This is Janurary 18, a day which many websites take the action to oppose SOPA — The purpose of this bill seems to stop “illegal goods” (for intellectual property rights) in the commerce on the network, but in fact, this is a black list about ‘the websites that seem likely to encroach on American’s commercial benefits’. The act is identical to that of the superpower in the opposite of Pacific1.
In my perception, Internet could be an artificial world of anarchy. In here everything can be free, and remind us of an invaluable practice of sharing. We can, surely, choose which thing deserves our pay. However, the incentive is all base on liberty. If there are legislated to censor the ‘illegal’ content in the network, it is impossible and unreasonable. Do not forget, if there is censorship, it can block everything by cooking up unwarranted charges.
Therefore, this day, everybody is on strike. A most famous one is Wikipedia, which is blacked out for this day:
Although the black-out is English version only, and doesn’t affect of the data request from third-party application, such as Wikibot and Article:
Anyway, certainly, it is shocking enough. It is well known that, in Wikimedia, there is always serious attention on copyright to ensure all contents in there are really able to be free to use. Even if it may be blocked, it can indeed expose the moral improperness of Internet censorship.
If you also want to join the event, you can go to SOPAStrike.com for more news. Then, to the best, keep an eye on it by following days besides today. Because public attention can be a massive power.
- If you got it, go to search ‘Internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China’ ↩