As thousands of websites nationwide went dark Wednesday in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act, many major companies voiced their opposition. Here in Rockland County, several local Internet/web-related companies also share the same feelings.

The legislation has raised concerns about censorship of the Internet. SOPA would give the government to shut down entire web domains suspected of online piracy. More details of the protest can be found here. 

Amped Media of West Nyack offers website and computer services.

"I'm definitely against it. I don't think it's going to help the Internet in any way," said Amped Media Owner Michael Khekoian. "The worst part is that they're not trying to think of anything unique to streamline. They say it's only for foreign websites, but if you look at the bill, it's on our forefront and they're going to penalize people here too."

Khekoian said he doesn't agree with this legislation because it "doesn't follow the rules of a traditional court system. The government can take something down without a trial or investigation. That's not the direction the Internet should go in.

Owned by Andrew Kardon and Jeff Grossman, JoeShopping, Inc. of Nanuet is a website that does the legwork to online shopping for consumers.

To speak out against this legislation, JoeShopping.com has a banner at the top asking people to sign a Google petition to stop SOPA and PIPA. On its Facebook page, there is also a post opposing this legislation.

Rockland Web Design Owner Thomas Ossa feels that this legislation will not work. Rockland Web Design is based in Stony Point and has a team of graphic desingers, programmers and content management specialists that offers different Internet services.

"I think that it's good that the government is trying to find ways to protect the creativity of various businesses and artists, however, this is not the way to do it," said Ossa. "Both SOPA and PIPA are organized in a way that reduces the free speech capability of your average website owner."

"I'm very compassionate about this. My feeling is that the current legislation should be completely dropped," Ossa added. "However, if a new version of legislation—that is balanced in its protection of both creative artists and website owners—is created, that would be great. I do admit it's not an easy balance though."

Khekoian said he doesn't feel that those passing this legislation understand the Internet world enough to forsee a very possible and negative outcome.

"They just have very old guys sitting there talking about things," he added. "It's all about money for them. There's no innovation."

Khekoian and Ossa both feel that if this legislation passes, piracy will still continue.

"No, there's always a way around it," said Ossa. "You can still get to a website using a person's ip address rather than their domain name. It's just one of many ways for pirate websites to remain active."