The train has been stopped, but it's still on track. Time to push it into the other direction and maybe even let it derail spectaculously. But there is more needed than raising awareness with this blackout.<p>This awareness should be exploited (in a good way) appropriately.<p>- We as those that do understand the issue have the responsibility to explain the problem to the majority. I still find it very difficult to effectively reason against censorship, privacy and the like to "normal" people, in words that they can relate to. A few weeks ago I personally accepted that challenge and are training. I thought this thread was a good inspiration: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3425973" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3425973</a><p>- Those who speak in public, especially in the mass-media, should not think that they can win a discussion only with arguments, no matter how valid they may be. Please ramp up the rhetoric skills. Alexis Ohanian does not look like he is an expert in PR, so maybe he should be joined by public speakers with experience with hostile (and outright lying) opponents, but he made a very good start, and makes notable progress each time I see him. I know I would be killed out there. Thanks Alexis, and keep it up!<p>I applaud the stand that Wikipedia makes and, being a german, propose that the blackout should not end on English Wikipedia. The USA still is the most influential country in the world, and this fight is international, just as the web is international. Please do not mourn for one day without your favorite sites. Show some solidarity among internet citizens.<p>I am quite happy with the progress that has been made.
I know there's a lot of cynicism about whether SOPA law is really being abandoned, or whether it's just being temporarily shelved, but I'm really excited about how opponents have banded together, and how organizations like Reddit and Wikipedia have been willing to sacrifice page views and revenue to show their support and to increase public awareness.<p>In the future, when someone advocates opposing an unjust law and someone else responds that opposition is futile, the anti-SOPA efforts will serve as a compelling and encouraging counterargument.
Wikipedia's sysadmins should make sure their blackout pages return an HTTP 503 (Service Unavailable) response so that they don't accidentally poison the search engine indexes, which risks causing SERP problems well beyond the protest period.
So, what happens when I call my Congressman after learning about this on wikipedia and his office says "oh SOPA, that bill has been put on hold already since last week"? Won't many people get pissed at wikipedia?<p>Edit: I actually think they should call it off <i>at the last moment</i>. Save the nuclear option for another time.
I think that it's crazy that all of this effort is going into opposing SOPA. It seems that there should be a bill/effort drafted to codify the freedom of the internet, and making DNS blocking illegal.
This reminds me when a few months ago Wikipedia shut down in Italy to protest against a similar case regarding censorship.<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3072800" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3072800</a>
This and the cheezeburger network will put it in the eyes of people who wouldn't have seen it otherwise. Sites like reddit already preach to the choir! Go team internet!
To me, the real lesson from SOPA and PIPA is that the tech industry needs to spend a lot more money bribing (oh, excuse me, lobbying) senators and representatives to counter all the money flowing from the entertainment industry.<p>Also, it's an embarrassment that BOTH of California's senators not only support PIPA, they are listed at co-sponsors.
For the addicted (7.3 GB)<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download</a>
Is this US only, or is this going to take it offline for the whole internet? The article doesn't specify, but last I checked there was strong support for a US only blackout.
I'm against SOPA as much as the next person here on HN but I disagree with shutting down Wikipedia. Paul Carr wrote a piece today that argues this case well -> see <a href="http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/16/dick-costolo-is-right-wikipedias-sopa-blackout-is-a-terrible-idea/" rel="nofollow">http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/16/dick-costolo-is-right-wikip...</a><p>Basically,<p>a) Wikipedia's core principle is neutrality. When they strive for neutrality and balance on much more sensitive issues, taking a stance on one particular issue affecting one particular country, you violate that.<p>b) Wikipedia runs on the kindness of strangers, some of whom could potentially be supporting SOPA. It is egregious to spend a month asking for donations on every page and then turn around and deny some of them service.<p>Fundamentally, it is not the job of an open and free repository of human knowledge to take political stances, however harmful and important the topic might be. To those making the point that this threatens the entirety of the internet, that <i>is</i> true. However<p>- The point of being neutral is that you don't get to choose what you're neutral about.<p>- Should Wikipedia shutdown hypothetically over nuclear arms (as an example) - something that could potentially destroy all of humanity? Where do you need to be on the destructiveness scale for Wikipedia to take a stance?<p>I'm not doing as good a job of summarizing this as Paul Carr does - do read his piece.
Was this article on HN front page not true "SOPA to be shelved.." <a href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/putting_sopa_on_a_shelf034765.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2012_01/pu...</a> ?<p>If Wikipedia is still going to shut down then I'm not sure about the veracity of that article.
