Websites Cut Service to Protest US Antipiracy Bills

20 January 2012

Google put a black bar over its logo to protest the legislation

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Some popular websites have protested two proposed United States laws aimed at fighting illegal copying of writing, movies and other intellectual property on the Internet. Wednesday, Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, blacked out its English language website for twenty-four hours.

Jay Walsh is head of communications for the Wikimedia Foundation which operates Wikipedia.

JAY WALSH: "It is detrimental to the free and open web. It is detrimental to Wikipedia. And we want to make sure that we send a message."

The blogging site Boing Boing and Social news website Reddit also went black.

Erik Martin is General Manager of Reddit.

ERIK MARTIN: "This is a really big deal and this is something we're going to fight, and this is something we think threatens the entire tech sector."

Both Wikipedia and Reddit urged users to contact their Congressional representative to oppose the law. Even Internet search leader Google protested, although it continued to provide service.

The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act are known as SOPA and PIPA for short. Supporters say they are a way to fight foreign websites that sell pirated copies of American movies and music.