Wikipedia and other sites go dark in anti-piracy bill protest
By the CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) - Wikipedia and several Internet sites shut down at midnight in protest of anti-piracy bills that critics say could amount to censorship
Instead of the usual encyclopedia articles, visitors to Wikipedia were greeted by a message about the decision to black out its English-language Web page for an entire day.
"Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge," a stark message in white letters on a black and gray background read.
"For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia."
The blog Boing Boing, also blacked out for the day, painted a more dire picture on its site.
"Boing Boing is offline today because the U.S. Senate is considering legislation that would certainly kill us forever. The legislation ... would put us in legal jeopardy if we linked to a site anywhere online that had any links to copyright infringement."
The protest is in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill, a piece of proposed legislation that is working its way through the Congress. A similar bill called the Protect IP Act (PIPA) was approved by a Senate committee in May and is now pending before the full Senate.
The controversial legislation has turned into an all-out war between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Media companies have united in favor of it, while tech's power players are throwing their might into opposing it.
If SOPA passes, copyright holders would be able to complain to law enforcement officials and get websites shut down. Search engines and other providers would have to block rogue sites when ordered to do so by a judge. Sites could be punished for hosting pirated content -- and Internet companies are worried that they could be held liable for users' actions.
