Some of your favorite websites are protesting to show their unhappiness over two Internet-regulation bills heading to Congress today.
Sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit are in protest of Congress’ proposed anti-piracy legislation.
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During the black out period, many web pages will become unavailable and will likely be replaced with information about the protest.
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The fight is over two similar bills: the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate’s Protect IP (intellectual property) Act.
Both bills propose to attack the problem of foreign web sites that sell pirated or counterfeit goods.
They would impose restrictions forcing U.S. companies to stop selling online ads to suspected pirates, processing payments for illegal online sales and refusing to list web sites suspected of piracy in search-engine results.
The idea is to cut off the channels that deliver American customers, and their money, to potential pirates.
However tech companies see the laws as a dangerous overreach, saying the laws would add burdensome costs and new rules that would destroy the freewheeling soul of the Internet.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales took to Twitter on Monday and announced that the English-language version of Wikipedia will go dark today for 24 hours – from midnight EST on January 18 until midnight EST January 19.
He noted in a later tweet that “Final details [are] under consideration but consensus seems to be for ‘full’ rather than ‘soft’ blackout!”
If you go to the Wikipedia English as of now you will see the message below:
If you go to Google’s homepage this is the message you’ll see:
State your position and vote – whether you are for or against SOPA and the IP Act.
