News

Reddit shutting down to protest SOPA/PIPA, Wikipedia may follow suit [UPDATE: Minecraft, too]
Posted: 13.01.2012 17:01 by JonahFalcon Comments: 3
[UPDATE: Developer Mojang has announced that Minecraft, too, will be "going dark" on the 18th January.]

Major news aggregate site Reddit.com has announced that it will be shutting down on the 18th January for 12 hours to protest the SOPA and Protect IP bills that are on the US Congressional floor, and Wikipedia may follow suit.

Reddit publicly announced its plans on Tuesday, stating that the site will be shut off from 8AM EST to 8PM EST on the 18th January. The site will instead display a message educating viewers about the dangers of SOPA and Protect IP, as well as a live video stream of a Congressional hearing about the legislation’s potential affects on the Internet. Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian will be attending the hearing alongside other internet providers.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has stated that he supports Reddit's shutdown, and is considering having Wikipedia join the blackout as well, pending a meeting with his government affairs adviser, after which there would be a fast thumbs-up/thumbs-down vote with other Wikipedia execs.

“We need to move forward quickly on a concrete. We don’t have the luxury of time that we usually have, in terms of negotiating with each other for weeks about what’s exactly the best possible thing to do,” Wales stated.

Wales did not elaborate what Wikipedia would do if it did indeed go ahead with the protest. It's probable the site, too, would air the live stream and post its own concerns about the bill.

SOPA and Proect IP looks to give content-producing companies the right to order a website that they believe is infringing on a copyright to take content off the site. Even if the site only hosts links to content that infringes on a copyright, the owner will have to take it down. Sites that don't comply could have their advertising and transaction revenue cut off or request that the domain name be blacklisted and rendered inaccessible.

Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony removed their public support of the bills, but are suspected to tacitly endorse the bill alongside ESA.
Source: Inc

Comments

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Jan 13, 2012
herodotus
Reddit shutting down for 12 hours would be a strong statement. Wikipedia doing the same would be almost catastrophic, though and would definitely get everyone's attention (all those school students, and probably many of the Congressman suddenly cut off from their vital core reference tool).
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Jan 14, 2012
djole381
May I suggest that Strategy Informer shuts down as well on the 18th?
By Jasca_Ducato (SI Core Veteran) on Jan 15, 2012
Jasca_Ducato
It's sad that things have gotten this far with regards to SOPA.... The thing should have been chucked out at the first hurdle :/ Something I don't quite understand about SOPA though: the main focus of the bill is that it would give copyright holders the ability to target non-US based website; but surely the fact that these website are not based in the US means the US government has no jurisdiction over them, and hence, no power to shut them down, beyond forcing ISPs to bar access to the sites..... can someone help me out here?

UPDATE: Apparently the current Whitehouse administration has their own reservations about SOPA (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy).