DAILYHOSTNEWS, January 19, 2012- The massive protest against internet censorship bills SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT Intellectual Property Act) which are being considered by Congress at City Hall in San Francisco, have gathered momentum with more and more websites, their CEO’s and users joining hands.
Wednesday was observed as the black-out day by popular internet sites like Wikipedia, Google.com, Reddit.com, Craiglist.org BoingBoing.net, WordPress.com, Techcrunch.com and about 10,000 other websites. These sites blacked out their pages and displayed messages warning people about harms of SOPA and the problems they would face if they are not able to access the information as easily as they can now.
Today, founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerburg in a post on Facebook also expressed discontent about passing of these bills.
In his words, “The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet’s development. Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet.”
As many as 450,897 people liked the post and 86,143 shared it on Facebook. The number is still growing.
According to Google, 4.5 million people signed its anti SOPA petition titled “End piracy not Liberty’. The petition states that “fighting online piracy is important and that there is no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs.”
Along with this, Google in its blog posted by David Drummond, SVP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer talked about the harm that the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House could potentially pose to the internet.
It says that PIPA and SOPA will censor the web, will risk our industry’s track record of innovation and job creation and cannot stop piracy.
The protest does not end here only, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, recently three co-sponsors of the SOPA and PIPA also withdrew support from the bill.
Sen. Marco Rubio withdrew as a co-sponsor of the Protect IP Act in the Senate, while Reps. Lee Terry and Ben Quayle pulled their names from the companion House bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act.
In his post on Facebook, Marc Rubio said “As a senator from Florida, a state with a large presence of artists, creators and businesses connected to the creation of intellectual property, I have a strong interest in stopping online piracy that costs Florida jobs. However, we must do this while simultaneously promoting an open, dynamic Internet environment that is ripe for innovation and promotes new technologies. Congress should listen and avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences.”
