Internet giants go black to oppose SOPA, get intended results

When freshman neuroscience major Wasi Mohamed navigated to Wikipedia on Wednesday to seek… When freshman neuroscience major Wasi Mohamed navigated to Wikipedia on Wednesday to seek information to help with his chemistry lab, he found a mostly black screen instead of the site’s usual trademark globe.

Mohamed read on the screen that the site had blacked itself out in protest of something called SOPA, but he had a project to finish and no time to read further into the acronym.

Wikipedia, Reddit and many other major websites went voluntarily dark Wednesday to raise awareness of the proposed Stop Online Piracy and PROTECT IP acts, which seek to rein in online piracy of copyrighted material. The sites’ blackouts were meant to show Internet users what the Web would be like if the acts get signed into law, specifically demonstrating the levels of censorship that may occur.

The two bills have become a major source of controversy on the web over the past few weeks as the House of Representatives and Senate debated the issue.

SOPA, first introduced in the House on Oct. 26, would make sweeping changes to the methods by which companies seek to remove copyrighted content posted online. Tech giants such as Google, Yahoo, eBay and Twitter have come out against the legislation, pitting themselves against the entertainment industry — the bills’ main proponent — in a fight that could change the Web as we know it.

“Today, Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation,” said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in an official release on the website. “While we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world.”

The Senate was originally set to vote on its version of the bill, PIPA, on Jan. 18, but the vote was pushed back until Jan. 24.

According to Politico, at least four senators originally sponsoring the bill have withdrawn their support.

Markup of the SOPA bill in the House has been delayed until February. In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, said the delay was caused by a number of Republican and Democrat retreats scheduled over the next few weeks.

On Saturday, the Obama administration stated its opposition to the bill in its current form, saying, “We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

Many students in the Schenley Cafe in the basement of the William Pitt Union were unaware of the bills existence when asked about the issue on Wednesday.

“I haven’t heard enough about it to be able to form an opinion,” sophomore Seth Graham said.

But freshman Zain Shah, who was informed on the bill’s potential, said, “It’s censorship. It allows corporations and the government to take away our freedoms.”

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, the lobbying trade group that represents filmmakers, “More than $58 billion is lost to the U.S. economy annually due to content theft, including more than 373,000 lost American jobs, $16 million in lost employees earnings, plus $3 billion in badly needed federal, state and local governments’ tax revenue.”

Under current law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act says that sites that act in good faith to remove infringing content upon notification are granted immunity. This is why messages often appear on YouTube saying copyright-protected material has been removed.

The rationale behind SOPA is to seek to protect the owners of copyrighted content such as movies, music and games by taking legal action against websites that allow free streaming and downloading of that material.