Wikipedia wasn’t afraid to stand up in opposition to SOPA and PIPA. On Jan. 18 they practiced blackout and encouraged Americans to contact their representatives. Their website read:
“IMAGINE A WORLD WITHOUT FREE KNOWLEDGE”
162
million web users saw Wikipedia’s blackout
“You said no. You shut down Congress’s switchboards. You melted their servers. From all around the world your messages dominated social media and the news. Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet.” - Wikipedia’s thank you page
SOPA On Oct 26, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was introduced to the United States House of Representatives by Representative Lamar S. Smith. If passed, SOPA would allow the U.S Department of Justice to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of copyright, or enabling copyright infringment. The U.S Attorney General could then prohibit U.S Internet service providers from conducting busness with sites found of copyright and could prohibit search engins from displaying links to the sites.
24
hours shut down to protest SOPA andPIPA
41
human rights organizations
204 entrepreneurs
#wikipedia blackout #factswithoutwikipedia #SOPAstrike
12,000
people commented on the Wikimedia Founation’s blog post annoucing the blackout
8 million
people looked up their representatives contact information on Wikipedia the following websites wrote a letter to congress expressing their concern regarding the bills -AOL eBay Facebook Twitter
expressing deep concern about SOPA and PIPA these different groups wrote letters, made statements and even contacted Congress
LinkedIn Yahoo Zynga Google
55 venture capitalists
110
law professors
D E R O CENS The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) are causing a stir on the news, around town even in our halls. But, what exactly are these two bills all about? Here are some facts.
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/sopa-pipa/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/SOPA/Blackoutpage
PIPA
Introduced on May 12 by Senator Patrick Leahy, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) has similar goals as SOPA. The bill’s primary goal is to enhance enforcement against foreign websites. The cost of the bill to the federal government is estimated to be 4 million dollars through 2016. Similar to the Stop Online Piracy Act, websites found of copyright infringement can recieve a court order. Also, seach engines would be ordered to remove the Internet site associated with the domain name and not serve the hypertext link to that Internet site. Voting for PIPA will take place on Jan 24.
PROPONENTS SAY THE BILLS
-- will enforce copyright laws -- will protect intellectual property market -- will help trademark dependent companies -will help companies in the cable, movie, and music industries -- will protect American jobs
OPPONENTS SAY THE BILLS -- violate First Amendment -- are Internet censorship -- will cripple Internet -- threaten freedom of speech -- won’t be effective in ending online piracy