Google loves to play with their logo on http://www.google.com, especially around holidays and other important calendar days. Well, today I was shocked when I went to Google and saw a black sensor bar over their logo (Google logo is back to normal. View image below to see what it was.). At first I thought the page had loaded incorrectly, then realized it wasn’t when I read the alt text when mousing over the black censor bar, “Tell Congress: Please Don’t Censor the Web!”
Image of Google's logo on Jan 18, 2012 from http://www.google.com
When you click on the link you are sent to a pdf poster of what Google is trying to accomplish, which is to get Google users (and there’s a lot of them) to sign a petition that will stop two bills being presented in congress and the senate. Those bills are SOPA and PIPA (SOPA and PIPA explained here), and they are both meant to protect IP (intellectual property) by stopping piracy through censorship of the web. Google says that there are other, better ways of stopping piracy websites and that SOPA and PIPA will harm online business and stunt economic growth.
Image of the PDF poster from Google
So here’s the real question, will you sign the petition?
Want more clarification on SOPA and PIPA? Watch this video.
