Wikipedia Blackout

“Imagine a world without free knowledge.” This sentence can be looks at Wikipedia.org site since this afternoon, Wednesday (18/01/2012). This is the official wikipedia blackout response against the approval plan of anti-piracy that being discussed by government of the United States.

“More than a decade, we spend millions of hours to build the largest encyclopedia in human history. Now, the U.S. Congress considered the Act which would fatally undermine the Internet an open and free,” continued the wikipedia blackout website.

This encyclopedia online for 24-hour strike today, in order to raise awareness among users of the importance of free and open source information. Two laws being deliberated, the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (IP ProtectAct), the plan will be passed the U.S. Congress in the near future.

However, only the English version of Wikipedia is breaking down, while the other language versions of Wikipedia, it can still be accessed. Nevertheless, Wikipedia is a non-English language version still showing calls of protest against the SOPA and PIPA on the bar above the Web page.

wikipedia blackout is not alone. Thousands of others joined the protest site. For example, a site owned by environmentalist organization Greenpeace International which put up writing snide: ”Sorry, you are not allowed to read our content.”

SOPA or PIPA, in general, will give the rights to the U.S. government to censor foreign websites unilaterally. SOPA also gives the copyright holder, the right to legal remedies against the owner and operator of a website, if the website is considered to have features that allow for post content that violates copyright.

The proponents of SOPA and PIPA, come from the entertainment industry and the U.S. Chamber Commerce for example wikipedia blackout. They argued, piracy has been harass their business so that the need for this kind of law.