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Enjoy it while you can: Wikipedia could temporarily go off the air

DaltheJigsawDaltheJigsaw Mountain View Veteran
edited December 2011 in General Banter
(WOW! I am going to be so saddened, as I use Wikipedia for everything. Specifically, when I am beginning my search.)

Enjoy it while you can: Wikipedia could temporarily go off the air.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has asked users to weigh in on a potential Wikipedia blackout in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act, a controversial bill targeting piracy that would give U.S. law enforcement sweeping powers to crack down websites and online services that facilitate copyright infringement.

Though Wales noted that there are no immediate plans to temporarily blank out Wikipedia pages, he launched an informal straw poll querying whether users would support such a move, noting that Italy's parliament backed down on a privacy law after the Italian Wikipedia took all of its pages offline. Wales described SOPA as "a much worse law" than Italy's wiretapping bill.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/12/wikipedia-blackout-sopa_n_1144580.html

Comments

  • Mr_SerenityMr_Serenity Veteran
    edited December 2011
    As much as I love wikipedia I don't think they will be successful in trying to stop online pirating. So hopefully they don't stay down too long. Pirating is too prevalent on the internet, as long as the internet is around people will always share. I prefer to look at it as sharing, rather than pirating.

    So I have to support online piracy to a certain extent. Since I keep up with a few comic book and manga series, sometimes I go to my comic store to go pick up the new issue, and they tell me that they're all gone. When they're gone,they're gone. Since they only make so many copies.

    So then I download the issues I don't have from a site I visit. It works great. The comic book reading community there uploads their own comics so everyone who couldn't buy it gets to read them. There are also old story lines like "World War Hulk" that is worth reading for every fan of marvel. Yet it is not easy to come by at a comic store, since it's about 40 issues spanned across different series.

    So that can be downloaded all for free. I believe in the balanced approach to buy material most of the time, and when you can't find it or can't afford it, then it's ok to pirate it. We live in tough times where almost 50 percent+ of the people I know can't find a job or can't find one that will pay more than $10 an hour, so I have to support pirating in that economy.
  • beingbeing Veteran
    edited December 2011
    You got it wrong, mister Serenity. It's not about fighting against online pirating.
    "...a potential Wikipedia blackout in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act..."

    This means it would be a protest against an anti-piracy bill.

    And it's actually not so much about the piracy, but all kinds of other restrictions this law would introduce. Something like the great firewall of China, but US version...
  • pineblossompineblossom Veteran
    I suspect that the intended legislation has little or anything to do with piracy but everything to do with fear - the fear of governments of individual with smart phones and connection to the www. It's all about governments controlling their citizens.
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    edited December 2011
    Well everything may go offline next year anyway, as well as your phone, micrwave, aircraft etc. The solarflares that occur every 11 years, but this one is meant to be a huge one, similar to the one that knocked out all of the telegraph communications 50 or so years ago. But this time, we rely a lot more on communication than mere telegraph lines :P These people on fox news do my head in by the way, they make light of this when it really is not that funny...

  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    By the way, typo 150 years ago, not 50
  • MahuidouMahuidou New
    I would like it much more if they decided to plaster a week of ads for the EFF or other types of organizations that are actively fighting against these restrictions. Blacking out wikipedia just means that people will avoid it.
  • DaltheJigsawDaltheJigsaw Mountain View Veteran
    Well everything may go offline next year anyway, as well as your phone, micrwave, aircraft etc. The solarflares that occur every 11 years, but this one is meant to be a huge one, similar to the one that knocked out all of the telegraph communications 50 or so years ago. But this time, we rely a lot more on communication than mere telegraph lines :P These people on fox news do my head in by the way, they make light of this when it really is not that funny...

    Thank you for sharing!
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