WASHINGTON — A group of adult tube websites have joined today’s national protest against the government’s controversial SOPA initiative that would give the Justice Department power to shut down "rogue" sites that sell or trade pirated materials.
In a show of solidarity, adult tube sites including PornHub, SpankWire and The Big List of Porn among others, joined mainstream Wikipedia which blacked out its website today, by adding stop censorship bars and warning messages on their home pages.
WebProNews reported that Xvideos and XNXX have even directed users to a landing page that announces the blackout and a protest message that reads:
“SOPA and PIPA [the Senate-backed Protect Internet Privacy Act] are laws that would lead to a censored Internet, in the name of copyright protection. You may not have heard about them yet as the big medias are hardly covering the subject because they are all in favor of SOPA. This new set of laws was about the pass silently (less internet = more TV). It would allow copyright holders to shut down any site with user generated content (even just a little as it could be seen facilitating infringements), without due process, and create an American 'Internet blacklist.'"
Once in the site, users are then greeted with a warning message: “Thank you for reading all this, you can continue to our site by clicking anywhere, this time…”
The Big List Of Porn — a directory of pic sites, blogs, aggregators, and porn torrents greyed out every site on their list that could be shut down if SOPA and PIPA were to pass.
The site asked users for their help.
“TBLOP NEEDS YOUR HELP TO STOP SOPA & PIPA! FREE PORN IS IN DANGER OF DISAPPEARING. This is because of two new bills being voted on in the USA, called SOPA and PIPA. If passed, these bills could block or ban most websites. See the list below? The faded sites may soon be gone forever.”
Critics of the measure claim if passed, the bill would stifle free speech, while others believe the government would then be supporting heavily trafficked adult companies trying to protect their content.
But one example where the law could adversely affect adult companies seeking to prevent piracy would be parody films. If enacted, the bill could leave them open to legal action by the original creators.
