Websites Wikipedia, Reddit, Others Go Dark Wednesday to Protest SOPA, PIPA

I don't normally get animated about bills like this because by the time they get passed they are so watered down that they cannot be enforced.  However, I don't think that will be the case with SOPA and PIPA, both bills have backings from large industries who are basically struggling to survive. 

Do not try to look up "Internet Censorship" or "SOPA" or "PIPA" on Wikipedia, the giant online encyclopedia, on Wednesday. SOPA and PIPA are two bills in Congress meant to stop the illegal copying and sharing of movies and music on the Internet, but major Internet companies say the bills would put them in the impossible position of policing the online world. 

The biggest issue I see with these bills is how it will embrace anti-competition processes.  In the early days one of the quickest ways to get to the top was to make sure your competition wasn't there.  Sometimes that ment attacking the company physically or creating campaigns that targeted that company to ensure the public would no longer trust them.  

With SOPA or PIPA there isn't anything to stop, say a rival hardware review site, from saying that their competition is pirating, log a complain and basically get that site blocked and or taken down without any recourse for appeal.  I believe that is one of the issues still being discussed but it still brings up questions as to how far the bills will go to police the internet. 

The story goes on to mention that the source of the piracy isn't always within the US but from foreign countries who find it easy to copy and redistribute US based software and technology.  Sadly those are who need to be targeted and a US internet bill wouldn't apply.

Related Web URL: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wikipedia-blackou...