Legislation could ‘fatally damage’ the free Internet, online encyclopedia says
In a sign of protest against two proposed Internet anti-piracy bills, online encyclopedia Wikipedia has pledged to make its English-language site inaccessible for 24 hours, starting at 5 a.m. E.T. on Wednesday. Users, however, quickly discovered a way to circumvent the blackout, the Los Angeles Times reports. The move is intended to draw awareness to the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect-IP Act, currently before the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate respectively, which Wikipedia says would make it and other websites legally responsible for monitoring the copyright compliance of content on other sites to which they link. Many other sites have joined or are supporting the blackout. Google, for example, remains operational, but has posted a link to more information about SOPA and PIPA. Major Internet companies including Google, Twitter, Wikipedia, and Yahoo! said in an open letter last month the legislation would give the U.S. government censorship powers “similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran.”