SOPA Blackout Day: A protest against internet censorship bills SOPA and PIPA

Since November 2, 2011, Death and Taxes has dedicated a great deal of coverage to the anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) movement, which has united big tech companies like Google, Facebook, Mozilla and Yahoo! with smaller sites such as Boing Boing, I Can Haz Cheeseburger, Reddit and a host of others.

We while we support the blackout—which is being led by Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla and Boing Boing—we feel that it will be of better service to you, our readers, both returning and new, to report on the blackout as the day unfolds.

For some brief background, SOPA and PIPA were crafted by chief sponsors Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), respectively, and by spring of 2011 it was a truly bipartisan effort—even Sen. Al Franken, who had railed against those who clipped Net Neutrality’s wings, is a supporter of PIPA. The bills, which differ slightly, would do a number of things, but basically they would allow a private entity to petition the Department of Justice to blockade foreign sites at the Domain Name System (DNS) and payment system levels without due process. And one of the lesser known provisions would require sites that provide information about online piracy, such as Wikipedia (which has information about The Pirate Bay), could find themselves blockaded as a result.

As 2011 progressed, a vigorous anti-SOPA movement was generated by both large tech companies, mainstream media coverage, independent media, blogs and word-of-mouth. Even legislators such as Rep. Daryl Issa (R-CA), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) vocalized their opposition, with Wyden and Issa ultimately crafting an alternative bill called OPEN Act, which would empower the International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate and adjudicate online piracy allegations. While the bill was a step in the right direction, it was far from perfect since questions remained relating to Internet Protocol and operation, as told to us by DeSopa developer Tamer Rizk.

The DNS requirement was removed last week by Leahy, Smith, and opposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and the Obama administration, the anti-SOPA/PIPA movement is not stopping there, though; it is working to kill the current version of the bill.

On Wikipedia’s English page, the image above appears to users with a search function for locating your local representative to express displeasure with SOPA or PIPA. Wikipedia pages in various other languages are still operational, though apparently there are methods of circumventing Wikipedia’s blackout.

Reddit’s page reads “SOPA and PIPA damage the internet. today we fight back,” before stating:

Today, for 12 hours, reddit.com goes dark to raise awareness of two bills in congress: H.R.3261 “Stop Online Piracy Act” and S.968 “PROTECT IP”, which could radically change the landscape of the Internet. These bills provide overly broad mechanisms for enforcement of copyright which would restrict innovation and threaten the existence of websites with user-submitted content, such as reddit.

Boing Boing’s homepage is completely black with the text “503: Service Unavailable,” adding:

Boing Boing is offline today, because the US Senate is considering legislation that would certainly kill us forever. The legislation is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and would put us in legal jeopardy if we linked to a site anywhere online that had any links to copyright infringement.

This would unmake the Web, just as proposed in the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). We don’t want that world. If you don’t want it either, visit AmericanCensorship.org for instructions on contacting your Senator. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has more information on this and other issues central to your freedom online.

Thanks,
The Boingers

The Mozilla Project homepage urges users to “Protect the Internet,” explaining its position on SOPA and PIPA:

Today Mozilla joins with other sites in a virtual strike to protest two proposed laws in the United States, called SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act. On January 24th, the U.S. Senate will vote on thePROTECT IP Act to censor the Internet, despite opposition from the vast majority of Americans.

Join us to protect our rights to free speech, privacy, and prosperity.

The Lolcats of I Can Haz Cheeseburger? are disrupted by a pop-up with a graphic of a cat driving a car, atop of which is an American flag impaled atop a cheeseburger, with text that reads “Cheezeburger Needs Your Help.”

This blackout does include Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and some other tech companies opposed to SOPA.

Stay tuned for updates on the SOPA Strike, but for now watch Boing Boing’s Managing Editor Rob Beschizza tell it like it is in an Al Jazeera interview.