The Wikipedia SOPA legislation protest

[Charles Pegge]

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action) to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_to_go_dark)). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States – theStop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Stop_Online_Piracy_Act) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:PROTECT_IP_Act) in the U.S. Senate – that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.
This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. Here’s how it’s been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community’s discussion. From the public statement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Wikipedia:SOPA#Summary_and_conclusion), signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:Billinghurst:


http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout

[danbaron]

I left voice messages and sent e-mails, of protest, to my congressman and senators.

Did you ever notice that people who go into business are not very smart, but, are always scheming?

I think it's pretty amazing, they never stop, even for one minute.

If they were vultures, not one molecule of meat would ever be left on a bone.

(Actually, I think the same could be said for most lawyers and medical doctors.)

[kryton9]

These Bills are symbolic of the anti-capitalist corporatism (fascisim) that is not only in control of the US, but most of the world. This is interesting however in that factions that are part of this new order are fighting among-st themselves on this one. I guess it is a battle of which corporate interest wins from collusion with the government.