Tag archive: wikipedia

A mass online blackout protest in January successfully convinced Congress to pull the contentious anti-piracy bills, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA), from its agenda. But just because these pieces of legislation are down, there is still more work to do to make sure they never rise again. To help achieve this goal, a group of 75 Internet companies, human rights groups, venture… Read More

On January 18, millions of concerned Internet citizens and companies banded together to successfully combat the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA), pieces of legislation that many believe could annihilate the Web as we know it. Thanks to this mass effort, those bills are now political poison, and have been shoved off the congressional agenda indefinitely. Unfortunately, the victory over SOPA… Read More

The January 18 mass blackout protest over the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA) has come and gone. But its undisputed effectiveness will live on in the decade to come as the moment that a new breed of activism was born. Not only did the blackout push SOPA and PIPA off the congressional agenda (for now, at least), it has also forced the Washington lobbying industry to reassess its power, and… Read More

Immediately following Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) decision to postpone a full vote on the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA), which was originally scheduled for Tuesday, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chief sponsor of the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA), has announced that he will delay further consideration of the contentious anti-piracy bill in the House “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”… Read More

This is what democracy looks like: Following Wednesday's mass online blackout protest against the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has canceled the January 24 vote on PIPA, first reported in a tweet from Think Progress. The vote postponement comes after 19 senators came out against PIPA, amidst the blackout, seven of whom are former… Read More

The mass online blackout protest against the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA) is officially over. At this early stage, it's nearly impossible to say whether or not the blackout can be considered a “success,” in any empirical terms — that will ultimately be decided by how Congress votes on these bills, and whether the vocal, widespread opposition to these pieces of… Read More

Mentioned within a public Facebook status update on his personal account, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg spoke out against both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) Internet piracy bills. Within the post, Zuckerberg states “The Internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet's development. Facebook… Read More

We’ve all undoubtedly suffered a bit due to the Wikipedia blackout today. The site has censored itself to give the Internet a test of what the consequences of SOPA/PIPA regulations could look like. And while it’s inarguably effective and has created something of a rally cry among devoted Web users, some take issue with the tactic—specifically, Wikipedia editors. “I think the Wikipedia blackout protest was a really bad idea,” editor Charles… Read More

As the mass online blackout against the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA) climbs over its midpoint, more and more citizens are becoming aware of these contentious pieces of anti-piracy legislation. Well, sorta. If Twitter is any indication — and, with thousands of popular sites offline today, it's one of the few indicators we have left — it seems as though the acronym… Read More

We’re all for showing anti-SOPA/PIPA sentiment. This proposed legislation would dismantle the Internet as we know it and freedom of expression would take a serious hit. All that said, we also know how important Wikipedia is to the Web user’s everyday existence, and a full 24 hours without might be more than you can handle. After reaching this point, first take a minute to think about how SOPA and PIPA could cause Internet censorship like this… Read More

Good news for the anti-SOPA/PIPA crowd: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) announced on his official Facebook page that he no longer supports the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA), a bill he co-sponsored. In his statement, Sen. Rubio also urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) to “abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor.” PIPA is currently schedule to go before the full Senate for a procedural vote to begin debate on the bill… Read More

Starting at midnight Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, January 18, all 3.8 million English-language articles of Wikipedia will go “black” for 24 hours, in protest of the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) and the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA). Wikipedia will be joined by thousands of other sites, all of which will be blacked out for between 12 and 24 hours. In anticipation of the confusion this will cause,… Read More

If you've been paying attention to the increasingly heated debate over the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA), you may have noticed a significant spike in today's news about the “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011,” or PROTECT IP Act (PIPA, for short). Newsletters and blog posts have flooded in, with the declaration that “PIPA is the new… Read More

Wikipedia is going black on Wednesday, January 18, to help fight the contentious Protect IP Act (PIPA), which is set to go for a vote before the Senate on January 24. The move, first reported by Neal Mann, digital news editor at Sky News, was announced by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the far-reaching online encyclopedia, on Twitter. Wales says the blackout was a “community decision.” The blackout will only apply to English-language… Read More

The climax is building as the January 24 senate debate for SOPA nears. The reddit community earlier this week organized a protest blackout happening next Wednesday, and now more websites are jumping on the Anti-SOPA blackout bandwagon. So far, the wagon has picked up Mojang, as well as Destructoid, Anonymous the Cheezburger Network and a couple others, with Wikipedia still debating whether to join. Minecraft creator @notch confirmed in a tweet… Read More