Wikipedia and other companies go dark to protest SOPA

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, is the sixth most used site on the Internet. On Wed the site will go dark to protest two bills facing Congress and the U.S. Senate. The bills, the Internet company claims, stop freedom of expression and could destroy websites unfairly. Source for this article: Wikipedia and others go dark to protest SOPA.

Hearing from Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales is a co-founder of Wikipedia. He tweet the plans on Martin Luther King Day. He said that from midnight Tuesday, EST, to midnight Wednesday, the English edition of the website will be dark.

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed, MLK on Wednesday, Wikipedia demands."

Wales said that students need to do their homework early in anticipation of this.

Working against SOPA

There are companies that decided not to participate in the "SOPA Strike" such as Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Google. These websites have, however, protested the legislation still. There have been many internet companies that have joined Wikipedia though such as Reddit, Boing Boing and the Cheezburger Network.

Strikers are protesting against the Congress Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate Guard IP Act (PIPA). Both of the acts will make it extremely hard to share movies, music, video and other media on the internet to be able to guard the entertainment industry.

Language too broad

In order to shield the entertainment industry, the legislation will be putting IPs in charge of policing websites. Because of the broad language, sites could get shut down without any warning or due process. That is something that many against the bill do not like.

Finally, opponents contend, the legislation would lead to widespread censorship and the stifling of free expression.

Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing said:

"If you want an Internet where human rights, free speech and the rule of law are not subordinated to the entertainment industry's profits, I hope you will join us."

Getting people to overlook the real problem

There is an issue with online piracy, as reported by the Motion Association of America. The MPAA supports the regulation and states that the opponents are just trying to take away attention from the real issue.

Michael O'Leary of the MPAA said:

"Our perspective on this, from a larger perspective, is that it is part and parcel of a campaign to distract from the real issue here and to draw people away from trying to resolve what is a real problem, which is that foreigners continue to steal the hard work of Americans."

White House speaks out against bills

The regulation is lacking support from the White House. It said in a statement that there are parts of the legislation that would not get support.

"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 cyber security risk or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet."

Language changed

The White House announcement led to some changes by the Congressional sponsors of SOPA. They said the part of the bill that would block a website's domain name would be dropped.

Sources

ABC Washington Post Los Angeles Times