Google stop SOPA graphic
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Search engine giant Google announced plans to throw its hat into the January 18 SOPA strike ring by placing a protest link on its home page.

According to Bloomberg, Google spokeswoman Samantha Smith said, "We oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet."

Online news magazine The Raw Story also announced today that it will blackout its website from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST in support of the SOPA protest.
"Going dark is a radical step for an online-only news organization, and it is one that Raw Story's management doesn't take lightly. It wasn't easy to tell our reporters and editors to take time off tomorrow and pretend that the news isn't happening. But we'd rather tell them to take tomorrow easy and come back twice as strong on Thursday than have to tell them later that the government pulled the plug on our whole organization because of SOPA/PIPA..." - Roxanne Cooper, Raw Story publisher
Jimmy Wales, co-founder of online encyclopedia giant, Wikipedia, said his website will go one better than the rest by shutting the English language version of his site down for the entire 24 hours on Wednesday.

And the strike appears justified.

Despite articles which have appeared claiming that the controversial legislation had been "shelved," House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Lamar Smith (R-Texas), sent out a press release today stating that he expects to resume markup of SOPA in February.
"Due to the Republican and Democratic retreats taking place over the next two weeks, markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act is expected to resume in February. I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property." - Lamar Smith, House Judiciary Committee Chairman