Today,
January 18, 2012, over 7,000 websites including Wikipedia and Google will have
a “Blackout Day” to censor all content in protest of the upcoming vote of the
Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA.
SOPA if you didn’t know is an act that will
greatly hinder our right to free speech by censoring any and all copyrighted content
on any website. Websites such as Facebook, YouTube, and most blog sites are in
danger of being shut down unless they themselves take the content down. This
so-called copyright infringement will include any videos on YouTube that have
any copyrighted music in them and didn’t get permission to use the song, even
if it is just a video of a family member or friend dancing to a song. SOPA will
also require ISP’s to censor any kind of peer-to-peer sharing website, such as
ThePirateBay.org or Bittorrent.com.
The
Blackout Day movement is to show the bill supporters what the internet will
possibly look like if SOPA gets passed, by the government being able to censor
or take down any site they think is breaking the law. In an article from /film,
the Motion Picture Association of America’s Chairman and CEO Chris Dodd came
out with a statement blasting the websites that plan on protesting. This is
what was said in his statement:
“Only
days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to
the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parties to
work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting
to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns,
rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now
seem to agree is very real and damaging.
It is an irresponsible response and a
disservice to people who rely on them for information use their services. It is
also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the
marketplace today. It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the
platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to
incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.
A so-called “blackout” is yet another
gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration
officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign
criminals. It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on
those who intend to stage this “blackout” to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts
and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy.”
Sources: Huffingtonpost
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