Websites on strike

As mentioned in a previous post I made on this blog, SOPA is being considered by the US government. Apparently it is being "shelved" for the moment. This has not stopped websites like Wired.com or Wikipedia (English version) from depicting a SOPA'ed web site:



While both "strikes" from web sites can be bypassed with browser settings, they do show what the websites could look like if SOPA was enacted.

SOPA is censorship. It will allow companies that feel threatened from loss of profits to accuse international web sites of piracy, and be able to block them. Seeing how the government of the USA has in the past had a mentality of "shoot first, questions later" (eg. weapons of mass destruction in Iraq never eventuating), it would be feasible to consider that web sites and businesses will be shut down pending further investigations.

For more information, have a look at the latimes article for a more comprehensive list of sites that are trying to fight this new form of censorship. If you are in the USA, do something about it - sign up on the petition with Google.

And for Australia - openinternet.com.au.

Everyone - do something (useful (now))!