As many as 7,000 Web sites could go dark today in protest of the
Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA),
according to community organizers. From major players like
Wikipedia, Google, and Reddit to smaller, grass-roots sites, the
Web is banding together to battle what they consider to be overly
broad and potentially harmful legislation.
Here's a look at just some of the sites that will be closing
their doors for 12-24 hours today in protest of SOPA and PIPA.
SopaStrike.com also has an extensive list. If you see more
throughout the day, let us know in the comments. And chime in on
whether you think an Internet blackout is an effective way to
battle the bills.
WIKIPEDIA:
The English versions of Wikipedia went dark at midnight on
Wednesday and will remain that way for 24 hours. "This is
going to be wow. I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in
Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!" Wikipedia
co-founder Jimmy Wales tweeted this week. BOING BOING:
Boing Boing also went dark at midnight. "Boing Boing is
offline today, because the US Senate is considering legislation
that would certainly kill us forever. The legislation is called
the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and would put us in legal jeopardy if
we linked to a site anywhere online that had any links to
copyright infringement," the site reads.
REDDIT:
Reddit shuts down at 8am Eastern time Wednesday morning.
"Instead of the normal glorious, user-curated chaos of
reddit, we will be displaying a simple message about how the
PIPA/SOPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit, link to
resources to learn more, and suggest ways to take action,"
the site said in a blog post last week. GOOGLE: "Like
many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these
bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign
rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the
Internet," Google said in a statement. "So tomorrow we
will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue
on our U.S. home page." That includes a large black bar atop
the Google logo on Google.com, as well as a link to Google's Take
Action Web site.
MOZILLA:
Mozilla is redirecting traffic from the main
Mozilla.org and Mozilla.com English web sites to an action page
for 12 hours on Wednesday, Jan. 18 from 8am to 8pm Eastern.
Mozilla is also changing the look of the default Firefox start
page so that visitors will see a black page with a call to action
message to increase awareness of PIPA/SOPA, rather than the
traditional white page with the Firefox logo, though search
functionality will remain intact. "We hope the blackout of
our U.S. sites will help bring attention to this important issue
and encourage users to educate themselves about PIPA and
SOPA," Mozilla said in a statement. "All users will
still be able to receive security updates and access our
technical support website. This will NOT affect Firefox
users." WORDPRESS:
"If you want to join the protest by blacking out your
WordPress site or applying a ribbon, there is now a variety of
blackout plugins in the WordPress.org plugins directory,"
WordPress said in a blog post. "While joining the protest in
this manner is laudable, please don't forget to also make those
phone calls to U.S. Senators—they're the ones with the
voting power." TWITPIC:
The Twitter pic site currently has a "Stop Censorship"
banner across its logo. Clicking on the logo brings you to a
SOPA/PIPA information page, including contact information for
your representatives in Congress. CHEEZBURGER
NETWORK: "All Cheezburger sites will also be
instituting a blackout on January 18th to protest SOPA and
PIPA," CEO Ben Huh tweeted last week. URBANSPOON:
Will black out access to portions of the site's
user-generated content (including photos and reviews). When users
hover over the black areas, they'll be able to click on anti-SOPA
messaging to learn more, and then access the blocked content. CITYSEARCH:
Local guide will be blocking access to multiple parts of the
site: Things to Do Nearby; the first review under each business;
and the marketing message on the top of the web site; will also
link to anti-SOPA messaging. COULD NOT FIND CITYSEARCH
BLACKOUT ASK.COM:
Q&A site is donating ad space on the home page to voice
opposition to the act to over 60 million Ask.com users; ad will
link to the Open Congress site, giving users a place to directly
take action against the bill.
For more from Chloe, follow her on Twitter @ChloeAlbanesius.
For the top stories in tech, follow us on Twitter at @PCMag.
The stated intent of the bills is to provide tools for law
enforcement and copyright holders to protect their intellectual
property rights.
What’s wrong with protecting copyrights?
Nothing! The devil, as they say, is in the details. PROTECT IP
and SOPA will cause too much collateral damage, have a high
potential for abuse, and won't even be that effective at stopping
the crimes they target. Read alienth's examination of where these
bills fail.
I'm not in the U.S. Why does this affect me?
Many of the sites that you may use (e.g. Google, Facebook,
Wikipedia, etc.) are all affected by this law and will be
required to hide offending domains from you.
If a non-U.S. site is blocked in the U.S., the site could suffer
financially or even be bankrupted by the loss of U.S. traffic and
revenue.
What are the differences between PROTECT IP and SOPA?
At a general level, the bills are very similar. SOPA, the
"Stop Online Piracy Act," is from the House of
Representatives, while the PROTECT IP Act is from the Senate.
Either or both bills may pass a vote in their chamber of congress
on their way to becoming law. Both must be defeated to end this
threat. There have recently been more detailed explanations in an
ELI5 thread and alienth's blog post.
What about ACTA?
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, is a
multi-national agreement with similar goals to the U.S.-only
PROTECT IP and SOPA bills. It is criticized for many of the same
reasons that PROTECT IP and SOPA are, but is also concerning
because it has been drafted in secret. ACTA is not the focus of
this blackout but please take the time to learn more about ACTA.
I'm not a U.S. citizen. How can I help?
You can still call or e-mail the U.S. representatives (sponsors
of the bills would be a good choice). However, you may want to
turn your attention more towards ACTA or other over-zealous
copyright bills in your country.
When will reddit be back? What should I do when it comes back?
reddit will return to normal service at 8 PM EST (0100 UTC).
While our protest is temporary in nature, PROTECT IP and SOPA are
not. Continue to pay attention and join the conversation in
/r/SOPA when reddit returns.
