Wikipedia blacks out for 24-hr, Google and WordPress put out protest sites against SOPA

Stop SOPA

The internet companies in the US are taking out an unprecedented online protest against nobody less than the US Congress. Wikipedia, Firefox, Google, WordPress and a lot of other online websites and services are protesting against the SOPA or Stop Online Piracy Act which the US Congress is considering to implement. This act is aimed at curbing online piracy and this is aimed at benefitting the Hollywood movie makers primarily. The companies are protesting that this act is against the freedom of the Internet and that this act could cripple the use of Internet and leave it as a service with restricted content.

Wikipedia’s english website has a black colored webpage with a protest text that says “the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.” Other companies have put up similar messages on their websites and have literally sounded a war cry against the US government. The companies say that this is a  conspiracy that the Hollywood biggies are launching to protect their own financial interests.

Earlier in November last year many companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn sent a letter to the important panelists of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. They proposed that SOPA is and I quote “a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation’s cybersecurity”

This tug of war has just begun and it is gaining momentum with every passing day with many companies joining the protest. Watch this space for more updates.