Wednesday 18 January 2012

The Internet's Blackout Pages And SOPA Protests


Today a lot of Internet sites turn 'black' to protest the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, a controversial bill that has generated national outrage among Internet experts. The first wave of SOPA/PIPA protest pages and full on 'blackouts' began at midnight. These are the pages currently bearing a blackout or prominent protest.

6 comment(s):

Gareth said...

I have no problem with some sites being blacked out in protest, indeed they have my support. I do however have a problem with Wikipedia taking part. Wales told us that Wikipedia was ours, not his. As such it isn't his toy to do with as he will.

If he wants it to be his site he doesn't need us to edit it for him, does he? OTOH if he wants us to provide his content then it isn't his site and he has no right to take it down on a whim.

Dave said...

He needs to stop begging for money, too.

Anand said...

US congress trying to change the meaning of internet which is against the vision of the founder of internet. I believe the basic idea of internet is to share ideas and thoughts without any Restrictions. "Please Do not try to impose a threat to this ocean of knowledge"

The Magus said...

Gareth. Turn off Javascript. Wikipedia is still there. If SOPA and PIPA happen, it won't be.

Custopootimus said...

The decision to black out Wikipedia wasn't made by Wales. Like all changes on Wikipedia, it was put to a community vote. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action#Summary_and_conclusion

Miss Cellania said...

If Wikipedia hadn't taken part, the strike would have barely been noticed by anyone who wasn't already familiar with the SOPA and PIPA bills. And Wikipedia was the only reason the big media outlets covered the strike.