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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Wikipedia... Shutting Down?

Discussion in 'Archive: Your Jedi Council Community' started by Ghost, Dec 14, 2011.

  1. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    Wales is considering shutting down Wikipedia, at least for a time.

    He would do so to protest the "Stop Online Piracy Act," which I talked about in this thread, but briefly it would change the Internet in a bad way, giving government the power to censor and shut down sites, hurting sites like YouTube and Wikipedia while also making it very difficult for small site owners and start-ups, as well as hurting cybersecurity.

    I think he should definitely do this, it would raise a lot of awareness and really pressure the US government, hopefully preventing Congress from making a big mistake.

    Link



    Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has threatened a 'strike' where the entire English-language site would be turned off as a protest against an anti-piracy bill currently under discussion in the U.S.

    The site is used by an estimated 365 million readers worldwide, and is ranked sixth overall on earth.

    Writing on his private Wikipedia blog, Wales said, 'A global strike of at least the English Wikipedia would put the maximum pressure on the US government.

    'At the same time, it's of course a very very big deal to do something like this, it is unprecedented for English Wikipedia.'

    The threatened 'strike' - which would black out Wikipedia in English and possibly other languages - is in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is currently before the House Judiciary Committee.

    Opponents of the bill - designed to protect copyright online - allege that it takes a 'guilty until proven innocent approach'.
    Sites such as Wikipedia, where content can be published by any user, are alleged to be at risk.
    The activist group Electronic Frontier Foundation said, 'At a minimum, this means that any service that hosts user generated content is going to be under enormous pressure to actively monitor and filter that content.'

    'That?s a huge burden, and worse for services that are just getting started ? the YouTubes of tomorrow that are generating jobs today.'
    At present, Mr Wales's proposed 'strike' has been put up for discussion on the site. There are hundreds of comments from site insiders, most of which 'Firmly Support' the action.

    'This bill is a threat to the internet, and must be stopped,' says one.

    In Italy, Wikipedia took down almost the entire site in response to a law that would have made it a criminal offence to publish the results of police wire taps.

    The site threatened to make the blackout permanent.

    'A few months ago, the Italian Wikipedia community made a decision to blank all of Italian Wikipedia for a short period in order to protest a law which would infringe on their editorial independence,' wrote Wales.

    'The Italian Parliament backed down immediately. As Wikipedians may or may not be aware, a much worse law going under the misleading title of Stop Online Piracy Act is working its way through Congress on a bit of a fast track.

    'I thought this would be a good time to take a quick reading of the community feeling on this issue.'
    'My own view is that a community strike was very powerful and successful in Italy and could be even more powerful in this case. There are obviously many questions about whether the strike should be geotargetted - U.S-only, etc.

    'One possible view is that because the law would seriously impact the functioning of Wikipedia for everyone, a global strike of at least the English Wikipedia would put the maximum pressure on the US government.

    'At the same time, it's of course a very very big deal to do something like this, it is unprecedented for English Wikipedia.'

     
  2. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    It'd be a little premature, I think. Although a bill like SOPA has a disgustingly good chance of passing, there are a few steps left before it leaves the House, and then it needs to go through the Senate (or be reconciled with their version of the bill, the PROTECT IP Act) and then it has to be signed by President Obama.
     
  3. Dingo

    Dingo Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 23, 2001
    Could this really be? A wonderful early Xmas present.


    Seriously, this is a bit egotistical. Shutting down Wikipedia won't kill the internet, it's not that integral a part of it. Will it bring some extra publicity? Probably. But in the end Google crawlers will have cached a lot of the pages, or otherwise people might have to go a couple of more links down the page to find the info they wanted. There is no way that a site running the model that Wikipedia does is going to be able to keep itself shut down for long and recover. Certainly not for long enough to kill the bill on it's own.

    And given that it's a bill in only one country, it won't engender sympathy from those outside the US. While the servers might be mainly located there, the simple fact is that we of the internet are a fickle lot and really don't care why you are inconveniencing us, only that you are for something that has no effect on us.
     
  4. duende

    duende Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 28, 2006
    it might help them save some money. i say do it.
     
  5. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    Actually, the bill as written could lead to U.S.-based sites being shut down entirely due to lost ad revenue, legal costs, etc., so yeah, it does affect the international community.
     
  6. Lowbacca_1977

    Lowbacca_1977 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2006
    I think, though, doing this early is a good thing to get awareness before we need a last ditch effort.
     
  7. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    Well, Wikipedia could employ that ****ing pop-up that a bunch of other sites are using urging you to contact your representative and senators. :p
     
  8. Dingo

    Dingo Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 23, 2001
    Rather obviously given my history, I know that. But to the average user of the internet, that is not a readily apparent linkage to be made. All they will know is "US law issue, those idiots are at it again. Give me back my often incorrect but all too readily convenient repository of data".
     
