Why Google Is All In A Lather About SOPA. By Craig Pirrong : The internet has been ablaze in recent weeks with dire warnings about The End of the Internet As We Know It, due to the seemingly imminent passage of SOPA-the Stop Online Piracy Act.
The threat was so severe that Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, has shut down the site for a day in protest. (Sorry all you high schoolers with term papers due on Thursday-I guess you're SOL.) This move is being followed by other sites outraged at the legislation. But not Google ( GOOG )-even though it is the main force behind the opposition to SOPA: More on this below. Google Slows Web Crawlers To Help Blackouts Sites. Google Joins Anti-SOPA protest by "Censoring" Its Logo. Although it didn't black out any of its sites entirely, Google has joined the anti-SOPA protest by putting up a censored version of its logo, visible only to users from the U.S.
Google's David Drummond explained the company's views on SOPA/PIPA in an official blog post. PIPA and SOPA will censor the web, stifle innovation and hurt web businesses, says Drummond, and it won't even help the fight against piracy. "These bills would grant new powers to law enforcement to filter the Internet and block access to tools to get around those filters (...) These bills would make it easier to sue law-abiding U.S. companies. Law-abiding payment processors and Internet advertising services can be subject to these private rights of action," writes Drummond.
SEE ALSO: Why SOPA Is Dangerous "These bills wouldn’t get rid of pirate sites. Google hits out at SOPA as web goes "dark" By Nicole Kobie Posted on 18 Jan 2012 at 09:03 Google and WordPress have added their weight to today's anti-SOPA protest, as a US politician revealed the controversial anti-piracy legislation will be reviewed next month.
Google today "censored" its logo, blacking it out - apparently for US users only - to raise awareness of the controversial bill, which critics claim goes too far in efforts to battle piracy. WordPress' main site also criticises the Stop Online Piracy Act, encouraging visitors to complain to their local politicians and offering a plugin to help its users blackout their own blogs. Those sites' action comes as part of a wider protest against the act, and its sibling the Protect IP Act (PIPA), with Wikipedia taking its English site offline for the day and many others following suit. Eric Schmidt Doubles Down On SOPA Bill, Describing It As “Censorship,” “Draconian” We’ve already articulated our stance on the PROTECT IP, SOPA, E-PARASITE, or whatever you want to call it bill, which creates a dangerous precedent of blacklisting domains and concentrates power on rights-holders, and remains vague enough to be easily abused.
Eric Schmidt has already spoken out against it, saying that Google would not comply with its restrictions. Today he upped the rhetoric a bit while speaking at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. “The solutions are draconian. There’s a bill that would require ISPs to remove URLs from the Web, which is also known as censorship last time I checked.” SOPA Saga Continues: Tech Giants Consider Internet Blackout and Support OPEN Act. When Congress reconvenes later this month, they will consider passing the highly controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Currently, the Senate is scheduled to debate the matter on January 24th and vote shortly thereafter. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader from Nevada, recently said: “This is a bipartisan piece of legislation which is extremely important. I repeat, it is bipartisan. I hope we can have a productive couple of days, pass this bill, and move on to other matters.” While the majority of companies and individuals who profit off of content production have lobbied for and are supportive of SOPA, the largest tech companies in the world are vehemently opposed to the new piece of legislation. 87% of the Wikipedia users polled were in support of Jimmy Wales’ idea to initiate an “Internet blackout.”
The following infographic, produced by Keep the Web Open, illustrates the differences between the various bills under consideration: La 'ley Sinde' de EE UU, un terremoto · ELPAÍS.com. Blackout anti SOPA : Facebook, Twitter et Google menacent de fermer. With Congress on break, SOPA fight continues. Google's Sergey Brin, left, says SOPA would put the U.S.
"on par with most oppressive nations in the world. " Even as Congress vacations, opposition to online piracy act bubbles onlineSOPA would crack down on rogue sites by letting government shut them downCritics fear that the bill would crush online freedom (CNN) -- Members of Congress may be on vacation, but that hasn't calmed critics who say an effort to stamp out online piracy would create an unprecedented threat to free speech on the Internet. Far from fading from memory, the Stop Online Piracy Act (along with a related Senate bill) has become a rallying point for Web freedom advocates in a debate that has pitted Hollywood and other business interests against some of the biggest titans of the technology world.
When contacted by CNN, none of those companies would confirm that such a drastic move had ever been considered. The future of SOPA itself is a little murkier. SOPA: Google, Facebook and Twitter May Go Offline in Protest. Can you imagine a world without Google or Facebook?
If plans to protest the potential passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) come to fruition, you won’t need to; those sites, along with many other well-known online destinations, will go temporarily offline as a taste of what we could expect from a post-SOPA Internet. Companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter, PayPal, Yahoo!
And Wikipedia are said to be discussing a coordinated blackout of services to demonstrate the potential effect SOPA would have on the Internet, something already being called a “nuclear option” of protesting. The rumors surrounding the potential blackout were only strengthened by Markham Erickson, executive director of trade association NetCoalition, who told FoxNews that “a number of companies have had discussions about [blacking out services]” last week.