Roger Yu and Jon Swartz | Jan 19

USA Today [1] - Internet community cheers power of protest

Score one for tech geeks up in arms.

The Internet community's rallying cry against anti-piracy legislation had its intended effect of grabbing the nation's attention Wednesday, though the final outcome remains far from settled.

Technology companies staged an online blackout to protest two related bills that would crack down on websites that use copyrighted materials and sell counterfeit goods.

Starting at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, hundreds of websites went dark or displayed banners protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate's similar bill, known as the Protect IP Act.

Between noon and 4 p.m. Wednesday, Twitter said there were 2.4 million tweets related to the pair of bills that Internet and new media companies say threaten innovation and freedom of speech on the Web. Google says more than 4.5 million people signed its petition online protesting the legislation as word spread to casual Web users who may not have previously paid attention.

"It's a long boxing match," says Ethan Zuckerman, director of the Center for Civic Media at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Grass-roots organizers and tech companies "did an excellent job making the point clear. But I'm not ready to declare (the legislation) dead. It's wounded."