Regardless of what side of the fence you fall on, Wednesday January 18th was a monumental day. The sheer volume of information at our finger tips in this Age of Information was never questioned, nor the speed in which we can communicate globally. But the impact of the anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) online movement will be felt by internet users, writers, artists, and content providers for years to come.

For many, finding nothing more than a message on Wikipedia warning of the dangers of censorship, or a black ribbon on the Google logo came as a surprise. After all, not many people have the time or inclination to read what amounts to 108 pages of pending legislation. When combined with PIPA, the two bills made for a lot of staid reading material full of political-speak. That all changed on Wednesday.

Background

SOPA is legislation that comes on the hills of the Protect I.P. Act (PIPA) already in the Senate. Until Wednesday both bills had received unanimous, bi-partisan support in their respective committees. The objectives of both are similar; to protect content providers against piracy and illegal downloading of information ala the now infamous Napster. SOPA is more comprehensive in its language is the primary difference.

For example, according to movie studios, authors, and other supporters of the bill there are a number of offshore websites that illegally download movies, books, and other content and provide them to their users. Since the companies are offshore, U.S. officials in many respects have their hands tied. That would appear to be a logical objective and one no one would object to it. There are concerns however, and internet users and websites such as Google, Wikipedia and Facebook openly expressed those concerns on Wednesday.

The primary concern regarding SOPA, and by extension PIPA is what opponents believe is very ambiguous language which, if not clarified, leaves the door open for censoring online data. Indeed when Google, Facebook and similar site users expressed those concerns the power of information and instant communication was felt around the globe.

Reaction to the Blackout

Until Wednesday the SOPA had received bipartisan, unanimous support in the House and Senate. With the blackout spreading like wildfire, the impact was felt immediately in Washington, and with startling results. After being inundated with incoming emails some very heavy hitters started to back away from the bill, overwhelmed by the impact.

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida went onto Facebook, one of the leaders of the anti-SOPA movement, to announce he was withdrawing his support for a bill he co-sponsored. Other leading politicos did the same using Facebook, Twitter and other online mediums to now renounce the bills they once championed. By the end of the day, over 30 members of the House and Senate had switched allegiance and echoed their opposition to SOPA.

The final page has yet to be written for the SOPA and PIPA legislation, as both still muster support in their respective legislative bodies. But the anti-SOPA efforts made one thing very clear: the political system in this country will never be the same. That is ultimate lesson learned from the unprecedented uprising of internet users across the globe.