Wikipedia and many other favorite websites were intentionally darkened to protest something called SOPA and PIPA? Made it rather tough to do any research for your Allen School Online course work I imagine. It did succeed in raising the awareness about these two pieces of legislation being considered in the US House of Representatives and Senate respectively. Both bills are nominally intended to combat the very real problem of online piracy of intellectual property.
Through illegal downloads of music, movies, artwork and other copyrighted materials, producers of these items lose billions annually. The opponents of these bills are not pro-piracy, but they point out that the legislation as written, would provide an unchecked power to industry and government to shut down any website that is even accused of hosting pirated materials. Your mashup of Justin Bieber and Spongebob Squarepants on Youtube? That’d be plenty enough for a complainant to get Youtube shut down. Supporters of these bills, the Recording Industry of America and bigtime TV and movie studios suggest that this is not the case. Here is a quick primer on the bills and the controversy courtesy of CBS News. Have a look at it and then share with us in the comments your opinion on the matter. As online denizens, this legislation has an absolute impact on your life. Learn, form an opinion and be heard!
On January 18, 2012, a series of coordinated protests occurred against two proposed laws in the United States Congress—the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA).
These followed smaller protests in late 2011. Protests were based on concerns that the bills, intended to provide more robust responses to copyright infringement (colloquially known as piracy) arising outside the United States, contained measures that could possibly infringe online freedom of speech, websites, and Internet communities. Protesters also argued that there were insufficient safeguards in place to protect sites based upon user-generated content.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout
Google joinsthe SOPA movement
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/google-joins-mass-online-protest-against-sopapipa.php
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