PIPA/SOPA blackout

Did you get a surprise when you got on the internet this morning?

If you found a blacked out Wiki-pedia or Google home page, it might have been a surprise if you did not know about the PIPA and SOPA protests.

Stop Online Piracy Act in the House of Representatives and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate are written to stop sales of pirated American products. The film and music industry supports the legislation.

Opponents include a number of Internet companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and AOL. They say the bills would hurt the industry and infringe on free–speech rights.

MapLight dot org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

It looks at money’s influence on politics. MapLight looked at campaign contributions from key industry groups to members of the U.S. Senate.

The survey covered the fiscal years of 2005 through 2010. It found that entertainment interest groups in support of PIPA or SOPA gave more than seven times as much to U–S Senators as did Internet interest groups that oppose the legislation.

As an example, Maplight says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has received nearly five times as from entertainment interest groups that support these bills as from Internet interest groups that oppose them.