Wikipedia to join Web blackout protesting SOPA

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, speaks during the opening session at the London Cyberspace Conference Nov. 1, 2011, in London. / Getty Images

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has decided to join a protest of SOPA by shutting down his site on Wednesday.

Calling it a "decision of the Wikipedia community," Wales said he plans to join other Web sites in ceasing operations to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, a controversial antipiracy bill being debated in Congress.

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Last week, the news site Reddit announced it would shut down for 12 hours on Wednesday to express its displeasure with SOPA and Protect IP, its Senate sister. Other sites, including the Cheezburger Network, home to massively popular Internet meme sites like I Can Has Cheezburger, have also said they will join the Web blackout.

The bills are heavily supported by a wide group of copyright owners, including the big record companies and Hollywood film studios. Copyright owners charge that online piracy has damaged their businesses and costs workers their jobs. However, Web companies and human rights groups have asserted that if the bills became law, they would rob the Web of free speech and damage the health of the Internet.

In what many in the tech sector saw as a victory, Rep. Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), one of SOPA's biggest backers, announced Friday that he plans to remove SOPA's DNS-block requirement, which would have allowed the Justice Department to obtain a court order to make a suspected piratical Web site effectively vanish. That development followed an announcement by Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who sponsored PIPA, that he would delete similar DNS requirements from the Senate version.

"We have no indication that SOPA is fully off the table," Wales said in a tweet this morning. "PIPA is still alive and kicking. We need to send Washington a BIG message."

The outage will last 24 hours and affect only the English language version of the site, Wales said.

"I'm proud to be able in some small way to have a leadership role against censorship," Wales said. "But the community gets the credit here."

[piausa]

"patent reform"

"This is not a patent reform bill" Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) complained, despite other democrats praising the overhaul. "This is a big corporation patent giveaway that tramples on the right of small inventors."

Senator Cantwell is right. Just because they call it "reform" doesn't mean it is. The agents of banks, huge multinationals, and China are at it again trying to brain wash and bankrupt America.

They should have called the bill the America STOPS Inventing Act or ASIA, because that's where it is sending all our jobs.

The patent bill is nothing less than another monumental federal giveaway for banks, huge multinationals, and China and an off shoring job killing nightmare for America. Even the leading patent expert in China has stated the bill will help them steal our inventions. Who are the supporters of this bill working for??

Patent reform is a fraud on America. This bill will not do what they claim it will. What it will do is help large multinational corporations maintain their monopolies by robbing and killing their small entity and startup competitors (so it will do exactly what the large multinationals paid for) and with them the jobs they would have created. The bill will make it harder and more expensive for small firms to get and enforce their patents. Without patents we cant get funded. Yet small entities create the lion's share of new jobs. According to recent studies by the Kauffman Foundation and economists at the U.S. Census Bureau, "startups aren't everything when it comes to job growth. They're the only thing." This bill is a wholesale slaughter of US jobs. Those wishing to help fight this bill should contact us as below.

Small entities and inventors have been given far too little voice on this bill when one considers that they rely far more heavily on the patent system than do large firms who can control their markets by their size alone. The smaller the firm, the more they rely on patents -especially startups and individual inventors. Congress tinkering with patent law while gagging inventors is like a surgeon operating before examining the patient.

Those wishing to help fight big business giveaways should contact us as below and join the fight as we are building a network of inventors and other stakeholders to lobby Congress to restore property rights for all patent owners -large and small.

Please see http://truereform.piausa.org/default.html for a different/opposing view on patent reform.
http://docs.piausa.org/

[KPeters_from_UK]

ObamaShill-Tis, Tedsliver, Inquisitor-General and the other Tea Baggers,

You are missing the point. It doesn't matter if you like or hate Wikipedia. It doesn't matter if you agree with the facts found on Wikipedia. The point is the current anti-piracy bill. Already, there are laws governing the internet and piracy. The act enacted in 2000 works perfectly well inside the States. What we need is something that can deal with out shore locations.

We can not have INNOCENT sites closed automatically based on accusations as what would happen if this bill is passed. That makes no sense. You would find many young companies too damn afraid to launch anything. It will destroy creativity.

