup of just what SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is and how it could destroy the internet as we know it before Christmas, but things have heated up a little since then.

Today, we see some of the internet’s biggest websites stand together to oppose not just SOPA, but its sister bill PIPA (Protect IP Act) from ever being pushed through US congress. Both bills would allow the government to shut down websites they believe are either publishing, distributing or streaming copyrighted content.

Whilst copyright holders want more power to protect their interest, these bills would give government the power to do some serious damage and the repercussions might just create a monster. If you want a clearer idea of what it could mean, head over to The Oatmeal and see a better explanation than words could ever give on the danger these bills represent.

For any of you thinking this would only affect the US, think again (ever heard of extradition? Under SOPA/PIPA, this would likely be more frequent and allow the law to come down hard, not just on the big pirates, but anyone using copyrighted material.

Whilst we’ve recently seen SOPA get shelved, PIPA is still and ever present danger, not to mention the risk that SOPA might be brought back when the fuss, hoo haa and protesting dies down.

Google themselves are making a big stand against SOPA and PIPA, committing a lot of time and effort lobbying against the bills and trying to gather support against them. Today, Google.com is displaying this on their home page:

With links to an infographic, its stance on the bills and an online petition, it’s obvious to see how important the search giant thinks it is to quash this legislation and it’s easy to see why. The laws would restrict their search results and potentially destroy Youtube, which would likely become a waste land full of copyright free uploads of pets and people falling over like an online You’ve Been Framed.

They’re not the only big site taking a stand against SOPA and PIPA. Wikipedia has a 24 hour black out of its English language pages (bar the pages on SOPA and PIPA) and is calling on its users to spread the message they’re against the bills. Hopefully, the millions of kids coming in to school with incomplete homework tomorrow will be enough of a message to congress to make a real impact.

A number of other high profile websites have made the move to black out or protest on their websites today, including Reddit (which is probably the only reason I’m writing this post), the ICANHAZCHEESBURGER network, theCHIVE, Mozilla, Wordpress, Craigslist, 4chan, Twitpic, Flickr...the list goes on. For a fuller list, go and check out the representatives on the SOPA Strike site. There are many more sites out there pushing this message to their readers in the hopes that the people will join in their fight against laws that would ruin the internet as they know it.

The entertainment industry’s efforts to force legislation have reportedly cost them millions in bribes lobbying.

The cost of signing up against these bills? Free. You know what to do.

Join the fight against SOPA and PIPA and spread the message wherever you are and make January the 18^th a day that goes down in history, the day when the internet stood up and said:

We will not be controlled!!!

Especially by an industry that made The Expendables!!!

#SOPAstrike