[Imc-web] Q: should we blacken our homepage t in protest of SOPA tomorrow?

Tue Jan 17 23:33:02 CST 2012

Should we black out our ucimc.org site tomorrow? Wikipedia, Reddit and many
of our allies in media justice have already gone dark with messages about
the dangers of SOPA. Thoughts? - Danielle
 Momentum Builds Against SOPA and PIPA Tomorrow you might be wondering who
turned out the lights. Don’t worry — it will simply be one of the biggest
days in the history of the open Internet.

Thousands of websites — including Wikipedia, reddit, BoingBoing,
FreePress.net and SavetheInternet.com — will go
dark<http://sopastrike.com/>to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act
(SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA),
bills in the House and Senate that could open the door to widespread
censorship online.

Meanwhile, hundreds of supporters of the open Internet will gather outside
the Manhattan offices of New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten
Gillibrand to urge them — both are sponsors of PIPA — to change course and
oppose this legislation.

Millions of Internet users have succeeded in slowing down the
Hollywood-funded momentum of these bills. A House vote on SOPA has now
been indefinitely
postponed<http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/204167-sopa-shelved-until-consensus-is-found>.
And the mainstream media, which had largely failed to
cover<http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/12/01/17/blog/12/01/09/news-networks-sopa-blackout>what
is arguably the biggest tech story of the year, are finally waking up.
Last weekend, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes devoted an entire
segment<http://upwithchrishayes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/15/10161056-debating-sopa>to
a debate on the legislation. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid defended PIPA <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/> on *Meet the Press
* last Sunday (hey, at least it got covered!).

Just in time for tomorrow’s blackout, the White House has announced its
opposition<https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition-tool/response/combating-online-piracy-while-protecting-open-and-innovative-internet>to
provisions in both bills that pose a threat to free speech. And even
Google is altering its valuable
homepage<http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57360223-261/google-will-protest-sopa-using-popular-home-page/>to
include a note protesting SOPA and PIPA.

A casual observer of all this activity — Wikipedia is really going dark?
Google is really changing up its homepage? — might wonder what all the fuss
is about. Here, in a nutshell, is why tech companies, individual Internet
users, members of Congress and the White House have all expressed grave
concerns about legislation that could usher in a new wave of online
censorship.

Supporters claim that SOPA and PIPA are the only way to effectively fight
online piracy. But while the rights of content holders need to be
protected, these bills are the wrong way to address this issue. If they are
passed, corporations (with the help of the courts) will become the arbiters
of what is and isn’t lawful online activity, with millions of Internet
users swept in their nets as collateral damage.

Both bills are said to target only foreign websites that are explicitly in
the business of promoting copyright-infringing content. But they would do
much to harm the global
Internet<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house-principles-supporting-free-speech>,
and a provision in both bills would allow tampering with the Internet’s
technical infrastructure in a way that Internet engineers agree would harm
online security<http://boingboing.net/2011/12/15/internet-engineers-to-congress.html>
.

Another provision would empower private companies to go after any website —
lawful or otherwise — they accuse of infringing on their copyright. Those
companies could work with service providers and financial institutions to
shut off access to the potentially offending sites, with no repercussions
at all if the accused site is later judged to be lawful. Meanwhile, a
falsely accused site could go belly up from all of the legal fees needed to
defend itself.

Innocent until proven guilty, anyone?

    --
Josh Levy
Internet Campaign Director
Free Press :: www.freepress.net
413.585.1533 x208
Twitter: @levjoy
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