BLACKOUT & VICE VERSA
CYBERSPACE,
JANUARY 20,
2012 (PHNO) FROM
WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA - Thank you for protecting Wikipedia.
(We're not done yet.) This page was last modified on 18 January 2012 at 00:16.
The English Wikipedia blackout was a shutdown of the English Wikipedia for 24
hours on January 18–19, 2012.
In place of articles, the site showed only a message opposing the Stop Online
Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), legislation being proposed in
the United States Congress.
On January 16, the blackout was announced by Wikimedia founder Jimmy Wales
and Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner after conducting a
72-hour poll of the editing community.
The general poll followed several weeks of discussion in smaller Wikipedia
forums. The date was chosen to coincide with similar action by other websites,
such as Reddit, and ran for 24 hours starting at 05:00 UTC (12 a.m. Eastern
Standard Time) on January 18.
Background
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) are bills
that were introduced into the United States House of Representatives and the
United States Senate in the last quarter of 2011. The two bills, though
different means, are designed to provide legal mechanisms for copyright holders,
such as music and movie studios, to combat digital piracy that occurs on
non-United States websites.
Both bills are extensions of the earlier Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA) that enabled content producers to issue "take down" notices to Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) and websites to remove infringing content. While the
DMCA has been considered effective for patrolling of websites within the United
States, the DMCA fails to address infringement from foreign websites.
Part of the language of the bills when originally proposed would allow for
copyright owners to issue complaints to ISPs and other major websites, like
Google or Bing, requiring them to remove the hostnames of infringing sites from
their Domain name registry (DNS) and to delist entries in search engines to
these sites.
Many of the companies and organizations supporting the proposed legislation
are content producers, such as the Motion Picture Association of America, the
Recording Industry Association of America and the Entertainment Software
Association, and identified the need to have such laws to combat revenue losses
associated with the copyright infringement from these foreign websites.
However, some lawmakers and many technology and Internet firms and
associations have expressed concerns that two bills' languages are too broad,
and the concept of domain name blocking and search engine removal would amount
to censorship of the Internet.
A common criticism of the bill addresses broad and unclear language like what
entails "deliberate actions to avoid confirming a high probability" for a
website. Google's policy director, Bob Boorstin, stated that a site like YouTube
supporting user-generated content "would just go dark immediately" to comply
with the legislation.
In December 2011, SOPA was brought to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to
begin the process of marking up the bill prior to introduction to the House
floor. During this time, numerous websites began displaying banners and messages
promoting their readerships to contact Congress to stop the progress of the
bill, stating that their sites would be "blacked out" should the bill pass as a
law.
The markup session, in which several proposed amendments to address the
concerns of technology companies were defeated, was eventually put on hold prior
to the end of the year, to be restarted once Congress came back in session.
Several technology websites began proposing the idea of an "Internet
blackout" on the same day to protest SOPA and PIPA to occur before SOPA would be
voted on on the House floor as a means of further protest.
Reddit was the first major site to announce an "Internet blackout" on January
18, 2012, and several other sites shortly followed, coordinating actions on that
day. Though Senator Patrick Leahy, the main sponsor for SOPA, had stated that
they would remove the controversial DNS provisions prior to the blackout date,
sites continued to plan to continue with the demonstration.
In January 2012, in response to concerns over PIPA and SOPA, the White House
stated that it "will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression,
increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global
internet."
English Wikipedia's response
[PHOTO - "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely
share in the sum of all knowledge. That's our commitment." -WIKIMEDIA
FOUNDATION]
Sue Gardner at the Wikimedia Foundation
discussing the English Wikipedia Blackout of SOPA on the evening of January
17, 2012:
In line with the initial voices to stage an Internet blackout in December
2011, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales called for a "public uprising" against the
proposed legislation, which critics fear would threaten free speech.
An initial discussion about whether this made sense was held on Wales's talk
page on the English Wikipedia, before being moved to its own project page, where
the means of how the blackout would be implemented was discussed, such as
whether to restrict the blackout to United States users based on geolocation, or
whether to simply have a single black page presented to the user prior to
passing through to the site's content.
