VISITORS to Wikipedia last Jan. 18 didn’t get the treasure trove of information they had come to expect. Instead, they got a darkened page that asked them to “Imagine a world without free knowledge.”
“For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history,” the message read. “Right now, the US Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.”
It was a dramatic message aimed against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) being debated in the US House of Representatives, a measure that would allow law enforcement agencies to stop search engines from linking to sites that infringe on US copyrights, compel Internet service providers to block access to these sites, and bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with such Web sites. A counterpart bill, called the Protect IP Act (PIPA), is being considered in the US Senate.
Proponents of the bill, including the movie and music recording industries, say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign Web sites.
But opponents say the proposed law threatens free speech and innovation, and enables law enforcement to block access to entire Internet domains due to infringing material posted on a single blog or Web page. It would also become a felony under the bill – punishable by five years in jail – to stream a copyrighted work, even if you are an ordinary, non-commercial user.
To dramatize their opposition, an estimated 7,000 Web sites, including Wikipedia, WordPress and Reddit, shut down for 24 hours to protest the bill. Others, like Google and Wired, placed black censored bars over parts of their home pages.
“The purpose of the blackout was twofold: to raise public awareness, and to encourage people to share their views with their elected representatives,” Wikipedia said.
For now, the campaign seems to have worked.
During the blackout, the Wikipedia page about SOPA and PIPA was accessed more than 162 million times during the 24-hour period, the online encyclopedia reported.
More than 12,000 people commented on the Wikimedia Foundation’s blog post announcing the blackout, with most supporting the campaign.
More than eight million visitors also looked up their elected representatives’ contact information using a Wikipedia tool and the US Senate’s Web site was unable to accommodate the number of citizens attempting to use its contact forms.
Anti-SOPA and PIPA topics began trending globally on Twitter immediately after the blackout began, while a search of SOPA blackout on Google News yielded 9,500 links just hours after the campaign began.
The widespread opposition was not lost on US lawmakers. Two days after the online protests, the main sponsor of the House bill said he would postpone further action on the measure, while eight senators and congressmen said they no longer support versions of the bill.
Senator Marco Rubio, a co-sponsor of the Senate version, said on his Facebook page that he has “heard legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government’s power to impact the Internet.”
Nobody expects the SOPA and PIPA to go away, however. Despite the recent setback and delays, sponsors of both measures say they will press forward with the legislation.
“Although support has slipped in both the Senate and the House and votes have been delayed, work continues on both bills,” Wikipedia says. “It is important to keep the pressure up on both houses. We expect changes that appear to tone down the damaging effects of the laws, without addressing their fundamental flaws.
“Moreover, SOPA and PIPA are symptoms of a larger issue. They are misguided solutions to a misunderstood problem. In the US and abroad, legislators and big media are embracing censorship and sacrificing civil liberties in their attacks on free knowledge and an open Internet.”
Wikipedia also has a useful suggestion to non-US residents who oppose SOPA and similar legislation.
“Contact your country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs or similar government agency. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and any similar legislation. SOPA and PIPA will affect Web sites outside of the United States, and even sites inside the United States (like Wikipedia) that also affect non-American readers — like you. Calling your own government will also let them know you don’t want them to create their own bad anti-Internet legislation.”
Sounds like good advice.
