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Depending on where you stand, President Obama either showed tremendous courage when he distanced himself from SOPA and PIPA--or a complete lack of it.

Last Saturday, the White House announced it would not support important provisions of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, the anti-piracy bills being debated in the House and Senate. The legislation would make it easier for the federal government to block access to overseas sites accused of piracy. Much of the tech sector opposes the bills.

Where Hollywood is concerned, though, the president's stand is nothing short of a betrayal. And … Read more

If you're active on Twitter, it's almost impossible to imagine that you got through today without being bombarded by mentions of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) or the Protect IP Act (PIPA), two controversial antipiracy bills under consideration in Congress.

But with today being the day that Web sites like Wikipedia, BoingBoing, Reddit, and many others went dark--not to mention Google and others that featured less drastic forms of anti-legislation protest--it was striking to see just how much issue dominated the conversation on Twitter.

On Tuesday, for example, there were approximately 106,500 mentions of the term &… Read more

With sites like Reddit, BoingBoing, PostSecret, and I Can Has Cheezburger blacked out today in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, you might think this would be a peaceful, relaxed Wednesday for the people who run them. You'd be wrong.

All across the Internet, sites like those and many others stood up to register their opposition to SOPA and PIPA. But for some of those who have gotten the most attention for their activism, today has actually been crazier than usual, despite not having to constantly update their publications all day.

"Today … Read more

A widespread Internet protest against Hollywood-backed copyright legislation has knocked some U.S. Senate Web sites intermittently offline.

Around 11 a.m. PT today, the rush of visitors looking for ways to contact their members of Congress overwhelmed several Web pages of individual senators. As CNET reported this morning, some sponsors of the Protect IP and the Stop Online Piracy Act have switched sides as a result of the protest.

The amount of traffic "temporarily shut down our Web site," Sen. Ron Wyden, the leading opponent of the Protect IP Act, wrote on Twitter.

By noon PT, the … Read more

We've put it off long enough, and today we'll finally spend time discussing Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an incendiary bill written by Texas Congressman Lamar Smith that would effectively put an end to any Web site that would "steal America's innovative and creative products, attract more than 53 billion visits a year, and threaten more than 19 million American jobs."… Read more

An unprecedented online protest against a Hollywood-backed copyright bill may be working: some of its previous supporters in the U.S. Congress are backing down.

The protest, which included a Wikipedia blackout and home page alerts at Google.com and Amazon.com, has prompted some senators contacted by CNET today to abandon their earlier enthusiasm for Protect IP and the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. A Senate floor vote on Protect IP is scheduled for January 24.

"I'm withdrawing my co-sponsorship for the Protect IP Act," said Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican.

Sen. John Boozman, … Read more

NEW YORK--Perhaps as many as two thousand people gathered in Midtown Manhattan today to protest antipiracy legislation being considered by Congress, legislation that they say will silence the Internet.

"What does democracy look like?" organizers shouted to the crowd.

"This is what democracy looks like," came the response.

Indeed, those that gathered were part of a new tech-focused twist on the democratic process. Internet companies across the country flexed their political muscles today, rallying Web users to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.

Not only was the crowd largely informed of … Read more

One of America's most respected newspapers has come out on the side of copyright owners by supporting a controversial antipiracy legislation, which the technology sector has sworn to defeat.

The Wall Street Journal's editorial section today published a piece called "Brake the Internet Pirates." The paper said that the creative industries are being threatened by abusers "who hijack [the Internet's] architecture." The Journal wrote that regardless of what critics say, that is all the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would do.

"SOPA merely adapts the current avenues of legal recourse for infringement … Read more

Three of the Internet's most popular destinations--Google, Wikipedia, and Craigslist--launched an audacious experiment in political activism this evening by urging their users to protest a pair of Hollywood-backed copyright laws.

Wikipedia's English-language pages went completely black at 9 p.m. PT, with a splash page saying "the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet." The online encyclopedia's blackout, intended to precede next week's Senate floor vote on the legislation, is scheduled to last 24 hours.

Craigslist and Google have taken a more modest approach. Unlike Wikipedia, … Read more