What is SOPA and PIPA..??

  You may have seen many websites black out these days.. Like the most famous online encyclopedia ie. WIKIPEDIA. So, let us now understand the reason behind it.. These web sites have gone dark to protest the anti-piracy bills in the US Congress known as SOPA and PIPA. Internet companies fear they potentially could “break” the internet by giving out powers to broadly to ban or censor web sites.

What actually is SOPA and PIPA?

SOPA — the Stop Online Piracy Act — is the bill in the House of Representatives. It received much attention and debate in December. It’s planned to be reworked in February, and it seems unlikely to come up for a vote in the way that it was. PIPA — the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act — is the bill in the US Senate. It’s also known as PROTECT-IP. It comes up for a vote on January 24, which has sparked today’s actions. A related hearing on the bill happens today.  

The Objections

Internet entities such as Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Tumblr said the two bills would force them to be online police and hold them responsible if users of their sites link to pirated content. The companies said the bills could require your Internet provider to block websites that are involved in digital file sharing. And search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing could be stopped from linking to them — antithetical, they argue, to the ideal of an open Internet. “While I support their goal of reducing copyright infringement (which I don’t believe these acts would accomplish), I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world,” said Sergey Brin, one of the co-founders of Google, in a December post on Google+. The White House weighed in on Jan. 14. In a post on the White House website, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and two colleagues wrote, “While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”  

The Protest Movement

Several major websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and TwitPic, said they would “go dark” on Wednesday to show their opposition to the two bills in Congress. (A list of participants is at SOPAStrike.com.) If you visit one of the protesting sites Wednesday, you may get an error message, but they’re more likely to post messages urging you to join them in opposition to SOPA and PIPA. Others, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, have not said they would join. Twitter’s CEO, Dick Costolo, made a widely-cited tweet on Monday: “Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.” Google today said it would remain online, but show its opposition to the bills with a link. Wednesday on its home page in the U.S. “Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” said a Google spokesperson. Google are running a petition against SOPA and PIPA where you can find out more here --> https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/