SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), and PIPA (Protect IP Act) were introduced to the American congress last year, in an attempt to curb internet piracy.
On the 18th January 2012, a variety of big name internet companies went dark in protest.
Sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit committed to a complete blackout, disabling site functionality for the day. Others, such as Google and Twitter, didn’t blackout, but still spoke out in protest.
Google even organized a petition of the bills, of which over 4.5million people signed.
Internet piracy is an ever prevalent issue, causing a significant number of problems for the creative industry. Piracy sites such as ‘The Pirate Bay’ have been held accountable by critics for causing the problem.
But why are so many internet companies riled up about these proposed laws?
To find out, we head on over to an average suburban household, with Nick Codling…
For further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act
Wikimedia foundations blackout explanation: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout
Google’s protest: https://www.google.com/takeaction/