Eventually, the discussion led to the choice of enacting a 24 hour blackout
of the site on January 18, disabling normal reading and editing functions.
A vote taken of about 1,800 editors favored the action. The blocking action
was purposely not complete–users could access Wikipedia content from the mobile
interface or mirror sites, or if they disabled Javascript or other web browser
functions.
Other Wikimedia projects were free to stage their own protest with the
Foundation's support for any technical implementations. The German and Italian
Wikipedia projects, and the Wikimedia Commons project voted to include banner
images to support the blackout actions.
[PHNO SUPPORTS THE WIKIPEDIA BLACKOUT BUT WOULD NOT AND DID
NOT REDIRECT OUR SITE TO THE WIKIPEDIA BLACKOUT PAGE OR SHUT DOWN THE PHNO
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE GLOBAL NEWS SERVICE SITE <www.newsflash.org>, specifically DUE TO
THE CURRENT HISTORIC SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
IMPEACHMENT TIMELINE NEWS CURRENTLY GOING ON IN THE PHILIPPINES.
WIKIPEDIA IS PHNO'S MOST USEFUL REFERENCE SITE FOR ITS INFO-NEWS FACTUAL
EDITORIAL REPORTING. PHNO IS A REGISTERED WIKIPEDIAN. DURING THE 24 HOUR
BLACKOUT, PHNO DID NOT NEED TO USE THE REAL WORLD HARDCOPY OF THE WEBSTER
ENCYCLOPEDIA NOR THE WEBSTERWORLD ONLINE]
Wikimedia Executive Director Sue Gardner posted an announcement of the
Foundation's support for the blackout proposal on Wikimedia's blog. The post
received over 7000 responses from the general public within the first 24 hours
of its posting.
Despite the majority support of those polled for the action, some Wikipedia
editors blacked out their own user profile pages or resigned their
administrative positions in protest of the protest; one veteran editor stated
his "main concern is that it puts the organization in the role of advocacy, and
that's a slippery slope".
Coordination of the January 18 action
Although there were no plans to block any mobile version of Wikipedia, German
Wikipedia, Portuguese Wikipedia, Russian Wikipedia, Ukrainian Wikipedia,
Vietnamese Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons were expected to run banners on
January 18, without a full blackout.
Other sites indicating an intention to run banners included Google and TV
Tropes, while websites planning a full blackout of at least several hours
duration included Craigslist, Reddit, Boing Boing, A Softer World, Cake Wrecks,
Destructoid, dotSUB, Free Press, Good.is, Good Old Games, little-apps.org,
Mojang, MoveOn.org, Mozilla, Tucows CallAvoiders.com and TwitPic, as well as a
number of other sites.
Reaction
Pre-blackout
The announcement of the blackout was reported worldwide.
Media that covered the story included ABC Australia, CBC, BBC, der Spiegel, Le
Figaro, Le Monde, Fox News, The Guardian, Menafn, News Limited, Sky News, The
Age, The Hindu, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal
and The Times of India.
Several media organizations including The Washington Post, The Guardian, and
NPR encouraged a "crowd-sourcing solution for those left searching for answers"
during the Wikipedia blackout by inviting users to ask questions on Twitter
using the hashtag #altwiki.
A Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) executive dubbed the blackout
plan an example of the "gimmicks and distortion" that inflamed passions while
failing to solve the problem of copyright infringement by "draw[ing] people away
from trying to resolve what is a real problem, which is that foreigners continue
to steal the hard work of Americans".
Former US Senator and MPAA Director Chris Dodd stated that the coordinated
shutdown was "also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in
the marketplace today."[37]
Dick Costolo, CEO of social networking site Twitter, rejected calls for
Twitter to join the protest saying "[c]losing a global business in reaction to
single-issue national politics is foolish." He later clarified he was referring
to a blackout of Twitter and is supportive of the Wikipedia blackout.
The sponsor of the bill, Representative Lamar S. Smith, called the blackout a
"publicity stunt," stating "it is ironic a website dedicated to providing
information is spreading misinformation about the Stop Online Piracy Act."
During the blackout
The Wikimedia Foundation reported that over 162 million people had visited
the blacked-out version of Wikipedia during the 24-hour period, at least 4
million of whom used the site's front page to look up contact information for
their U. S. Congressional representatives.
