Article by George Norman

On 18 Jan 2012

Here is an update on yesterday’s article on the fight against SOPA, article that focused mainly on the fact that Wikipedia and other sites will take part in a scheduled blackout to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and on the fact that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said that “closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.”




Mozilla, the non-profit organization behind the Firefox browser, confirmed that it will take part in the scheduled blackout. On the 18th of January 2012, starting at 8:00 AM Eastern time, Mozilla will black out the default start page in Firefox (see image below) and it will redirect key Mozilla websites to a special action page.



Global Privacy and Public Policy Leader at Mozilla, Alex Fowler explained that “both steps are aimed at informing and mobilizing millions of our users on this important issue.” He added that “this campaign will not effect people’s experience with Firefox, however, we hope it raises awareness and engagement.” At 8:00PM Eastern, Mozilla will end the campaign and will restore the default Firefox start page and stop redirecting traffic.

Mountain View-based search engine giant Google is joining the protest against SOPA as well. As you may already know, Google changes its logo to honor various special occasions; check out this site to view the special doodle’s Google has used so far. Google will not blackout its site though – to show its support for the fight against SOPA, it will post a special Google doodle. Check it out below.



Click the doodle and you will be directed to a SOPA/PIPA landing page that says the following:
“Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.
Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.
The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.”

Moving on to Redmond-based software giant Microsoft, until now the company has failed to present an official statement on where it stands in regards to SOPA. We now have official confirmation that Microsoft is indeed against SOPA (all along, the rumor on the web was that Microsoft is against SOPA).

Here’s Microsoft’s official statement:
“We oppose the passage of the SOPA bill as currently drafted. We think the White House statement points in a constructive way to problems with the current legislation, the need to fix them, and the opportunity for people on all sides to talk together about a better path forward.”

As you can see, Wikipedia, Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft are against SOPA – and they are not the only one. Many other sites have announced that they will join the scheduled blackout and protest against SOPA. This includes Minecraft, Craigslist, Boing Boing, Wordpress, Reddit, TwitPic, Ars Technica, EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), Scribd and Schneier on Security. A list of sites that will take part in the protest against SOPA is available here.

If you’re wondering why SOPA is bad, check out the video below.



Update: even 9GAG joined the protest against SOPA. The "Just for fun" site is black to show its support for the fight against SOPA.





Tags: Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Wikipedia, SOPA

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