By Joseph Akahome
Popular community-edited online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, has blacked out its English-language site for 24 hours to seek support against proposed U.S. anti-piracy legislation.
According to Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, the anti-piracy legislation by the US congress is one that can seriously threaten the future of the internet hence the action, which sees it black out its page. The blackout commenced on midnight of Wednesday January 18, 2012 (Eastern Time).
The service will be the highest profile name to join a growing campaign against the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).
‘This is a quite clumsily drafted legislation which is dangerous for an open Internet,” said Wales in an interview. We’re happy to see opposition is building and that the White House has started to pay attention, I do think copyright holders have legitimate issues, but there are ways of approaching the issue that don’t involve censorship’, he stated.
The decision to black out the site was decided by voting within the Wikipedia community of writers and editors who manage the free service, Wales said. The English language Wikipedia reportedly receives more than 25M average daily visitors from around the world.
The SOPA legislation under consideration in the House of Representatives aims to crack down on online sales of pirated American movies, music or other goods by forcing Internet companies to block access to foreign sites offering material that violates U.S. copyright laws. Supporters argue the bill is unlikely to have an impact on U.S.-based websites.
Why Wikipedia Shut Down
