Blacked Out A screen capture of Wikipedia's page on the day of the blackout, containing information about SOPA and PIPA as well as ways to contact your representative. - Zac Mantooth Thursday, January 26, 2012 By Zac Mantooth Advertising Many students were surprised online last week on January 18th, as they went to sites such as Google, Wikipedia, and Imgur. They found some of their most used sites had been “blacked out.” Some sites had minor aesthetic changes, like the censor bar on Google’s home screen, while others shut down completely, like Wikipedia. These were not errors, but actions of protest against legislation that could potentially, as author and journalist Corey Doctorow warned, threaten the free internet as we know it. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are the laws being heatedly shouted down by the internet at large; from search engines and blogs, to popular web comic and picture sites which all gave information about the problem and ways to contact your representative. But what are these bills? As tech journalist Larry Madgid describes it, these bills are meant to make it harder for sites, foreign sites in particular, to distribute pirated material and counterfeit goods, ranging from movies and music to physical things such as purses. While foreign sites cannot be shutdown by the US, this bill would make those accused disable the ability to access the content from within the United States. However, according to Madgid, security experts and anti-malware companies warn that this may ruin the architecture of the internet, ironically cause security gaps.   While changes are said to be planned, the fate of this legislation is uncertain. The outrage of many denizens of the internet were met with much approval for the legislation from the entertainment industry, who has a vested interested in keeping their commodities from being pirated.

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