The Internet is in the midst of a mass protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), two bills in the House and Senate that could infringe on the right to free information on the Internet. The bills have been backed by the members of the entertainment industry in an attempt to stop the pirating of music and movies, but the bills would also allow censorship on the Internet.
With all the backlash, both from citizens and web giants like Google and Craigslist, and even a widely spread petition against the bills, some of the original supporters of the bills are rethinking the legislation and dropping their sponsorship. According to The Washington Post, six representatives have said they can no longer support their own legislation.
Florida Representative Marco Rubio wrote on his Facebook, As a senator from Florida, a state with a large presence of artists, creators and businesses connected to the creation of intellectual property, I have a strong interest in stopping online piracy that costa Florida jobs. However, we must do this while simultaneously promoting an open, dynamic Internet environment that is ripe for innovation and promotes new technologies."
Although Entertainment Weekly reports that supporters of SOPA and PIPA thought the protests, which can be seen on the home pages of thousands of websites throughout the day, were nothing more than a stunt and gimmick to make politicians look stupid, the message seems to have gotten through loud and clear, proving that the power of free information and a censor-less Internet is powerful and important.
"I think that people will absolutely act," said Alex Howard, a correspondent for the media group O'Reilly Radar. "The precedent was set for these when Tumblr decided to do something similar back in November when they converted one of their pages. It resulted in tens of thousands to calls to Washington, so sites like Wikipedia and Reddit are going to result in more contact. We will definitely see an offline outcome from this online action."