S’pore startup Zopim joins anti-SOPA protest

Updated: 18th January

Zopim, a Singapore-based startup that integrates non-intrusive instant messaging functionality into websites (see interview), has joined the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) — a controversial proposed bill in the US that aims to curb online piracy but runs the risk of destroying Internet innovation.

According to their blog post, Zopim will protest against SOPA by “offering new and existing customers a 40% discount code and donating 10% of all such proceeds to the Electronic Frontier Foundation“, a donor-funded nonprofit dedicated to defending freedom of speech in the Internet space.

They have also changed all their default (orange) chat bubbles to black for one day (ending 18th January, 11:59pm PST). Blacking out the entire site is not an option for them, since they have a responsibility to customers to ensure that their service is working all the time.

This is in addition to their recent move of ditching domain name registrar Go Daddy for rival NameCheap. GoDaddy was a proponent of SOPA, but soon reversed their stance when customers boycotted the company.

So far, the widespread resistance against SOPA seems to be working: The bill will not be brought up in the US House of Representatives, although the Protect IP Act (PIPA), a similar bill, might still see action in the Senate.

SGE, in a recent article, has also spoken up against the bill, highlighting that Singapore’s Law Minister is also mulling similar anti-piracy measures but enacting a SOPA-like bill would kill innovation in Singapore and the region.