Internet Goes Dark in SOPA Protest

Today, in a solidary act of protest against the "Stop Online Piracy Act"—or more commonly, WTF SOPA—some of the largest and most beloved sites on the internet have gone dark. The most notable name on the list of protesters is Wikipedia, who have made it so any attempt to access their compendium of information will instead be met by the following message:

Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge: 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.

Other websites taking part in the protest include Reddit, 4chan, Google.com [Edit: and numerous others]. Together, their efforts work to raise awareness about a piece of legislation that could dramatically affect the landscape of the internet, potentially rendering their services—and many others—unusable. Though the protests may not have a direct impact on the workings of the U.S. government, the shear size of these websites will at least ensure that SOPA becomes common knowledge. Better yet, this type of gimmick is guaranteed to finally make SOPA a notable story in the mass media. 

To learn more about SOPA, check out Wikipedia's SOPA Initiative page, or while it's still up, Reddit's SOPA Protest Homepage. And if you're really inclined, check out the SitRep segment of this week's episode of The Hex19 Geekcast for an in-depth discussion of what SOPA means for us Canadian geeks. 

Comments

[Neal Lacy]

Boooo to SOPA. Let's keep this thing for EVER passing!

Neal Lacy
United Call Center