Community Corner
Websites Going Dark During SOPA Strike
The strike against SOPA and other anti-piracy legislation begins today.
At least 7,000 websites are reportedly going black today in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act – or SOPA, legislation they say will endanger free information on the Web.
Leading the blackout is online encyclopedia giant Wikipedia, which will go offline for the entire day.
Supporters of the legislation say the bills are necessary to finally monitor online piracy of movies, music and other media.
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However, critics say the legislation infringes on the “free and open Internet” and will introduce Internet censorship laws of other foreign countries.
"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed, MLK. On Wednesday, Wikipedia demands," Wales said via Twitter on Monday, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
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Websites joining the blackout include:
SOPAStrike.com has what may be the most comprehensive list of websites either going completely dark on Wednesday, or supporting the strike.
Users can still use Google’s search engine, but the site will include a link on its homepage in solidarity with other sites going silent. Wordpress bloggers also have an option to go dark on Wednesday.
For those dependant on Wikipedia’s free online information, other sites have offered some alternatives, including Encyclopedia Britannica, Google Scholar, Quora, and IMDb, an internet movie database
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