After an entire day of #SOPASTRIKE on the web, joined by giants like Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, Google, WordPress, Mozilla, and many others, the discussion over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is still far from coming to an end.

Wednesday January 18, a large number of sites voluntarily blacked out for 24 hours – from 8 am to 8 pm EST – while other sites, as a sign of solidarity, featured anti-SOPA content on their home pages to protest against this controversial anti-piracy bill considered by opponents a real threat to internet freedom.

The SOPA strike was the largest online protest in the history of the Internet, “Nothing like this has ever happened before,” commented Fight For the Future, a non-profit that helped organize the virtual strike.

“This is the biggest online protest in history, and it’s no wonder,” said Holmes Wilson, co-founder of Fight For The Future. “Internet users have grown up around the abuse of copyright laws to punish political speech, creativity, and successful businesses. So the thought of giving rightsholders the power to erase entire sites from the web is horrifying to us.”

Millions of people defending the online community and its right to freedom of speech and expression, joined together both online and offline with the aim of pushing Congress to block the bill. Protestors were meeting up for street rallies in various American cities as New York and San Francisco and gathering in front of senators offices to make their voice heard.

The unprecedented online protest which has caught the attention of the world was sparked by an anti-piracy legislation that could change the Internet as we know it. In fact, the impact and the consequences of SOPA, and its related Senate bill PIPA (PROTECT IP Act), could be tragic for web users’ freedom of speech, for businesses, for users’ online privacy as for the nature of the Internet itself.

As stated by Laurence H. Tribe, a Harvard University professor of constitutional law, in an open letter on the web, SOPA “would undermine the openness and free exchange of information at the heart of the Internet. And it would violate the First Amendment.”

Also the Obama administration expressed skepticism over SOPA in an online statement released Saturday January 14, “While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet.”

Moreover, the consequences of SOPA could go beyond the United States, triggering a global chain reaction as pointed out on November 2011 in an article of Cynthia Wong, director of the Project on Global Internet Freedom at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

“If SOPA and PIPA are enacted, the US government must be prepared for other governments to follow suit, in service to whatever social policies they believe are important—whether restricting hate speech, insults to public officials, or political dissent,” wrote Wong.

In spite of all the criticism, the unprecedented SOPA online protest, and the growing opposition it has roused, the Stop Online Piracy Act has not stopped its track yet. The debate is to be continued and the vote, even if delayed once again, is still on the Congress’ agenda, presumably for February.

The vote on the PIPA legislation is scheduled for January 24 but public opinion and that of the senators is still split, and controversy is far from over. What is sure is that next weeks will be crucial – for the future of internet.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/phillipstearns/

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Zfere Holdings (www.zfere.com) on January 18 unveiled its much awaited social commerce platform in conjunction with the Nationwide SOPA Blackout.  Zfere Holdings CEO Steve Vanderbol stated, “We chose to unveil our platform today as an example of the technologies which soon may not be available within the US Market due to these misguided and draconian proposals, should they pass into law.”

Zfere’s social commerce platform features tactile technology which enables a user to simply “touch to find” any product, good or service available at a local level from any picture, movie or IPTV content viewed within the integrated media player or social media console.

The platform also allows seamless interaction with up to sixteen social media networks through a single point interface on any mobile device currently running the Android or Apple mobile operating systems.  As part of its offerings, the company also manages a peer to peer bandwidth sharing network as well as personal data cloud services for its members in addition to a comprehensive business management and marketing suite geared towards small to medium sized businesses.

“From its inception, our social commerce platform was designed to empower people and to encourage them to cut the cord, go mobile, get out in the real world, share their experiences across social media platforms and other communications technologies so they could experience their local and regional worlds more deeply; often to the benefit of their ‘Main Street’ businesses.

We all recognize that these local businesses are the core of jobs creation and need the most support in this economic climate.  It’s rather ironic that at a time when this country needs emerging technological resources the most, is when proposals such as these, which could potentially remove economy building technologies from the US Market are being contemplated.”  Mr. Vanderbol added.

