We all rely on Wikipedia to find out information about celebrities, public figures and generally anything. However if you tried getting onto Wikipedia today you would have seen this message:
All Wikipedia pages in English have been taken down by the company in protest against proposed anti-piracy bills in the US. The idea has been referred to as ‘The Blackout’.
The two bills that have been called into question are:
1. Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa)
2. Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa)
Both bills are currently being debated by Congress, however there has been considerable opposition from people who believe that both proposals have been badly drafted. Among those who oppose the proposals is Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales. Wales has commented saying “These bills are very badly written” and has therefore made the decision to blackout information on his website. The point, according to Wikipedians is to show the negative consequences of Sopa and Pipa; this being a limit on freedom of information.
Sopa and Pipa aim to prevent access to websites which host unauthorised copyright material. The proposals aim to stop websites from infringing copyright laws by granting content owners and the US government power to shut down such sites. Sopa also requires search engines to remove results for websites that contain unauthorised material. The general aim of both bills is to ensure that unauthorised content and copyright laws are not breached. However, although the proposed legislation is primarily concerned with US copyright law, it will, needless to say, have an impact on the rest of the world due to the nature of the Internet itself.
The Internet has always been promoted as a free and open space for people to express their views and share information. However there seems to be a conflict between how far this can be achieved and whether doing so may break laws relating to copyright and intellectual property.
It remains to be seen, whether today's effort to discourage online censorship will be effective.
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| Blogging website WordPress.com also participated in the Blackout putting censorship signs on the their homepage |
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