At your fingertips!
unless you are in China or Iran! (Or the USA?)
Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. – Jimmy Donal “Jimbo” Wales
Laws are like sausages — it is better not to see them being made. – generally attributed to Otto von Bismarck.
Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours Wednesday, January, 18 2012 to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), founder Jimmy Wales announced on Monday. In doing so, Wikipedia joins a long list of web companies such as Reddit and Mozilla that are taking similar measures against the proposed legislation.
Wales used his Twitter account to spread the news, writing “Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday! #sopa” In place of Wikipedia, users will see instructions for how to reach local members of Congress, which Wales hopes “will melt phone systems in Washington.” – ComScore estimates the English Wikipedia’s web traffic at 25 million daily visitors worldwide.
WHAT IF… you missed Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the Washington Mall 48 years ago this week, you might go to YouTube and dial it up. But you won’t find it there or anywhere else! Rights to its usage remain with King and his family.
Believe it or not, to legally watch that famous Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” speech, arguably one of the most hallowed moments in American history costs $10 thanks to the twisted state of United States copyright law.
The news of how MLK’s most famous moment costs money to watch is not a new one. But given the dramatic rise of the issue of digital rights, thanks largely in part to the dramatic controversy surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the story seems unusually prescient this year.
Protect the Internet
Why?
A few infringing links are enough to justify censoring an entire site, blocking good content along with the bad.
How?
The US will be able to block a site’s web traffic, ad traffic and search traffic using the same website censorship methods used by China, Iran and Syria.
Who’s at risk?
Your favorite websites both inside and outside the US could be blocked based on an infringement claim.
Could this pass?
Yes. The Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act have widespread support in Congress and are expected to pass. – Mozilla
Since it’s introduction in October, many Internet giants have joined forces to openly oppose the anti-piracy bill, arguing that it “would enable copyright holders and the Justice Department to get court orders against sites that ‘engage in, enable, or facilitate’ copyright infringement”.
In a Google+ post, Google co-founder Sergey Brin called SOPA a “threat to free speech” and compared it to censorship in China and Iran.
You are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it. Normally we stay away from from politics here at the official WordPress project… [more] – wordpress.org
Personally, I have seen sausages being made and it is not a pretty sight but it was informative!
Now what? Click into action!
