SOPA Strike

So today is the big day! Major Websites are going dark for 24 hours in protest of web piracy bills. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what is occurring, let me fill you in briefly:

“Simply put, S. 968 and H.R. 3261 would require ISPs to block access to foreign websites that infringe on copyrights. Online piracy from China and elsewhere is a massive problem for the media industry, one that costs as much as $250 billion per year and costs the industry 750,000 jobs, according to a 2008 statement by Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). But how exactly the bills would counter piracy has many up in arms.” (FoxNews.Com)

The blackout is a “response to the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, a pair of bills backed by the motion picture and recording industries that are intended to eliminate theft online once and for all.” (FoxNews.Com)

Major Internet sites participating in the blackout include Reddit, Wikipedia, Word Press, Mozilla, and more. For a complete list of participants, click here. Google, Twitter, Amazon and Facebook are also protesting. On my home page on Twitter, I count 14 tweets about SOPA that have come through in the last 10 minutes and the number will only continue to grow as the day goes on. Today is a big day for social media researchers. It will be interesting to observe how each site protests. For example, Google is protesting by censoring their logo. Wikipedia is making all of their English pages dark. This protest/blackout will give scholars and researchers a firsthand look at just how powerful and influential Internet site owners can be. Will the protest be successful or will it just cause Internet users to be frustrated with the sites? Do you agree with the protest or not?