18. 01. 2012

Wikipedia goes dark in protest of "anti-piracy" legislation

Washington, January 18, 2012. (B92, Tanjug) - Several dozens of large U.S. websites led by Wikipedia went dark on Wednesday in protest against planned new U.S. internet legislation.

The reason for the protest is the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which is seen as censorship of freedom of thought.

Google, which will not go dark today, will show its support by providing a link that clearly shows the company is against the draft law. Microsoft, the world's largest software company, has also stated it opposes the bill.

The bill originally envisaged that the U.S. Justice Department could order websites such as Google and Yahoo to erase links to foreign websites that have some pirated content and therefore prevent the U.S. users from visiting the sites.

Wikipedia and other sites claim that the draft law would lead to censorship and that it would be hard to implement it.

Those who oppose the bill say that the fact that the bill was adopted is actually censorship because it allows the Justice Ministry to arrange the cyberspace.

The bill also envisages a ban on downloading of movies, TV shows and music from foreign websites which is currently possible in the U.S.