17 January 2012
It's lights out for Wikipedia tomorrow as the site launches a public protest against American anti-piracy measures.
The ubiquitous online encyclopaedia has officially announced that it has chosen to blackout the English version of Wikipedia on Wednesday in protest against proposed anti-piracy laws in the United States.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives and its companion bill PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate are designed to block access to sites containing unauthorised copyright material.
Ultimately, content owners and the U.S. government would be given the power to request court orders to shut down sites associated with piracy.
However, opponents of the bill have long expressed concerns about the bills' potential far-reaching ramifications.
"Proponents of SOPA have characterised the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy," said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
"But that's not the really the point. The point is the bill is so over broad and so badly written that it's going to impact all kinds of things that, you know, don't have anything to do with stopping piracy."
Therefore in protest, the English version of Wikipedia will be inaccessible from 5AM GMT on Wednesday until 5AM GMT on Thursday. Instead of finding the online database of more than 3.8 million articles, users will be greeted with an open letter encouraging them to contact their Congressional representatives in protest.
Over the weekend, however, the White House issued a statement hinting at a presidential veto of the bills.
It stated: "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet."
Despite this, Wikipedia has decided to go forward with their first ever public protest because SOPA and PIPA "would be devastating to the free and open web."
The user-generated news site Reddit and the blog Boing Boing have also said they will take part in the blackout; however Twitter has declined to participate in the shutdown.
Wikipedia to go dark tomorrow
It's lights out for Wikipedia tomorrow as the site launches a public protest against American anti-piracy measures.The ubiquitous online encyclopaedia has officially announced that it has chosen to blackout the English version of Wikipedia on Wednesday in protest against proposed anti-piracy laws in the United States.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives and its companion bill PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate are designed to block access to sites containing unauthorised copyright material.
Ultimately, content owners and the U.S. government would be given the power to request court orders to shut down sites associated with piracy.
However, opponents of the bill have long expressed concerns about the bills' potential far-reaching ramifications.
"Proponents of SOPA have characterised the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy," said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
"But that's not the really the point. The point is the bill is so over broad and so badly written that it's going to impact all kinds of things that, you know, don't have anything to do with stopping piracy."
Therefore in protest, the English version of Wikipedia will be inaccessible from 5AM GMT on Wednesday until 5AM GMT on Thursday. Instead of finding the online database of more than 3.8 million articles, users will be greeted with an open letter encouraging them to contact their Congressional representatives in protest.
Over the weekend, however, the White House issued a statement hinting at a presidential veto of the bills.
It stated: "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet."
Despite this, Wikipedia has decided to go forward with their first ever public protest because SOPA and PIPA "would be devastating to the free and open web."
The user-generated news site Reddit and the blog Boing Boing have also said they will take part in the blackout; however Twitter has declined to participate in the shutdown.
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