Have you heard about the blackout of the internet today by many internet companies. Wikipedia is just one of those who are protesting a anti-piracy legislation that Congress is considering now. It is said that this bill is targeting companies in foreign nations that steal copyrighted material over the internet.
How often have you gone to Wikipedia in a day for information? Do you think the world can go just one day without access to this site or will it’s blackout be a major inconvenience?
Wikipedia is a user-driven online encyclopedia and one of the Internet’s most visited sites, so it is bound to cause major inconvenience.
At midnight Eastern Standard Time Wikipedia began a 24-hour “blackout” in protest against proposed anti-piracy legislation that many leading websites — including Reddit, Google, Facebook, Amazon and others — contend will make it challenging if not impossible for them to operate.It’s a dramatic response to the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, a pair of bills backed by the motion picture and recording industries that are intended to eliminate theft online once and for all. Read more on www.FoxNews.Com.
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Website will be shutdown to protest anti-piracy legislation
S. 968 and H.R. 3261 would require ISPs to block access to foreign websites that infringe on copyrights. China has become one of the flagrant abusers of online piracy. ”Online piracy from China and elsewhere is a massive problem for the media industry, one that costs as much as $250 billion per year and costs the industry 750,000 jobs, according to a 2008 statement by Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.”, says the FoxNews report.
The problem is how legislation would counter piracy and has many people very upset about it. Google spokeswoman Samantha Smith told FoxNews.com on Tuesday that, “There are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet.”
Participating online protests like Google and Wikipedia, is really a line-in-the-sand action . Although the idea that these companies are taking an active role in protesting this legislation in order to protect the future freedom of the web, there are critics who believe they should stay out of it. How else do internet sites protest legislation that directly affect their businesses than to do something so dynamic that reaches millions of people? It is a brilliant idea!
Visitors to the site saw a stark black-and-white page with the message: “Imagine a world without free knowledge.” It carried a link to information about the two congressional bills and details about how to reach lawmakers. Adding these actions to the shutdown added” a very vocal body of critics who are speaking out against the legislation”.
According to FoxNews.com “the bill’s many supporters — including the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and News Corp., the parent company of FoxNews.com — argue that those critics simply misunderstand the bill.”
The important thing about this legislation is that Congress is trying to do something about piracy threats from places like China and other foreign nations. Be it that they are good bills or not, they need to be spot-lighted to assure anti-piracy legislation does not violate internet freedom, and that it effectively addresses the threat of foreign piracy.
Unfortunately, “opponents have resorted to inaccurate and flatly dishonest claims in an attempt to derail it,” said Timothy Lee, vice president of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Freedom.”
My biggest complaint is that Chris Dodd, chairman of the MPAA, denounced the blackout as a stunt, News.com reported. He said: “[It's] an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on [the sites] for information and [who] use their services.” Typical Democrat thinking, forgetting that FREE ENTERPRISE gives a company this right and is the only recourse for such companies to disagree with the system. This action is NOT irresponsible, it is brilliant and dynamic way to express their protest for a bad law!
