The Day of Darkness: Effective Advocacy or Chilling Stunt?
Unless you’ve been living under some kind of Internet rock, you’ve heard of the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act, more commonly known as SOPA and PIPA. Ostensibly, these bills are to curtail online piracy and keep intellectual property in the hands of its rightful owners, which, at first blush, doesn’t sound so bad. Except when you read deeper into the bills, and it becomes obvious that these acts would give the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and other entertainment groups carte blanche to destroy the Internet, through delisting sites, heavy fines and other less-than-savory actions.
Of course, the Internet is not standing idly by – almost every Web-based business, particularly content sites, is protesting both acts, pointing out that the concept of free content could easily be ruined by SOPA and PIPA. To highlight this threat, January 18 was to be an Internet blackout, where sites would censor or remove content to show how dangerous these two bills are.
But once the potential of lost views and business came into play, some of the biggest names pulled out. As it stands, some of the most recognizable sites operating in “blackout mode” today are Google, Wikipedia and Reddit, along with a host of smaller content sites. It sends a message, but can you imagine the response if Facebook and Twitter participated as well (they aren’t)?
Which leads me to my question – is this an effective way to push the threat of SOPA/PIPA? Or is it just another stunt by the online community that won’t have any impact on public perception? Has your opinion of the participating sites improved or are you just annoyed that you can’t read your favorite Wikipedia articles?
--John Terrill