  9. Jedi_Reject_Jesse

    Jedi_Reject_Jesse Jedi Grand Master star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 26, 2004
    When I read the first sentence I thought you were talking about the country and I was all like what
     
  10. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    http://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/wikileaks-cables-us-govt-pressured-nz-over-internet-file-sharing-law

    [face_plain]
     
  11. DantheJedi

    DantheJedi Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 23, 2009
    I don't blame thatguywiththeglasses.com for doing that to protest SOPA, their livelihood is at stake here, after all.
     
  12. wannasee

    wannasee Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 24, 2007
    My life would be relatively unchanged if wikipedia went down.
     
  13. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    This.

    If anything it would be one less distraction on the internet for me to endlessly read.
     
  14. Yodaminch

    Yodaminch Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 6, 2002
    But think of the college students everywhere that are too lazy/drunk to make their own power point presentations! They might actually have to do work! :_|

    :p
     
  15. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    I agree, a potshot at Wikipedia is far more productive than actually caring about the possible effects of the legislative toilet paper that is SOPA.
     
  16. Yodaminch

    Yodaminch Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 6, 2002
    In all seriousness, I do care about SOPA's impacts personally as it could have a serious impact on me and the company I work for. However, I fail to see what wikipedia shutting down would do except inconvenience many users who likely already know about SOPA. I don't see how Congress is inconvenienced. And until that happens, this bill is still a very real possibility. Now, if twitter, facebook, google and youtube were to join wikipedia and say shut their doors simultaneously for one hour of peak traffic, then perhaps people would be motivated to act. Short of that, the average person just doesn't know or care enough and I don't believe wikipedia by itself will be the one to light the fire necessary to motivate Congress and the President. It would need to be a forest fire.
     
  17. WormieSaber

    WormieSaber Jedi Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 22, 2000
    I love using Wikipedia, I'm likely on it at least twice a week. But what I don't understand, why don't they do some kind of marketing campaign on their website? So many people visit wikipedia, why not throw up some adds, charge for the adds and then that will pay for Wikipedia.
     
  18. Lowbacca_1977

    Lowbacca_1977 Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Jun 28, 2006
    Um, what does advertising of that sort on wikipedia have to do with this discussion?
     
  19. ApolloSmileGirl

    ApolloSmileGirl Jedi Knight star 8

    Registered:
    Jun 18, 2004
    It really is whatever, I think people should srsly be more concerned about the government involving itself in the censorship of something as trivial as a website like wiki, when you know, there's a lot more important **** going on in our country that could use a better focus.
     
  20. Ghost

    Ghost Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2003
    Wikipedia is going to shut down tomorrow, along with a few others, I think.

    SOPA's author is saying he'll scale it back, and Obama has "kinda" come out against it, but it's not totally dead yet.
     
  21. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    I'm not very up on the stuff in the proposed legislation, but getting hold of copyrighted material from the internet is technically stealing.

    We might like sites such as Pirate Bay, but getting music for free is not allowed and does breach copyright violations. If new rules cause more similar sites to be shut down then although it is hard for some people it is still the law. A creator of a product does have the right to protect it as they wish.

    Youtube already has enough trouble with uploads being taken down as it is, I'm not sure what the new legislation will add to that.
     
  22. Yodaminch

    Yodaminch Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Mar 6, 2002
    The issue with the current versions of SOPA and the Protect IP Act is essentially this: It's too open for interpretation. If these laws go through under their current form, a website can be shut down without notice if content that infringes copyright is posted. Anotherwords, if the mods failed to notice someone had posted a copy of let's say Red Tails on this board. Lucasfilm could simply have TFN shut down. The current law (DMCA) allows for the web host to receive notice so they can take action and remove the content. This law does not.

    So if you have a blog or message board or web site hosted for free by a one of the free providers like wordpress, blogspot, ezboard, invisionfree etc. and one of those sites posts information that infringes on copyright, this law in the current phrasing makes it possible for a judge to order the web host shut down without notice. As a result, you and everyone else lose access to that site. Photobucket and Imageshack come to mind as sites that could, under this law, be affected. As good as these sites are at removing infringing copyright, there are some that slip through. And to essentially condemn these hosts without giving them a chance to remove the content is wrong. But the punishment goes even farther. Sites would be blocked by DNS (still accessible via IP though), and search engines would be ordered to remove listings for that site. Anyone who has studied the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy hearings can draw the comparisons without much effort.
     
  23. GrandAdmiralPelleaon

    GrandAdmiralPelleaon Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Oct 28, 2000
    Facebook & Google were actually also threatening to do one of these black-outs, if I remember that correctly. Reddit is going off-line tomorrow at least. Also, seeing as there are similar laws being pushed outside the US, it's rather important I'd think, not just for the US. [ Interested people may want to read this summary on Reddit about SOPA ]

    EDIT: And a bit of a smart-ass post scriptum, if it's only the English-page version of Wiki, most of us outside the US can cope. Though luck for the Commonwealth I suppose. :p
     
  24. Rebel_Padawan

    Rebel_Padawan Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Apr 11, 2003
    less than 8 hours to go for blackout.

    Has this decision by Wikipedia generated much press in the US?
     
  25. Darth-Lando

    Darth-Lando Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Aug 12, 2002
    Get your homework done early kids!