Popular Websites Go Black in Protest of SOPA, PIPA

Thinking about visiting that (English language) Wikipedia page that talks about how Moorpark was the first city to be powered by nuclear energy? How about checking out the Ventura County Craigslist page for deals (or really strange personals, for that matter)? Well, think again.

Visitors to those sites and thousands of others will be greeted with screens explaining they're blacked out in protest against the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA), or H.R. 3261, and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), or S. 968.

The bills—SOPA in the House of Representatives and PIPA in the Senate—were written with the intent to stop foreign websites from posting illegal content.

But the bills' opponents say the wording is too broad and could lead to unintended consequences.

According to Politico's Mike Zapler and Kim Hart, "In some instances, a judge could order an Internet service provider like Verizon to cut off access to a site. In others, a search engine like Google could be directed to delete links to an infringing site." 

"The idea," according to Zapler and Hart, "is to starve offending sites of the web traffic that keeps them in business."

Those acting out against the proposed legislation claim it is overbroad and, in effect, could lead to censorship and suppress first amendment rights.

"SOPA and PIPA are badly drafted legislation that won't be effective in their main goal (to stop copyright infringement), and will cause serious damage to the free and open Internet," said Wikipedia on a page explaining why they were blacking out the site. "They put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites."

Google, while not blacking out its site, has put a black "censored" type bar across its logo and added a note that says, "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web" and a link to a SOPA/PIPA information page.

Other sites that are also going dark include Reddit.com—which has been a leader in the protest—BoingBoing.net, Mozilla and Twitpic. While Twitter has said it won't shut down, a number of Twitter users have said they will show their solidarity with the protest by not using the social media site Wednesday.

AOL, parent company to Patch, will not be joining the blackout; however it did issue a statement by Tekedra N. Mawakana, the company's senior vice president of public policy, about the proposed legislation: "As written, we cannot support the bills. We believe an open Internet is critical for innovation, job creation, and the sustained growth of Internet businesses. We are in the process of working directly with lawmakers to improve the bills."