I wish this was USA only, not for all English Language sites. It might cause a media conversation about how SOPA will put US people, jobs, groups and companies at a disadvantage on the global stage, and might scare US policy makers into thinking that laws like this might be the fall from prominance of the USA.<p><i>sigh</i>
SOPA could cripple the internet. I hope this brings awareness to that fact. I shudder at how I and many more others could lose their job over this, as I am working for a US-based online company. This pertains not only to the US, but internationally as well.<p>eWeek stated, "The language of SOPA is so broad, the rules so unconnected to the reality of Internet technology and the penalties so disconnected from the alleged crimes that this bill could effectively kill e-commerce or even normal Internet use. The bill also has grave implications for existing U.S., foreign and international laws and is sure to spend decades in court challenges."
If SOPA isn't dead, shutting down Wikipedia for a day will kill it because of the degree to which it will raise awareness of the issue among people who don't pay much attention to politics...Wednesday is a school day after all.
Can't they just do a "fake" blackout -- every user's first visit of the day gets blacked out, but with a link to re-enable Wikipedia?<p>I mean, get awareness out, but then still let us read the articles (even with white-on-black text, maybe?)
It will send a strong message for PIPA as well as the similar legislations in future. I still like to see google,facebook .. to come up with something creative on their front page.
I really wish this was done to globally to protest against internet censorship of any kind instead of being such a US centric thing. It feels shortsighted.
I hate that I feel this is an 11th hour response. I guess I just don't understand how a 99% community sponsored website with little direct advertising income or large sponsors would drag their feet on the issue.<p>I do understand the 'late to the party, hard to miss' factor, but the opposite could have spurred more action from other sites.<p>Hoping for a quicker response 'next time', but still damn good on you!
I'm tired of these acronyms, it got confusing today. Are politicians just trying to smuggle it through under a different name at this point? I can't think of a name from recent events with more negative connotations than SOPA, which seems to be why it was abandoned. Are these anti-SOPA messages worth the cost of downtime at this point?
Ever since I heard about SOPA I hoped that Wikipedia would have done it sometime soon.<p>It worked for Italy as far as I know.<p><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/italian-wikipedia-shuts-down-in-protest-of-wiretap-act/246180/" rel="nofollow">http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/italia...</a>
I wonder if SOPA will help unite some of the web big guns, obviously they are teaming up to call out SOPA but maybe this will help develop further relationships and we'll see some partnership projects grow. SOPA could end up doing more good than it does harm, assuming this backlash see's it off.
Curious to know if Google and Facebook has taken any stance on SOPA? Especially Google since they always tout themselves as 'the' open web company. From a business perspective, will coming out supporting SOPA and have a similar protest as Wiki help or hurt Google?
The RfC is not closed yet, so there is still time to vote: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Actio...</a>
Personally I think that the OPEN act might be a better idea than SOPA.<p>Why not give the infringing websites a chance to enter US courts and have due process, or face the consequences in, say, a week? This would make it more costly to prosecute them, but also give them a chance to explain themselves. The courts could possibly give another resolution than just ordering the intermediaries to doing business with them. The threat would be the threat of SOPA (which wouldn't include DNS), but it would be only AFTER the foreign corporation has refused to comply with the decision of the US court for a month.<p>And yes, this would mean that all its subsidiaries and websites would be affected at once. It takes time to build a big broadcasting system, so it wouldn't be whack-a-mole, either.
Wikipedia shutting down is not good news..Its very useful and needed everyday...May be they can make the each page load delayed by 1 minute or so to mark the protest....
Reminder: <a href="http://code.google.com/p/offline-wiki/" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/p/offline-wiki/</a><p>For people who lack the inclination to download Wikipedia.
I don't think this is a good idea. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that many people depend on all over the world. Encyclopedias should not just switch off for political reasons. Books don't turn off. Digital information should not turn on and off either for any reason. A big red banner covering half the page can get the message across without actually making us unable to access the information stored in wikipedia.
Can't they just do it for the US? The english wikipedia is not just for the english-speaking, and it's hell of annoying to have to use google cache for everything...<p>Also why don't they lobby twitter instead? That's the one service congressmen rely on
What's to protest? SOPA is pretty benign now.<p>This just in: The DNS will not be affected. Lamar Smith took it out.<p>And even before, two weeks ago, I posted that only foreign websites which would be prosecuted under US law would possibly be affected by this. So maybe bit.ly and the other URL shorteners would be affected, but that's not a big deal.<p>Before you throw a knee-jerk downvote on this, ask yourself ... are you aware of what the SOPA legislation says NOW? Or is this just inertia from the beginning from SOPA, and you are just against any form of going after foreign sites which host illegal downloads?<p>On a related note, I want to ask ... in the Russian community it's well known that VKontakte has all the songs and you can just listen to them. Does this mean that VK is on the hist list of SOPA? I don't think they care about US advertisers though. What do you guys think?