Last Wednesday, January 18th, was unofficially declared Internet Blackout Day in protest of Senate Bill 968-the Protect IP Act and the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act. The bills, otherwise known as PIPA and SOPA, were designed to stop the illegal use of intellectual property on the internet, but some believe they would limit free speech and creative expression if passed.
The web’s most prominent search engines brought awareness to the pending anti-piracy legislation in their own unique ways. Wikipedia and thousands of other websites went offline for 24 hours and Google’s usually colorful logo was replaced with a black mark through it, implying censorship. Millions signed a petition on Google.com and WordPress even offered a “prostest plug-in” to anyone who wanted to jump on the protest bandwagon.
Following the online campaign against PIPA and SOPA, enough congressmen and senators had withdrawn their support of the controversial legislation, that forward movement of it has been postponed indefinitely. These were somewhat obscure bills until the heavy hitters of cyberspace got involved.
The great masses of the internet stood united and made its collective voice heard. Music and film executives, who were the driving force behind the effort, will continue the fight against online piracy, but will have to pay closer attention to the unseen, but formidable presence of the World Wide Web.