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Coinciding with the SOPA Blackout date, in which encyclopedia giant Wikipedia blacked out its webpage, the NY and NJ Tech groups met up in Midtown Manhattan to peacefully protest against SOPA and PIPA.

Held at the small plaza at the door step of Senator’s Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand, several hundred members of New York City’s thriving technology community arrived to show support against the passing of SOPA, PIPA and to encourage Occupy Wall Street sentiments.

The Meetup, which lasted a little more than an hour, was held despite cold windy weather community leaders as well as executives from Reddit and Tumblr were on hand to speak out against this outrage. Billed as the death of creativity and the end of the internet as the modern world knows it, members of the Meetup are saying the ambiguous nature of the PIPA and SOPA acts leaves plenty of loopholes for governments to over extend their jurisdiction over the content that Domestic U.S citizens see.

Despite a somewhat slow build up of people at the beginning, the Meetup was in full swing with protesters inside and outside the cordoned area’s of 780 Third Avenue. The NYPD were on hand to keep the peace as well as clear the walkways despite the large amount of people who filled the sidewalks.

People from all over the tri-state area arrived to find that the police parade barricades did not help contain all of the protesters and some people needed to stand away from the demonstration itself. As opposed to Occupy Wall Street, which had a starting march that arrived to the protesting location, the NY Tech Meetup today was designated to start and finish in one location. Protesters brought homemade signs and, despite chilly temperatures, held them up proudly for the entire time of the protest itself.

Protesters stood in front of the restaurants, on street furniture and in large crowds to hear the words of the speakers that would confirm their hopes and fears. Early on in the meeting, it was plainly put by Andrew Rasiej, chairman of New York Tech Meetup and protest leader, that as a group they opposed any and all kinds of piracy, but that the government was misguided in their attempts to end internet piracy.

His fears were expressed in his plea of words to congress regarding free speech and the end of innovation. Among speakers attending was Executive Vice President Andrew Mclaughlin of Tumblr, who was one of the designated speakers of the event. He was quite vocal about the power of the internet which is certainly no surprise given the meteoric rise of Tumblr in the last few years. Mclaughlin went on to say this to protesters:

“The internet works because it’s a democracy, the internet works because its voluntary people working together to make the internet flow.” He went on to say that the internet and the New York Tech scene in particular is a vital part of our economy, providing jobs and empowering people all over the world.

Similar sentiments were echoed by other speakers expressing the rise of entrepreneurship due to the internet as a valuable reason not to pass SOPA and PIPA. Another one of these notable speakers is co-founder of Reddit.com, Alexis Ohanian. He passionately decried the passing of these acts, saying:

“We are here fighting the wholesale destruction of one of the healthiest parts of America’s economy.”

He went on to ask the crowd, most of who was working in the tech industry today, which of their current companies was still hiring. By a large scale, almost everyone attending the Meetup raised their hands, giving credence to Ohanian’s belief that SOPA and PIPA would further stagger the American economy.

Ohanian also lamented the U.S governments’ loss of focus, citing more serious issues such as the budget deficit and unemployment as a better use of the currently allotted resources for the SOPA and PIPA funding. Though not in attendance, there was mention of several senators and political figures who are currently against the passing of SOPA and PIPA.

Chief among them is Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas and Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas. With arriving support from Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Republican Representative Lee Terry of Nebraska and Republican Representative Ben Quayle of Arizona support seems to finally be swinging in favor of the Tech Industry and the NY Tech Protesters.

Despite varying proposals for how to better reshape the SOPA and PIPA acts, there remains a firm interest from the MPAA and RIAA to continually convince Congress to keep things in favor of the entertainment industry. In the face of such odds, the protesters at this NY Tech Meetup have hope that SOPA and PIPA will not pass.

There is a faith in democracy that remains unshakable and as sure as there are people working in the Tech Industry, there will be voices challenging the wisdom of bills such as SOPA and PIPA.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/phillipstearns/

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