Coop média de Montréal
Journalisme indépendant
Can you support independent journalists with $5? donate today!
Web goes on strike to protest censorship-- PROTECT IP / SOPA Threatens Internet Freedoms
A web-wide protest has been called for in the lead up to the US senate vote on a bill known as PROTECT-IP (PIPA) which would give the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement."
In protest bloggers and other small internet media have "blacked out" their sites today with an explination of the dangers of the pending legislation in conjunction with the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Fight For The Future.org, the group organizing the protest which is set to continue until January 24th, suggests that:
"This legislation will stifle free speech and innovation, and even threaten popular web services like Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
The video above discusses the Senate version of the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). In the Senate the bill is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). SOPA has gotten more attention than PIPA because it was moving faster in the legislative process.
Voting on the bill will begin on January 24th.
An intersting, interactive example of what a website participating in the protest looks like during a black-out can be seen at libcom.org - a libertarian communist website. They state: "On the internet, more than anywhere, adherence to national borders makes no sense. In this small way, we join the many thousands of others worldwide taking digital direct action against repressive internet legislation"
About the poster
255 words
The site for the Montreal local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.