Reddit and other groups plan SOPA protests- extended interview

The Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act have sparked outrage around the internet because of vague language and the powers the laws give to internet service providers to police content.  Now, popular online communities are fighting to get their voices heard.  FSRN’s Brad Kutner has the story.

Reddit, an online community and link aggregator that boasts about 2 billion page views a month, will shut down for 12 hours next Wednesday, January 18th.  Part of a growing protest, Reddit was urged by its own users to go black and spread awareness about 2 copyright bills going before congress, SOPA and PIPA.  Opponents say the acts use broad definitions to turn using everyday web tools into illegal acts of copyright infringement that could force a website to be shut down or censored.  For websites like Reddit, which rely heavily on user-generated content, it could black them out for good.  Erik Martin,General Manager of Reddit, said the free flow of information the internet allows would be impossible under the new legislation. "We get millions of page views a day, there's 10's of thousands of people on the site at any given time.  It is impossible to filter and police that kind of user generated content for all of these possible infringements." The hacktivist group Anonymous has promised to black out their communications in similar fashion.  Other websites such as Google and Facebook have hinted at taking similar action to spread awareness of the proposed bills.  Brad Kutner, FSRN, Richmond.