Today, for 12 hours, reddit.com goes dark to raise awareness of two bills in congress – H.R.3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" and S.968 "PROTECT IP" – which could radically change the landscape of the Internet. These bills provide overly broad mechanisms for enforcement of copyright which would restrict innovation and threaten the existence of websites with user-submitted content, such as reddit.
Please take today as a day of focus and action to learn about these destructive bills and do what you can to prevent them from becoming reality.
SOPA is the "Stop Online Piracy Act" in Congress that aims to curtail copyright infringement on the Internet from foreign and domestic websites, as well as to prevent prescription drugs from being purchased illegally online.
PIPA is the "PROTECT IP Act" in the Senate that is similar to SOPA in its goal to reduce copyright infringement online, but there are no penalties for unwarranted accusations against a website.