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| Screenshot from http://en.wikipedia.org |
The
Internet's largest and most popular general reference has gone dark. Wikipedia
has joined a protest against something it believes is even darker: passage of
the Stop Online Piracy and Protect Intellectual Property Acts.
SOPA and
PIPA have not even made it to the Senate floor, but have already caused public
outrage. Internet giants such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo, AOL and many others
have likened the bills to China-style censorship. The bills, which are perhaps
the most controversial pieces of proposed legislation in recent American
history, were supposedly written to protect copyrighted material. But most
believe the bills would cripple the Internet, effectively killing all websites
allowing user-uploaded content, endangering potential whistleblowers and
severely damaging online freedom of speech. And amid fears they will lead to
unprecedented censorship, many web moguls are trying to take matters into their
own digital hands.
Today’s
blackout is the biggest act of defiance yet. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said
on Twitter that the move “will be wow” and that he hopes “it will melt phone
systems in Washington,” before urging followers to spread the word. The world’s
6th most visited website joins Reddit, TwitPic, Mozilla, WordPress and others
in their protest – a decision that did not, according to Wikimedia Foundation
Executive Director Sue Gardner, come lightly.
Gardner
said that “it is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of
these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web. Over the
course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to
discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and
PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community
discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that
Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation.”
The press
release went on to say that “the overwhelming majority of participants support
community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two
bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a
'blackout' of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other
websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.”
But while
the move is most definitely a grand stand, will it do anything more than force
students to do their homework early – and perhaps even reintroduce printed
reference sources to the digital generation?
It might.
The Obama Administration responded to an anti-SOPA and PIPA petition, claiming
it “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases
cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”
Which was
taken by most to mean that these bills will never see life as laws, because all
of the above is exactly what SOPA and PIPA do. But has that really ever stopped
the US government from pushing through legislation deemed “important”? Look at
the Department of Homeland Security's “See something, Say something” program,
under which almost any action – including paying cash, buying waterproof
matches and having discreet phone conversations in public – can be seen as
potential terrorist activity. Look at the NDAA, which allows indefinite
detention of anyone, including American citizens, suspected of terrorist
activity.
So if
you’re sitting there reading this, with some cash in your pocket and a website
where someone may have posted something that may lead to something else that is
potentially suspicious – expect the might of the US security and legal systems
to knock – or bust through your door. They might not even have a warrant,
having convenient access to the so-called ‘sneak-and-peak’ granted by the
Patriot Act. Of course, those were also created to capture terrorists, but as
we’ve established, we may all soon be branded as such because of a YouTube
search.
Jokes
aside, though – what about the arguments used to push the bill forward? Surely
copyright infringement should be battled? And shouldn't the companies losing
money everywhere because of pirated content be protected?
They
should. But what SOPA and PIPA opponents are so upset about is that the bills
are not specific enough; that they’re heaping all Internet users together and
branding them as one step short of evil, instead of clearly defining what
constitutes an illegal activity and how it can realistically be battled.
For now,
however, most, including www.demandprogress.org founder and executive director
Aaron Swartz, believe the Acts will change the rules for the Internet not just
in the United States, but around the world.
“Under this
bill, the rules totally change. It makes everyone who runs a website into a
policeman. And if they don’t do their job of making sure nobody on their site
uses it for anything that’s even potentially illegal, the entire site could get
shut down – without even so much as a trial,” Swartz says.
So before
the Acts become final, those in favor of an open information pool for the
people are trying to make their final act count.
Katerina Azarova, RT
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