Yesterday you may have noticed (and alomost certainly heard) about Wikipedia, Reddit and other sites staging a blackout protest against SOPA, an anti-online piracy bill in Congress.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and it's Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA), would stifle online expression, Wikipedia argues.
Google yesterday put a black bar across it's logo, and the English version of Wikipedia was totally blocked.
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The protests seemed to do some good, as CBS reports some elected officials might be changing their minds.
"Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a rising star in the Republican party, was previously a PIPA co-sponsor, but he posted a Facebook note Wednesday morning explaining his decision to withdraw his support for it and calling on Congress to come up with new anti-piracy legislation."
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The music industry alone, however, suffers staggering losses from piracy each year.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America: "One credible analysis by the Institute for Policy Innovation concludes that global music piracy causes $12.5 billion of economic losses every year, 71,060 U.S. jobs lost, a loss of $2.7 billion in workers' earnings, and a loss of $422 million in tax revenues, $291 million in personal income tax and $131 million in lost corporate income and production taxes. For copies of the report, please visit www.ipi.org."
So what do you think? Do you support SOPA and PIPA? Take our poll and let us know.
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