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If you didn’t notice Google’s somber mood a couple of days ago, you’re not online enough. Google, along with many other Internet companies, darkened their home pages to protest two pieces of legislation that will put a chill on Internet innovation.  One bill is being pushed as a Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) while the other is the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Free Internet

The Internet has always had a premise of being a free place to congregate with little censorship. Internet companies protesting the acts state that these two bills would essentially establish censorship online, and making the democratic Internet zone more akin to a dictatorship ruled by government agencies. These agencies would have the power to filter out content on the web and also keep tools that would unfilter content away from the public. At issue are trademark and copyright infringements that should be shut down, but usually is done only after due process is served. With the establishment of these two bills, the government agency can shut a site down first and ask questions later.

SOPA and PIPA are also being blamed for bringing more litigation into the World Wide Web by allowing the government to sue them arbitrarily. Internet payment processors that are competing with banks are finding themselves squarely at the center of the government’s cross hairs. Despite the name, Internet businesses argue that they won’t deter website piracy acts. It will only slow them down as pirates set up other IP addresses to do their bad deeds.

Other Options

Google has argued that a better approach to stopping online piracy is to block funding for foreign or domestic sites that are found to engage in that behavior. This would limit the amount of censorship for law-abiding sites, while targeting pirate sites where it hurts the most: In their pocketbooks. Google has put its own money on the line by investing $60 million in the fight against rogue sites. In the end, if the government does approve SOPA and PIPA, many website companies will have plenty to fear as they wake up one morning to find their own sites not available online anymore. To call attention to the urgency to act now to stop these bills from passing Congress, numerous other online companies are their pages to draw attention to their plight.