Sites across the web went ‘dark’ today in protest at the Protect-IP and Stop Online Piracy bills, currently being debated by US legislators.
Wikipedia, Mozilla, WordPress.org, and O’Reilly were among those who choose to close for a day. In addition, the Internet Archive shut down for 12 hours.
The bills provide ways for those who claim their copyright has been infringed by websites outside the US to take action against those sites through the US legal system. SOPA, for example, would allow a rights-owner, say one represented by the MPAA, to demand that a payment processor such as Visa or PayPal stop doing business with a site which it says infringes its copyright. Under the current drafting, it wouldn’t have to prove that copyright had been infringed.
The Internet Archive said in a blog post that ‘Legislation such as this directly affects libraries such as the Internet Archive, which collects, preserves, and offers access to cultural materials. Furthermore, these laws can negatively affect the ecosystem of web publishing that led to the emergence of the Internet Archive,’
The MPAA described the protests as ‘an abuse of power’ and ‘a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services.’
