SOPA/PIPA Postponed After Protests and Blackouts

Online protests against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the US came to a head last week as several major sites blacked out their content. As a result of growing opposition, the bills have now been postponed for the time being.

Several major sites and online firms, including Yahoo, Twitter, Google and eBay, have voiced strong opposition to the proposed anti-piracy bills. Some have even been running self-imposed blackouts in objection to the new legislation, which seeks to combat copyright infringement. Blackouts have, for example, been seen on GoDaddy, the domain name registry, and Wikipedia.

The bills have got many users concerned, as if the legislation goes through, the US government would effectively have the power to block or cut funding and links to any sites considered to be infringing copyright laws. Following widespread outcry, SOPA and PIPA have been shelved for the time being.

Several sites opposing the bills teamed up to plan a mass blackout on Wednesday last week to raise awareness and show opposition to the proposed legislation. The blackout made several familiar sites look like this:

Google US


en.wikipedia.org

 

Wired

Mark Zuckerberg rallied the cause on his personal Facebook page, and an online petition was launched, gathering over 5 million signatures by 9 p.m. on Wednesday (local time).

Pro Republica tracked supporters and opponents of the laws in Congress before and after the day of action. The results show that the lobbying proved pretty effective:

ProPublica.org

As the days go by, the likeliness of seeing these two laws passed seems ever more remote. The US President himself—who has the power to veto the projects—seems to be against the measures. A statement from the White House reassured opponents to the bills that 'While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.'

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