Wikipedia is having a 24 hour black-out, Google has blacked out its famous logo and WordPress has placed censor warnings across their front page. If you unsure of the companies motives, they are showing signs of solidarity in the effort to stop SOPA and PIPA.
What are SOPA and PIPA?
In an effort to stop online piracy, the House has presented the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) while the Senate proposed companion bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
According to Braden Goyette, NY Daily News, “The bills were designed to stop piracy of copyrighted music, movies, and television shows. But critics including Google, Twitter, and some of the original architects of the Internet itself, say the legislation could censor the Internet, hobble online innovation and change what made the Internet what it is today.”
SOPA and PIPA intends to target websites whose servers are hosted or whose domain names are registered outside of the U.S. Supporters of the bills claim that this won’t effect American websites, however, many American companies have domain names registered overseas. American domains that link to foreign websites may also be targeted if the linked websites are suspected of hosting pirated material.
Many fear that, while the intentions of SOPA and PIPA are good, ultimately, regulations from the bill will lead to censorship across the internet, as well as, company crippling lawsuits.
Posted by zBoost Your Life 
