Grass roots opposition from the anti-censorship left and the anti-regulation right, the lobbying muscle of a startled tech industry, and a nuanced and surprisingly critical response from Obama administration have drastically altered the momentum of the anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA as they march through Congress. Still, sites as diverse as Boing Boing, Wikipedia and Google are all continuing their efforts to alert the public to the dangerous elements of these bills, which, in their attempt to thwart pirating of intellectual property, dangerously tamper with internet architecture and loosen free speech protections. Wikipedia and Boing Boing go dark today while Google’s logo is black-barred, leading to a message titled “End Piracy, Not Liberty.” On this designated “Internet Blackout Day,” I thought I’d repost a video by Kirby Ferguson, one of Filmmaker‘s 2011 “25 New Faces,” which lays out the position of those opposed to these bills.

Protect IP Act Breaks the Internet from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.