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ARTICLE · 25 JANUARY 2012

Historic Web Blackouts Catapult SOPA Into Headlines

Foley Hoag LLP
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The tide may be changing in the controversy over SOPA and PROTECT IP (or "PIPA"), the anti-piracy bills that have been making their way through, respectively, the House and the Senate in recent months.

United StatesIntellectual Property
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The tide may be changing in the controversy over SOPA and PROTECT IP (or "PIPA"), the anti-piracy bills that have been making their way through, respectively, the House and the Senate in recent months. Yesterday's unprecedented 24-hour global blackout of the English Wikipedia site in protest of the legislation and the new enforcement powers it would create has acted as a lightning rod for public attention. In concert with Wikipedia, Google ran a "censored" version of its logo on its home page yesterday, with a plea to users to contact their legislators, and many other popular sites displayed blacked-out screens together with information about the bills. Wikipedia reports today that SOPA was featured in a quarter-million Tweets per hour during the blackout.

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