Canadians Join Internet Strike Against SOPA

U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act awakens dissenting Canadians

January 18, 2012— Pro-Internet organization OpenMedia.ca is joining groups in the U.S. and Canada in darkening its website, in an effort to raise awareness about upcoming American legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). OpenMedia.ca joins domain registrar Tucows, Identi, and Internet law expert Michael Geist in so doing.

OpenMedia.ca is also providing an online tool that allows Canadians to join their U.S. counterparts, and millions of people worldwide, in speaking out against controversial censorship bills.

SOPA is a U.S. bill designed to block websites based offshore that peddle illegal content, but many groups and prominent websites—including Wikipedia, Google, Amazon, and Reddit—argue that it would fundamentally reshape the Internet for the worse.

SOPA contains provisions that would give the American government and private corporations the ability to force ISPs to cripple any website that they allege has made use of copyrighted materials. SOPA would also force websites like Google, Wikipedia, or Reddit to block links to content that they suspect may be copyrighted.

According to online rights group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the U.S. legislation:

..would grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet's underlying infrastructure. The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to block users' attempts to reach certain websites' URLs... the blacklist bills' provisions would give corporations and other private parties new powers to censor foreign websites with court orders that would cut off payment processors and advertisers.

Those foreign websites include ones found in Canada. Michael Geist warns that “Canadian businesses and websites could easily find themselves targeted by SOPA.” Canadian Internet users and online innovators have a lot to lose if SOPA is passed. The bill could threaten the open Internet in the U.S., Canada, and the rest of the world.

Canadians can take a stand against SOPA here: http://openmedia.ca/sopa

About OpenMedia.ca

OpenMedia.ca is a non-profit organization that safeguards the open and affordable Internet. The group works towards informed & participatory digital policy.

Contact

Lindsey Pinto
Communications Manager, OpenMedia.ca
778-238-7710
lindsey@openmedia.ca