Wikipedia blackout | Why is Wikipedia staging a blackout | what is SOPA? | INDIAN NEWS

Wikipedia blackout | Why is Wikipedia staging a blackout | what is SOPA?

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Why is Wikipedia staging a blackout and what is SOPA? 


  • Blackout of English-version site expected from 5am (midnight EST) on Tuesday until the same time on Wednesday
  • Founder Jimmy Wales called the move an 'extraordinary action' against the endangerment of free speech.
  • Redditt, BoingBoing and Mozilla will also join in the protest, while Google will show its support on its homepage.
  • Expected to affect 25million users.
Need to know about the Wikipedia blackout? In this occasional feature, the National Post tells you everything you need to know about the a complicated issue. Beginning midnight Wednesday, crowd-sourced knowledge database Wikipedia will go dark and will be offline for 24 hours as a protest against proposed anti-piracy legislation in the United States. We give you the inside scoop on why the sixth most popular website on the planet has decided to turn itself off for a day and how you can access its pages even though it is offline.


How long will the site be blacked out?
The blackout starts at 12:00 a.m. eastern time (5:00 a.m. GMT) on Wednesday morning and will last until 12:00 a.m. eastern time on Thursday (also 5:00 a.m. GMT).

What exactly is blacked out?
The English-language version of Wikipedia will be offline and replaced with a message related to the anti-piracy legislation going through Congress, SOPA, in the United States. Other language editions of Wikipedia will be unaffected.
Additionally, popular community website Reddit will also be offline, as well as Boing-Boing and several smaller websites.
WordPress is suggesting users black out their own websites, but is not forcing any blackouts.


Whoa, SOPA? What the heck is that?
SOPA, which stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act, is a piece of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives. The act is designed to target copyright infringers online through a series of harsh penalties.
In the U.S. Senate, a separate companion bill is called the Protect Intellectual Property Act or PIPA...

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