Thfire.com Everyday news that matters With major websites protesting SOPA and PIPA bills, Wikipedia the 6th most visited website in the US and the World really wants people to protest against these bills. Wikipedia has blacked out itself for 24hrs, so people can only learn about SOPA and PIPA bills and how dangerous they are.
Really appreciable move from a major website to put it’s protest directly on it’s front door.
Lets first learn a little about SOPA(“Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act), these are bills that have been drafted by the congress and is to come for a review before it is passed as a law. The bills are intended to protect and stop online piracy, but they are poorly drafted and could end up (simply put) destroying the internet.
Questions that Wikipedia has posted on it’s website, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more
What are SOPA and PIPA?
SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA is short for the “Stop Online Piracy Act,” and PIPA is an acronym for the “Protect IP Act.” (“IP” stands for “intellectual property.”) In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout. GovTrack lets you follow both bills through the legislative process: SOPA on this page, and PIPA on this one. The EFF has summarized why these bills are simply unacceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free Internet.
Why is this happening?
Wikipedians have chosen to black out the English Wikipedia for the first time ever, because we are concerned that SOPA and PIPA will severely inhibit people’s access to online information. This is not a problem that will solely affect people in the United States: it will affect everyone around the world.
Why? SOPA and PIPA are badly drafted legislation that won’t be effective in their main goal (to stop copyright infringement), and will cause serious damage to the free and open Internet. They put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn’t being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines. And, SOPA and PIPA build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.
Will Wikipedia be able to get enough people against the Bill ? Or will the 1% show the world who’s boss again ?
