 censoring the internet two bills have been introduced in congress with the intention of protecting intellectual property rights of artists moviemakers and musicians from online piracy the protect ip act pipa introduced in the senate is supposed to stop the copying of movies music books etc online a similar bill was introduced in the house the stop online piracy act sopa the senate has a procedural vote scheduled for pipa on its 2012 agenda although preventing internet piracy sounds like a worthwhile effort opponents say it is actually internet censorship what unintended consequences lurk behind these bills what will this mean to the ideal of an open internet see this article from abc news for more details  abcnewsgocom technology internetcensorshipsopapipabillscongresswebsitesdar story for an indepth discussion of internet censorship read how internet censorship works at  computerhowstuffworkscom internetcensorshiphtm 