News
Jan 17, 2012

Mozilla Redirecting Start Page for PIPA and SOPA

With all of the hype being generated about SOPA and PIPA, Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, there have been a ton of huge outbursts with many of the major companies (both positive and negative).

One of the world's leading internet browsers, Firefox, are about to change the whole debate and flip it over once again, positively of course. According to their recent press release one of Mozilla's press partners have sent us, they plan on redirecting their main Mozilla.com/org pages for twelve hours to protest SOPA and PIPA, but not only are they redirecting one of the most hit websites in the world, they are also changing the default look of the Firefox startup page for tens of millions to see that SOPA and PIPA are just out right wrong.

View their full press release below:

In support of the virtual strike to protest Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Mozilla will be doing two things: Mozilla is redirecting traffic from the main Mozilla.org and Mozilla.com English websites to an action page for 12 hours on Wednesday, January 18th from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm US Eastern Time. Mozilla is also changing the look of the default Firefox start page so that the tens of millions of Firefox users will see a black page with a call to action message to increase awareness of PIPA/SOPA, rather than the traditional white page with the Firefox logo. (The search functionality will in no way be altered by this action.) We hope the blackout of our US sites will help bring attention to this important issue and encourage users to educate themselves about PIPA and SOPA. All users will still be able to receive security updates and access our technical support website. This will NOT affect Firefox users. The Mozilla project is a global community of people who believe that openness, innovation, and opportunity are key to the continued health of the Internet. These new laws would give the US government and private business incredible censorship powers that would have effects globally, damage the Internet’s security and discourage innovation and investment worldwide. Monica Caires | Senior Account Executive Allison+Partners 505 Sansome 7th Floor | San Francisco, CA 94111 www.allisonpr.com Facebook: Allison+Partners | Twitter: @AllisonPR | YouTube: apwest Blogs: http://allisonandpartners.wordpress.com | http://www.naked-culture.com/ Personal Twitter @MonCaires

We are really hoping other major companies, just like Mozilla, will come out of that cave and defend against these awful laws. I can just picture how much hype the new Firefox default launch page will create; it is going to be massive.

What are your thoughts on SOPA and PIPA? As for us, like many, we are defending against it because we're in the land of the free, home of the brave! I would do anything to protect my rights and privacy.

Stalk me on social media! Any other way would just be creepy…