Yesterday the wildly popular on-line encyclopedia site Wikipedia went black to protest the Protect IP Act known as "PIPA" and its companion House version "SOPA"-the Stop Online Piracy Act.
The bills have generated a lot of controversy. Companies like Google, and Craigslist have raised concerns that the bills would fundamentally change the internet and result in government censorship.
On the other side, large media companies and the Motion Picture Association say the bills are the only hope to stop online piracy of copyrighted material.
Senator Patrick Leahy introduced PIPA in the senate. Speaking with VPR’s Mitch Wertlieb, the Senator was not impressed with the self-imposed blackout by Wikipedia, and says the concerns he’s heard from that site, Google, Facebook and others, are unfounded based on what his bill really aims to accomplish.
Click listen to hear the interview.