Websites Participating in Anti-SOPA Protests By Beau Iverson  [16 more lists]

The Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA is a bill that has been brought before the House of Representatives. A similar bill, the Protect IP Act (or PIPA), has been brought before the Senate. What SOPA or Protect IP propose, in essence, is that sites that actively pirate films, TV shows or music be blocked by your Internet Service Provider. In addition, any site that promotes a pro-piracy attitude by including links or mentions to sites that provide piracy could be sued to have the incriminating links removed. Since the wording on the bill is so vague, there's a real chance that already established sites like Youtube, Facebook and AOL could fall prey to the new censorship law.

In protest to this, many sites have taken it on themselves to promote Anti-SOPA information and guides on how to stop the act from passing. Pushback from Internet and technology companies, as well as Internet users, has been considerable, leading to delays in the SOPA and PIPA votes. (Senator Patrick Leahy, one of the initial sponsors of the PIPA bill, has already come forward to say that he thinks it should be amended before being brought to a vote.) Nevertheless, a variety of websites have vowed to go black on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 in protest, and to raise awareness among users of the legislation and the impact it could have on the openness of the Web. Below is a list of websites that participated in an initial ""Anti-SOPA Day"" and the January 18th ""blackout"" protest.