SOPA/ PIPA Boycott Campaign
Posted by Monica Brasov-Curca | 17-01-2012 23:26 | Category: Activism, Culture, Government, MediaIts Hollywood VS Silicon Valley
SOPA: Stop Online Piracy Act
PIPA: PROTECT IP Act
Jan. 18, 2012 is the designated SOPA blackout day. In protest prominent websites: Wikipedia, Go Daddy, Reddit and over 10,000 other sites are planning to go dark to contest two bills working through Congress. The bills will go before the US Congress on Jan 24th, where they will vote to pass internet censorship in the Senate, even though the vast majority of Americans are opposed. The bills are supported by Hollywood and the entertainment industry - Silicon Valley, representative of many who want to kill the bill in the House, say they want to protect rights to free speech, privacy, and prosperity.
The campaign to boycott is mostly crowdsourced in that individuals, groups, organizations and internet business have created their own content to express themselves. Twitter especially has seen large numbers of avatars covered with a black box censored. Youtube, at the time of writing had over 30,000 video results to the SOPA search. Wikipedia is shut down - only with a message requesting Zip codes which directs viewers to contact their local government officials
WANT to PROTEST? If you would like to participate with changing your avatar or shutting down your website for a day here’s a great link http://sopastrike.com/
From Wikipedia:
“Call your elected officials.
Tell them you are their constituent, and you oppose SOPA and PIPA.
Why?
SOPA and PIPA put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn’t being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines. SOPA and PIPA build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.
In a world in which politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, Wikipedia — and sites like it — cannot survive.
Congress says it’s trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the “cure” that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they will fatally damage the free and open Internet.”
Advertiser:
SOPA STRIKE
Additional credits:
Wikipedia
Go Daddy
Source:
Sopa Strike, Youtube, Wikipedia
