As many of you have no doubt already noticed, websites all over the Internet have chosen today to protest two bills currently in front of Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). The New York Times, in an article this morning, offers an brief summation of the controversy:
Under the proposed legislation, if a copyright holder like Warner Brothers discovers that a foreign site is focused on offering illegal copies of songs or movies, it could seek a court order that would require search engines like Google to remove links to the site and require advertising companies to cut off payments to it.
Internet companies fear that because the definitions of terms like “search engine” are so broad in the legislation, Web sites big and small could be responsible for monitoring all material on their pages for potential violations — an expensive and complex challenge.
They say they support current law, which requires Web sites with copyright-infringing content to take it down if copyright holders ask them to, leaving the rest of the site intact. Google, which owns YouTube and other sites, received five million requests to remove content or links last year, and it says it acts in less than six hours if it determines that the request is legitimate.
For a more in-depth look at what flaws critics see in these bills, you can go here.
Many websites are “blacking out” today in protest over SOPA and PIPA. These blackouts range from silent statements of protest like Google, who blacked out their logo today, to Wikipedia, who has taken the unprecedented step of pulling their entire English encyclopedia offline for the remainder of the day. This is a complex issue that crosses party lines – Google recently detailed the opposition to the two bills, and the list is vast, from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to human rights organizations.
Regardless of how you feel about SOPA and PIPA, today is a big day for the two bills, and may go a long way to showing just how powerful online companies and lobbies have become in the last 10 years.
EDIT (1:30 PM): Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, considered by many as a rising star in the Republican party, has just withdrawn his support for SOPA and PIPA.
