Wikipedia and Google join anti-piracy bill protest

[Jazzy]

Wikipedia, Google and Craigslist are among the websites joining a protest about proposed anti-piracy legislation in the United States.



Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, has voluntarily suspended its website for 24 hours. The English version of the website became inaccessible at 5am GMT on Wednesday morning. Instead of a database of more than 3.8 million articles, visitors are greeted with an open letter encouraging them to contact Congress in protest.



Google joined the protest against two proposed pieces of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act. The search engine blacked-out its logo on the US version of its website and added a link encouraging Americans to oppose the bills.



In a blogpost, David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, said that the company was supporting the protest because we think there’s a good way forward that doesn’t cause collateral damage to the web.



Craigslist, the popular online classifieds service, has suspended its US sites, while other websites, including Reddit, WordPress, Flickr, Twitpic and hundreds of others have agreed to support the day of action.



Full article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...and-Google-join-anti-piracy-bill-protest.html



Question: What are your thoughts about this protest?

 

[Cranos]

Just hoping it'll change something. Censoring the web is not the way to go...

 

[Evil Eye]

Wikipedia's attempt is a bit half-hearted to be honest, I found out how to circumvent it in about a minute.

Just hoping it'll change something. Censoring the web is not the way to go...

 

[Jazzy]

So Google blacked-out its logo...big deal! If they really wanted to join this protest, they should have shut down the site!

 

[Evil Eye]

Did they? I don't see it...

I don't think they can afford to shut down...

 

[Jazzy]

Did they? I don't see it...

Here's why:

The search engine blacked-out its logo on the US version of its website and added a link encouraging Americans to oppose the bills.

 

[Evil Eye]

I guess it wouldn't make much sense to show me

 

[Flurry]

Just hoping it'll change something. Censoring the web is not the way to go...

Agreed.

 

[Jazzy]

Do any of you really think what was done today is going to change anything?

 

[Evil Eye]

Do any of you really think what was done today is going to change anything?

Vox populi.

If it makes people realise they'd have to do without Google and Wikipedia (for real this time), I'd call it a success.

 

[Jazzy]

Vox populi.

If it makes people realise they'd have to do without Google and Wikipedia (for real this time), I'd call it a success.

Google was up and running all day. It was easy to get into Wikipedia. What did this accomplish?

 

[Evil Eye]

Awareness, hopefully.

 

[Jazzy]

Awareness, hopefully.

That's about all that happened from this.

 

[Evil Eye]

That was the point, though.

If enough people complain, it shouldn't happen. If it does... well, the term banana republic comes to mind.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/18/tech/sopa-blackouts/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16612628

 

[Jazzy]

Does anyone really think that these two proposed pieces of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act are going to stop piracy?

 

[The Dragon Master]

Does anyone really think that these two proposed pieces of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act are going to stop piracy?

Lol, nope. There will be a way around it. If this does go through, no matter how many sites they close down, more are just gonna spring up.

 

[Evil Eye]

Probably not... They'd have to be rather naive to think that.

I think they're just trying to make it a bit harder and a lot more expensive.

 

[DrLeftover]

I was asked my opinion both in person and online. Both as a user of the web for research and as an author.



This is what I came up with.



Yes Internet Piracy is a problem. Yes those who create content have a right to do with their content as they see fit. Yes, as an author, I would be seriously pissed off if somebody posted one of my books for free.

No, the bills before Congress will not fix that problem, they'll just move it overseas where the US law does not apply. Which is what is happening all too often now. But yes, the SOPA and PIPA will screw with law abiding websites and cause unforeseen harm to them and those of us that use the Net.

Who is congress listening to? The record companies and movie producers with money.

THROW THE BUMS OUT!

 

[Jazzy]

Excellent post, DrLeftover, and I agree with you!

 

[Cranos]

Does anyone really think that these two proposed pieces of legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act are going to stop piracy?

Not unless the whole world passes similar laws in their countries. If they don't, apparently even Americans will be able to keep accessing sites like thepiratebay using their IP address.