The usage of Wikipedia's front page increased enormously during the blackout
with 17,535,733 page views recorded, compared with 4,873,388 on the previous
day. A petition created and linked to by Google recorded over 4.5 million
signatures, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation reported that more than 1
million email messages were sent to congressmen through their site during the
blackout.
During the day of January 18, six senators who had been sponsors of the
bills, including Marco Rubio, PIPA's co-sponsor, Orrin Hatch, Kelly Ayotte, Roy
Blunt, John Boozman, and Mark Kirk, stated that they would withdraw their
support for the bills. Several other congressmen issued statements critical of
the current versions of both bills.
Post-blackout
The impact of technology companies coming together as a common goal to
address Congressional action was considered significant. Yochai Benkler of the
Berkman Center for Internet & Society stated that the January 18 blackout
was "a very strong public demonstration to suggest that what historically was
seen as a technical system of rules that only influences the content industry
has become something more," further adding "You've got millions of citizens who
care enough to act. That's not trivial." California House member Darrell Issa
called the collective effort a means of upsetting a backroom lobbying effort.
One Silicon Valley lobbyist said the content industry had "a lot to learn,"
noting that they don't have grassroots support: "There are no Facebook pages to
call your congressman to support PIPA and SOPA."
Newspaper editorials had mixed views. The Boston Herald called the protest a
"hissy fit" by "Internet powerhouses" saying, "within hours of the online
protest, political supporters of the bill... began dropping like flies, thus
proving how very powerful these cyber-bullies can be."[50]
The shutdown also prompted a cartoon response from Matt (Matthew Pritchett)
in the British Daily Telegraph.[51]
SURVIVING THE WIKIPEDIA BLACKOUT By Jennifer
Faerber Courtenay
Students are being stumped and conversations stalled without the supplement
of Wikipedia this Wednesday.
Try searching for anything at www.wikipedia.org and you'll be taken to a
darkened screen with a message about new internet laws being considered in the
United States.
"These bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign
web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free
expression while harming the Internet," reads the only accessible Wikipedia
page.
The stunt has got the world talking.
"Wikipedia is shutting down for 24 hours. How will I write my thesis!!" wrote
one student on Facebook.
"I wish I had a hard-copy set of encycolpedias right now. Their stock would
instantly rise today!" joked another, "Seriously, this is a pretty neat way to
protest."
For those who need their fix, there is a way to access Wikipedia's wealth of
information: Use Google Chrome to visit the French Wikipedia page. The browser
will ask if you'd like to translate the page and it's as simple as clicking
'Translate.'
However, the people behind Wikipedia say that's not the point and they
actually need their users' help.
"[The two laws] will affect sites outside of the United States, and actions
to sides inside the United States (like Wikipedia) will also affect non-American
readers -- like you," reads the one accessible page. "Calling your own
government will also let them know you don't want them to create their own bad
anti-Internet legislation."
SOPA Protest Freaks out Wikipedia Users who Don't Read
By IBTimes Staff Reporter
Wikipedia shut down Wednesday to protest two Internet-regulation bills
Congress is considering. The site clearly states:
"For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest
encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering
legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours,
to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia."
That didn't stop high school students writing term papers from freaking out
and wondering whether the protest was closer to
Wiki-mageddon.
One Twitter feed under the name Herpderpedia became the collecting point for
tweeter-dees who hadn't bothered to do their own research into the wiki
shutdown.
"NOO WIKIPEDIA I NEED INFORMATION FOR MY ESSAY RIGHT NOW WHY ARE YOU DOING
THIS TO ME?!?!?!" tweeted Harry Gibson.
"not just wikipedia that's being victimised. do obama and his cronies
realise how inconvenient they are being?!" tweeted Eilidh Wright.
IN Facebook, many rants cussed out Obama, Wikipedia and used foul language
liberally.
Katie Notopoulos, a Brooklyn-based blogger, also highlighted some of the
posts from confused Wikipedia users.
"Thanks a lot congress you just made my homework that much harder. Screw you
Wikipedia!" wrote Kaleb Hogan.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
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