SOPA / PIPA

US Congress is set to pass online anti-piracy laws - the SOPA and PIPA bills.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is basically a black list. If an article published online uses a company's logo and the company doesn't approve of this, they can add that site to their hit list and pass this information on. The company can then cut off all payment processes to the site - the site will have 5 days to act before they are shut down.

PIPA (Protect IP Act) internet providers will have to block blacklisted websites. Search engines that list blacklisted websites will be faced with legal action. These 2 bills would give the US power to also bring down sites outside of the US - by forcing US-based companies / internet providers / credit card companies to cut ties with them.

Wikipedia is on a 24-hour blackout today (Jan 18th) to show what life would be without the super encyclopedia.

- "It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web. Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation.”