Community Corner

Poll: Websites Go Dark to Protest the Stop Online Piracy Act

Wikipedia is 'blacking out,' today, while Google has blacked out its moniker on the popular site.

In protest of a proposed federal law, many popular websites, including Wikipedia, are "blacking out" today to raise awareness.

The House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protect IP (intellectual property) Act (PIPA), are bills meant to stop copyright violations, but critics argue it goes too far and may interfere with free speech rights guaranteed by the First Amendment and "threaten the basic functioning of the Internet," according to the Huffington Post.

Patch, AOL and The Huffington Post are not participating in the 24-hour protests. 

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"As written, we cannot support the bills. We believe an open Internet is critical for innovation, job creation, and the sustained growth of Internet businesses. We are in the process of working directly with lawmakers to improve the bills," said AOL's senior vice president of Public Policy, Tekedra N. Mawakana.


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