Protest on web uses shutdown to take on oppressive bills!

WASHINGTON (PNN) - January 17, 2012 - With a web-wide protest on Wednesday that includes a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language Wikipedia, the legislative battle over two unconstitutional Internet piracy bills has reached an extraordinary moment - a political coming of age for a relatively young and disorganized industry that has largely steered clear of lobbying and other political games in Washington.

The bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate, are backed by major media companies and the Hollywood film industry, and are mostly intended to curtail the illegal downloading and streaming of TV shows and movies online. However, the methods used are aking to throwing out the baby with the bath water.

The tech industry correctly fears that these bills would give media companies too much power to shut down sites that they claim are abusing copyrights, without providing proof that such violations are actually occurring.

The legislation has jolted technology leaders, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, who are unwilling to allow their online freedom to be destroyed by government and corporate fascists.

One response is Wednesday’s protest, which directs anyone visiting Google and many other web sites to pages detailing the tech industry’s opposition to the bills. Wikipedia, run by a nonprofit organization, is going further than most sites by actually taking material offline - no doubt causing panic among countless students who have papers due.

The move is meant to spark greater public opposition to the bills, which would restrict its freedom to publish.

“For the first time, it’s very clear that legislation could have a direct impact on the industry’s ability to do business,” said Jessica Lawrence, Managing Director of New York Tech Meetup, a trade organization with 20,000 members that has organized a protest rally in Manhattan on Wednesday. “This has been a wake-up call.”

Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School, said that the technology industry, which has birthed large businesses like Google, Facebook and eBay, is much more powerful than it used to be.

“This is the first real test of the political strength of the web, and regardless of how things go, they are no longer a pushover,” said Professor Wu, who is the author of The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. He added, “The web taking a stand against one of the most powerful lobbyers and seeming to get somewhere is definitely a first.”