Google has joined the protest movement against the U.S. bill seeking to combat piracy in the network (known as SOPA and PIPA) because they serve to censor the Internet and that will not stop illegal downloads.  As an anti-SOPA protest, Google has put a censored version of its logo for U.S. users.

A growing movement in the tech sphere

More than 10,000 Web sites have joined the protest today, including Wikipedia, WordPress, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Mozilla and others, speaking out against cyber SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), as amended by the Congress and the PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act), and as amended by the Senate.

Google has stated on its official blog that the initiative will not end the pirate sites, because they “simply change their addresses to continue their criminal activity.”

Google’s SVP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, writes his company’s view on SOPA and PIPA:

“These bills would grant new powers to law enforcement to filter the Internet and block access to tools to get around those filters…. These bills would make it easier to sue law-abiding U.S. companies. Law-abiding payment processors and Internet advertising services can be subject to these private rights of action….These bills wouldn’t get rid of pirate sites. Pirate sites would just change their addresses in order to continue their criminal activities.”

In addition to publicly displaying their opposition to this bill, Google has asked the Internet to show their oppugnancy to this initiative by signing a manifesto against the proposed law.

Wikipedia, WordPress, and others join Google

The initiative ‘Web goes on strike’ (The network will strike) has promoted a ‘blackout’ for one of the Internet’s most-visited sites, Wikipedia.  Instead of encyclopedia articles, visitors saw a black page with message: “Imagine a World without Free Knowledge. For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.”

*Subsequently, if you need to access Wikipedia content during the blackout you can try their mobile site, head to their Simple English version, or disable Javascript on your web browser.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp. and one of the world’s biggest media tycoons, published some allegations on Twitter against President Obama over the White House’s stance on the anti-piracy bills.

“Big bipartisan majorities both houses sold out by POTUS for search engines. How about 2.2 m workers in entertainment industry? Piracy rules,” Murdoch tweeted.

On the home page of WordPress’ site you can see a number of prominent blogs with the word ‘censored’ on them. However, WordPress has not blocked any of its partner sites, but the owners of the blogs who joined the cause decided to close their sites as well.

WordPress and Wikipedia are characterized by maintaining a neutral position because of their rules of not issuing opinions on political issues. However, this time the reason was so strong that they felt the need to truly make an impactful statement to the world.

A mobile movement too

Androidapps.com has also joined the campaign. The site has advised to users to express their opinion in the continued health and freedom of the Internet at americancensorship.org. Others in the mobile industry are doing their part, including a developer that’s pushed a free Android app, Boycott SOPA, to help users avoid SOPA-supporting businesses. The app will scan bar codes to help identify if products are either created by or intimately related to SOPA-supporting companies.

CloudFlare, the cloud-based service designed to speed up websites, has developed a protest-blackout app to protect against the piracy act by joining the app and to raise awareness about the dangers of a law like SOPA/PIPA.

The U.S. House to resume SOPA debate in February

The U.S. House of Representatives has shelved its controversial Stop Online Piracy Act for some time amid strong opposition by many companies and organizations in the tech industry. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX), the man that introduced the bill, has announced the delay of the bill for at least a month.

“To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America’s intellectual property, we will continue to bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat online piracy,” Smith said in a statement.

“I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property.”

The US government hasn’t stopped from moving the SOPA and PIPA bill forward, but public pressure have at least slowed down the legislators down for a while.