On January 18, 2012 major players on the Internet staged a protest. Wikipedia went dark, Google hid their ubiquitous logo behind a censor’s black bar. It was all a reaction to the SOPA and PIPA bills now before Congress. The bills are the result of Hollywood lobbyists seeking stiffer anti-piracy legislation to protect their assets from rogue offshore websites. But the proposed bills are viewed by Internet heavy hitters as an assault on free speech and an ineffective means of fighting piracy.
“These bills wouldn’t get rid of pirate sites,” argues David Drummond, Google Chief Legal Officer, “Pirate sites would just change their addresses in order to continue their criminal activities.” Drummond is calling on concerned citizens to sign a petition to stop these bills.
The consensus of the protestors is this: These two bills will censor the web, put at risk this innovation, job-creating industry and fail to stop piracy. They also agree that piracy is a giant problem that must be dealt with. Last year alone Google acted on copyright takedown notices for more than 5 million web pages and invested more than $60 million in the fight against ads appearing on bad sites.
We encourage American advertising agencies from Dallas to New York to sign this important
petition.
