Web founder joins global outrage over US' anti-piracy laws 'violating human rights'

London, Jan 19 (ANI): The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has added his voice to the global outrage over a United States' plan to censor the internet, calling it 'undemocratic and violative of human rights'.

As major websites including Wikipedia and Google voluntarily blacked out in a protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect IP, two bills aimed at combating online piracy, Berners Lee urged people to let their feelings be known to block enaction.

"It affects all the stuff on the Internet working, and something which would affect what you want to connect to, where you want to connect to," the Age quoted Sir Tim, as saying.

"If you're in America then you should go and call somebody or send an email to protest against these (censorship) bills because they have not been put together to respect human rights as is appropriate in a democratic country," he added.

High-profile sites such as Yahoo's Flickr photo sharing site, news aggregator Reddit and web browser Mozilla are among a growing number of digital media companies who have banded together to protest the proposed changes in America's copyright legislation.

The US bill to combat online piracy is currently held for "markup" next month, a review that may mean alterations in light of wide-ranging criticism. (ANI)