Wikipedia to go dark to protest web piracy drafts

Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo! should all go down for a day to show solidarity

The world goes a whole day without unaccountable information?

@ sf2k : I think that would be really good and dangerous. It could spark a firesale if they were all down possibly. That would cause a serious social problem on information demand. But I agree with you.

They all should go down for the day.

"The draft legislation has won the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, the Business Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

In other words, all the unnecessary middle-men who reap most of the profits. A star doesn't necessarily earn less if the products they appear in/sing are pirated; the company earns less. Actors are contracted, and musicians get the lion's share of their riches through live performance.

Sounds like the New World Order conspiracy is coming to light?

OMG, my torrent hunting will go to pot

“Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!”

Students! do actual research!

NeoJamalJan. 17, 2012 - 12:29PM JST The world goes a whole day without unaccountable information?

The truth is that wikipedia been, repeatedly and in numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, to be at least as accurate as established encyclopedia such as Encyclopedia Brittanica, and far more up to date. While there are occassional malicious changes these are, on average, corrected within 24 hours (about 50%), and the remaining changes flagged for veracity and citations and then removed later when no citation is forthcoming.

What I like about wikipedia is that everything must be supported by an online citation and I can quickly backtrack to the original source, something that I can't generally do with a traditional encyclopedia. If you're using it any other way then the problem is you, not wikipedia.

As for the U.S. trying to curtail internet freedom of speech... well, at least they're consistent, they've just finished torturing people and illegally invading countries, so this is pretty much business as usual for the U.S. government.

I support piracy

JapanGal

OMG, my torrent hunting will go to pot

Exactly, better download as much as possible beforehand. Must be off movies to pirate.....

I believe Reddit and Digg were getting in on this too.

When antipiracy laws interfere with a users right to education and information, it is time to rethink the logic behind the legislators intentions

zichi: The anti-piracy laws sound like more control, more censorship, wrong way to go, needs a big U-turn?

Well this should tell you it's a bad idea: "The draft legislation has won the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, the Business Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

@patty cake champion

I still use Wikipedia for my research and homework. When it comes to computer science related topics they are among the most reliable and most thorough.

No longer at college so it doesn't bother me if wiki goes down for a day.

SOPA has been removed from the House voting committee.

@ritzjpn: Please explain 'why' you support piracy.

Piracy is about the lack of availability of global content globally. We want what we want, when we want it. Unfortunately the ol' intertube has been slow to legally provide a viable outlet for those of us that have been at torrents and file-sharing for a long time. "Download" is the new "REC" button, we push it. Like in the olden days on VCRs or cassette players. This sharing issue is nothing new. The black market is nothing new. If Hollywood or these media companies had any brains they'd buy the torrent sites and put a flat fee out for users of the sites. I think most of us, given the flat fee option, would gladly subscribe to a global service for any content you so desire. Good luck Wiki, Reddit, and the rest.

My whole world went dark when Wikipedia did.