Wikipedia Closing Down
lolfighter
Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">on the 18th of January</div>Specifically, the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia, is closing down the english wikipedia for tomorrow in protest of SOPA and PIPA. You've probably seen <a href="http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout" target="_blank">the statement</a> by now, but there it is if you haven't.
And they're not the only ones. While I don't have a list, many other sites are part of the protest as well. I'd hazard a guess that this will do more to spread awareness among the general population than anything else has so far.
Thoughts, comments?
And they're not the only ones. While I don't have a list, many other sites are part of the protest as well. I'd hazard a guess that this will do more to spread awareness among the general population than anything else has so far.
Thoughts, comments?
Comments
- Heh, how long would those take to restart
I think you mean "going offline for 24 hours".
Some quick googling shows that Wikipedia closing down for a day will reach 3.5% of the American population (i.e. 3.5% of the american population check Wikipedia once a day at least). Thats a reasonable chunk for such little effort/money.
So around 10,000 people.
The worlds population is roughly 6.8billion. Roughly 2 billion are on the internet.
Yeah. 3.5% of the American population is a "reasonable chunk" if you're talking about a rat nibbling on a crumb.
Source: <a href="http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm" target="_blank">http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm</a>
Edit: Math derp.
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Konata's america is smaller than everyone else's, pop: 285k.
--Scythe--
Faux pas! I knew what I meant!
and apparently 4chan is also blacking out the texts
You also need to take into account that it is specifically america that is the target here.
It doesn't matter if it reaches the rest of the planet, it needs to reach the american population because they're the ones who can do something about it.
So it isn't a few million americans out of a couple of billion internet users, it's a few million americans out of however many americans there are.
Maybe on some level Wikipedia lost a bit of its apolitical status but this is more of a principle/aesthetical question. This type of regulation kind of threats its existence and what it stands for, so its understandable. I think that law is harmul in any case, although its strictly not my business.
sherpa, yeah I guess it will be a balance between the special interests who can pay them enough to compensate for the loss by angry voters.
Though, thanks to this block, even f*king Kuitmo from Lepää's periphery messaged me about this.
<center><object width="450" height="356"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pHOZcHkvkvs"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pHOZcHkvkvs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="356"></embed></object></center>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHOZcHkvkvs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHOZcHkvkvs</a></div>
I doubt that.
It's not called a discussion board for nuttin, add them reasonings.
Is it supposed to be down now or the past few hours? I haven't noticed a thing, or is it for US-based IPs only? (talking about the en. of course).
Is it supposed to be down now or the past few hours? I haven't noticed a thing, or is it for US-based IPs only? (talking about the en. of course).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Presidents generally get flak for using executive powers, and rightly so, as it is entirely undemocratic.
Plus, I don't really see why he'd care, he would probably get offered a lot of money by the various large companies who believe draconian measures like this actually work, so why would he not let it pass?
Lol wrong. Read the bills before you post. If these bills pass it will give the United State's Government the rights and powers to close any site (most likely forever) if there is any copy written material on there. That is no matter how it got on there too or what country they are in. Wither it was the site's owners or one of their users (sites like YouTube, Daily Motion, Kontraband, ect.). There are other things that these bills can do but I don't fell like listing them all.
The blackout covers at least some other countries, like Denmark. Well, by now it's cover<u>ed</u>, past tense. If you didn't see it, it's possible you had javascript turned off, as the blackout was just a javascript overlay on top of the regular pages. Which was at least semi-intentional, they didn't want to keep people away from the site entirely, they just wanted their message to be heard.
The law itself would be a US law. That means it could only be applied to US companies and US DNSes. In other words, a server operated and funded completely outside the US could still be blocked through DNS redirection inside the US, but not outside of it. The danger to the rest of the world is twofold: First, the precedent such a law sets: "Hey, if the US starts to censor their internet wholesale, so can we!" And second, the chilling effect it would have on internet entrepreneurship, as well as the self-censorship that would take place. Even though I'm outside the US, many of the sites I visit daily are US sites. I'd feel the effects anyway. And even sites operated entirely outside the US would have to censor themselves for fear of losing a large US user base. This law concerns everyone, not just the US.
khan strikes again
Nothing new, but it explains things succinctly.
Erm, the bill is being passed in the US, by US senators.
Contrary to popular belief the US does not actually have the power to give itself jurisdiction in other countries, at least not without involving the army.
Key words.
All joking aside, you're both right. SOPA wouldn't give the US any legal power outside the country. However, it would have a severe impact on anyone who visits US sites as well as on anyone who visits sites with a sizeable US audience. Between those two groups, that's just about ANYONE who visits the english-speaking parts of the net.
If it does get passed, it's going to be almost funny to watch how detached america gets from the reality, even moreso than it already is. The internet is one of the best information sources available precisely because it isn't really divided by nationality, so it's very hard to get any overall censorship or bias. There will be places that offer every kind of opinion you can imagine, which is something conventional media really doesn't do.
That explains it.
<!--quoteo(post=0:date=:name=Chris0132)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Chris0132)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Oh yes it does give them the power to block incoming and outgoing traffic from the US, basically great firewall of china situation, but it doesn't give them any jurisdictional power outside the US, they can't shut down non-US sites, only block US citizens from viewing them.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Only for the people who aren't resourceful enough in this field, proxy\VPN\assorted other methods of circumventing ordinary routing; will likely be used.
If you can and do find your own differing points of view through great effort, you probably don't need to be exposed to them.
Wow. That REALLY made an impact.
/fail.
And if SOPA passed, you'd just see lots of US sites out-sourcing to other nations to protect themselves. In effect, the US would negatively impact its own economy on a massive scale and they'd have lots of problems.
Mm I was thinking that myself.
I mean it's a pretty common thing that if you make something economically inviable or illegal in one country, companies just ship it abroad where it is viable and legal.
So you're essentially doing the internet equivalent of encouraging sweatshops, they work better for the consumer and get people in your country the services they need, you just lose a load of jobs and all legal control over the production base.
Wow. That REALLY made an impact.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Put it this way: The people who couldn't figure out how to turn off javascript would be the same people who wouldn't know how to use a foreign DNS (and worse: wouldn't know anything about the risks associated with doing that). So yeah, I'd say this did make an impact alright.
Remember: Outsourcing doesn't fully protect you from SOPA. If your site depends mainly on US traffic, SOPA can still block that. SOPA may not be able to directly attack non-US sites, but SOPA CAN block US traffic TO those sites. So you could still lose your entire US audience. Or, well, most of it. The people who wouldn't know how to circumvent the blocks.