Wikipedia Blackout

[Simon17]

So Wikipedia blacked themselves out at least in the USA for 24 hours to protest legislation that will hinder a free Internet and its exchange of ideas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

I applaud their proactivity in exerting their influence. As such a massive website, its quite a movie, and quite an impactful one, to take this step.

Discuss.

[sianrose]

that is what it says on Wikipedia now...

Imagine a World

Without Free Knowledge

For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more.

Make your voice heard

I liked this comments from readers of an article on this..

"And so they should, so so should everyone else. The concerns of a few movie houses to make themselves even richer, and those of other media moguls *cough* who want to further tighten their grip on what we see on the internet should not trump those of freedom of speech and net neutrality... This is a slippery slope - resist all attempts - the internet is for the people by the people. Go wikipedia..and everyone else getting involved in the cause."

- Amster, London, England, 17/1/2012 3:48

"I am not a conspiracy theorist by any stretch of the imagination, but every once and a while I look around and it is scary to see how close we are to a Brave New World/1984/Farenheit 451 type-world. SOPA/PIPA has been one of the scariest things of them all."

- Alpha-Plus, World State, 17/1/2012 4:53

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2087673/Wikipedia-blackout-Loopholes-galore-websites-SOPA-PIPA-shutdown-protest.html#ixzz1josdV6TO

WHAT ARE THE SOPA AND PIPA ANTI-PIRACY ACTS

The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in Congress - designed to crack down on sales of pirated U.S. products overseas - has pit internet giants, consumer groups and freedom of speech advocates against film studios and record labels.

The House bill (SOPA) would allow a private party to go straight to a website's advertising and payment providers and request they sever ties.

Supporters include the film and music industry, which often sees its products sold illegally. They say the legislation is needed to protect intellectual property and jobs.

Critics say the legislation could hurt the technology industry and infringe on free-speech rights.

Among their concerns are provisions that would weaken cyber-security for companies and hinder domain access rights.

The most controversial provision is in the House bill, which would have enabled federal authorities to 'blacklist' sites that are alleged to distribute pirated content.

That would essentially cut off portions of the Internet to all U.S. users. But congressional leaders appear to be backing off this provision

I will have to think on this one...but I liked the above comments...what are your views Simon?

[sianrose]

this is on Wordpress.com

[Brother_Bliss]

JWTalk would render that link so I changed it (add that to my debugging list).

From what I understand, the law would allow the government to force ISP's to not allow access to certain off-shore domains. I don't like it one bit. If this passes, how is the USA any different than Russia or China - both of which had banned access to watchtower.org and jw.org and may even do so still?

[trottigy]

From wikipedia

SOPA and PIPA would 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. SOPA and PIPA would build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.

In a world in which politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, Wikipedia — and sites like it — cannot survive.

Congress says it's trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the "cure" that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they would fatally damage the free and open Internet.

[Aelon]

Should we be concern of this? We are law abiding citizen.

So Wikipedia blacked themselves out at least in the USA for 24 hours to protest legislation that will hinder a free Internet and its exchange of ideas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

I applaud their proactivity in exerting their influence. As such a massive website, its quite a movie, and quite an impactful one, to take this step.

Discuss.

[cricket246]

Just curious. If these two internet bills get passed - Could Satan possibly put in the mind of the government to use these to block access to our jw.org,etc. sites in the future? Just food for thought ^.^

[Micah]

JWTalk would render that link so I changed it (add that to my debugging list).

From what I understand, the law would allow the government to force ISP's to not allow access to certain off-shore domains. I don't like it one bit. If this passes, how is the USA any different than Russia or China - both of which had banned access to watchtower.org and jw.org and may even do so still?

This got me wondering, what's going to stop some holy rollers wanting to stop JW's, getting watchtower.org and jw.org shut down.

[Micah]

WHAT ARE THE SOPA AND PIPA ANTI-PIRACY ACTS

The Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in Congress - designed to crack down on sales of pirated U.S. products overseas - has pit internet giants, consumer groups and freedom of speech advocates against film studios and record labels.

The House bill (SOPA) would allow a private party to go straight to a website's advertising and payment providers and request they sever ties.

Supporters include the film and music industry, which often sees its products sold illegally. They say the legislation is needed to protect intellectual property and jobs.

Critics say the legislation could hurt the technology industry and infringe on free-speech rights.

Among their concerns are provisions that would weaken cyber-security for companies and hinder domain access rights.

The most controversial provision is in the House bill, which would have enabled federal authorities to 'blacklist' sites that are alleged to distribute pirated content.

That would essentially cut off portions of the Internet to all U.S. users. But congressional leaders appear to be backing off this provision

Then the U.S. needs to stop sending jobs to other countries. If you look at the music and movie industries, they continue to blow sales out of the water, year after year after year, even with the free media sites. Satan knows his time is even closer, and wants to make in absolutely impossible for anyone to have room to breathe. Keep your faith in Jehovah and prove him wrong.

[Brother_Bliss]

Cute....

[trottigy]

I tried to play the video but the copyright holder asked him to take it down

[spoiler=]

Just kidding

[Aelon]

[Your post has been detected by the SOPA Monitoring System]

[Your internet will now be terminated within the next 7-10 business days]

Thank you!

[trottigy]

The Justice Department has indicted seven individuals and two companies behind the popular file sharing website Megaupload.com which has been touted by stars will.i.am, Kim Kardashian and Puff Daddy.

The indictment alleges that the website and a shell company associated with the website, Vestor Limited, caused an estimated half-billion dollars in copyright losses and made an estimated $175 million in proceeds. The website was established in 2005 and at one point ranked as the 13th most visited website on the Internet.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/justice-fbi-crack-megaupload/story?id=15396526#.TxidJqUS01I

This just one day after the blackout. I wonder if this was planned? Maybe I am just a conspiracy junkie, but .........

[Dages]

I hope our jw.org site will be fine...

[Micah]

The society's sites will be fine. Jehovah will NOT allow it to happen.

[Aelon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmQN93NqqDM

This seems scary especially the part where you share your cooking methods even to your family

[bookworm]

I read yesterday that the WH has proposed the idea of a single ID for web access. You would have one password for all your online activities, all monitored and "protected" through the government. Sounds very Eric Blair to me!