Black out

Thousands of websites will go dark tomorrow to protest proposed legislation that could make a free and open Internet a thing of the past.

Leading the pack is Wikipedia, the sixth biggest website on the globe. The Wednesday (Jan. 18) black out of the English language portion of Wikipedia will demonstrate the site's opposition of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA).

“We believe that new proposed laws like SOPA and PIPA, and other similar laws under discussion inside and outside the United States — don’t advance the interests of the general public,” Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, in an article posted on the site to explain the initiative.

“The reality is that we don’t think SOPA is going away, and PIPA is still quite active. Moreover, SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem.”

To learn more about how SOPA and PIPA in effect would impede First Amendment rights, visit this link.

If you have a website and want to learn more about participating in the protest, follow this link.

Do you think SOPA and PIPA violate the First Amendment?