Wikipedia Going Dark Wednesday to Protest 'Stop Online Piracy Act'

January 17, 2012 via Newsy

It's official: starting at midnight Wednesday, the English-language Wikipedia will drop offline for 24 hours. The reason? To protest SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act working its way through Congress. KNXV has the details: "It's a protest over anti-online piracy bills that Congress is considering. Wikipedia says the bills would make Internet censorship easier. Supporters say the legislation would crack down on online thefts of movies, music, and other content." The English-language version of Wikipedia has more than 16 million registered users, and countless unregistered visitors. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales circulated a warning on Monday via Twitter: "Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!" Speaking of Twitter, not everyone thinks the blackout movement is the right answer. One Twitter user wondered aloud if the microblog service would follow Wikipedia's example and go dark for the day. Twitter CEO Dick Costolo says no way: "Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish." The Next Web agrees, suggesting Wikipedia find an alternative which doesn't lock anyone out of the site: "... why not banners explaining that SOPA is bad and encouraging users to speak out against it. This could be done without the removal of a global resource for those in need of it." Question is, will lawmakers on Capitol Hill even pay attention? Technologizer says, not by themselves, but: "... how would they react if even a small percentage of us who do care about Wikipedia were moved by the blackout to call our congresspeople and voice opposition to SOPA?" Wikipedia is one of several websites blacking out in protest. Reddit, Destructoid and LOLcats archive Cheezburger Network will also go dark at midnight on Wednesday.

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Stop Online Piracy Act

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the reques... Explore this topic

Wikipedia

Wikipedia (IPA: /ˌwikiˈpiːdi.ə/, /ˌwɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/, or /ˌwaɪkiˈpiːdi.ə/ (Audio (U.S.) is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers; the vast majority of its articles can be edited by anyone with access t... Explore this topic

Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales ( /ˈdoʊnəl ˈweɪlz/; born August 7, 1966) is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company. Wales was born in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, where he... Explore this topic

Internet censorship

Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations at the behest of government, regulators, or on their own initiative. Individuals and organizations... Explore this topic

PROTECT IP act

The PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, or PIPA) is a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to "rogue websites dedicated to i... Explore this topic

Anti-piracy

Anti-piracy is a term used to describe countermeasures against maritime piracy but moreoften by some to describe the attempt to prevent copyright infringement, counterfeiting, and other violations of intellectual-property rights. It includes, but is by no means limited to, the... Explore this topic

Twitter

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website, or an application such as Twitterrific. Twitter was founded in March 2006... Explore this topic

Dick Costolo

Dick Costolo is the current CEO of Twitter and was its former COO. He took over as CEO from Evan Williams in October 2010. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Michigan. Costolo became involved in theater during his sophomore year at... Explore this topic

Protest

An act of defiance or objection by an individual or group of people. Protests can take many forms: peaceful or violent, direct or indirect, large or small. Protests in the news are often political in nature, as groups of citizens voice their disagreement or dissatisfaction. Pr... Explore this topic

Internet activism

Internet activism (also known as online organizing, electronic advocacy, cyberactivism, e-campaigning, and e-activism) is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, YouTube, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of ... Explore this topic

Also See

Stop Online Piracy Act

Wikipedia

Jimmy Wales

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