Recently, Wikipedia shut down for a day to protest the anti-piracy legislation that is still being debated in the House of Representatives. According to the Wikipedia entry, the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA “if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.” The Wikipedia entry further elaborated that the “originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department...
Read moreRecently, Wikipedia shut down for a day to protest the anti-piracy legislation that is still being debated in the House of Representatives. According to the Wikipedia entry, the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA “if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.” The Wikipedia entry further elaborated that the “originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.”
Critics of Wikipedia’s making a stand against SOPA are concerned that Wikipedia is violating one of its own “five pillars” of conduct which states that Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view and strives to avoid advocacies.
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