And in regards to why just the English site? To bring to attention that this bill which can be used as form of censorship is going through the American (where the majority of the population are English speaking) congress. Why would the readers of the German Wikipedia site care about an American bill?

The CEO of Twitter also supports Wikipedia decision but will not close down tomorrow because of two reasons; it is a business and twitter is one means of spreading the word against this strange bill.

[KPeters_from_UK]

David,
Are you slightly autistic? Preferring the pedantic rather being flexible and looking at the big picture?

Again, for those average German or Brazilian readers or anyone who is not an English speaking American the debate is not theirs. The debate is taking place on American soil that is why the English site (correct if I am wrong - I sure you will) is shutting down.

[thinkingonetoo]

I will be joining Wikipedia in the blackout as well, both of my sites will go dark for Wednesday protest!

[MegaProcrastination]

YES! I'm happy to see Wikipedia has made it official!

Sure, something more needs to be done about online piracy, but these two bills aren't the solution.

[timrw46]

At 65, having lived so many years, I can't put in words my disbelief as to the state of the US Government today. Congress today is nothing more than a cancer infecting the citizenship. Elections are a farce where the voters only choice is how and where to be abused.

When will enough citizens realize that our government, the way it is organized, is fundamentally flawed. What was originally supposed to be a part-time Congress is now full time. Every law passed, by it's very nature, restricts someone to some degree. Over time, law by law, freedom disappers.

For years I've stated that the US Government would crumble during my grandson's lifetime. Now, at 65, I'm not so sure that won't happen during my lifetime. If I'm viewed as non-patriotic for saying "I hope it happens soon", so be it. The mess is simply too big to fix piece by piece. It's in the best interests of all US citizens that somehow, someway, we start over. Is there a peaceful way for that to happen?

[MegaProcrastination]

I know exactly how you feel because I'm also there. I keep wondering how long it can go on the way it is.

[forrestt56]

Don't believe the lies. I say Wikipedia is an awesome source for imformation. SOPA would be just the first step in taking away the freedom of speech and other freedoms on the internet that we all have enjoyed thusfar. There will always be special interest groups working to erode our freedoms from all angles. I say stop the bastards now.

[jtdev1]

Just wish all the search engines stopped search results pointing to all the sites that support SOPA like Murdochs sites, Government Sites, Sony, Music sites, Etc...

This will show them who's the boss...

that would effectively shut them down.

[ffrecster]

SOPA and PIPA will allow blocking like China does now. C'mon legislators - for the people, by the people. Not for all those commercial entities who line your pockets, remember your oath.

[dudley58]

Anyone who thinks we are still a democracy is just kidding themselves.....

[credibility2]

As someone who has had their copyrighted work infringed upon and my intellectual efforts violated, SOPA is something we need. Never mind the entertainment industry fighting for this, look at China and how it flagrantly violates copyrights and trademarks, stealing the intellectual property of others in order to make cheap imitations of something and then sell it to a duped consumer. It is theft when someone has invested their intellect, time, talent and effort to produce something and then apply for the proper copyrights or trademarks to protect their rights. Those who download without paying or otherwise use someone else's work as their own, or not seeking the right to use from the owner are criminals. It is unlawful to violate copyrighted and trademarked work and denies the originators with payment for their effort. The entertainment industry, for example, employs hundreds and thousands of workers who are part of the creative process and for others to deny these workers additional monetary gain for their collective efforts is reprehensible. Had I a limitless amount of finances to sue those who have infringed on my copyrighted work, I'd not hesitate suing them and forcing them to cease using my work and to compensate me. Willful copyright infringement has a minimal penalty of at least $150,000.00. Just remember, this issue isn't just about large businesses, there are countless individuals who have been taken advantage of by the unscrupulous infringers.

[dudley58]

I agree, artists, like everyone else, deserve to be compensated for their work, but SOPA is NOT the answer! SOPA is government censorship, pure and simple...if you can't see that you have no concept of reality. Wake up.

[What_the_Sam_Hill]

Congress should be working on REAL problems for Americans, rather than for the special interests of the lobbyists!

How about creating JOBS?