Preparing for a Web on Strike
Sides both for and against SOPA are preparing for Wednesday's day of action, as other big Internet sites, like Wikipedia and Google, have joined Reddit in its protest. With Wikipedia's announcement that it would indeed blackout its site to raise awareness for the effects of the anti-piracy bill, this has turned into more than just a niche Internet movement. And, anti-blackout grumblings are peaking, with notorious pro-SOPA advocate former senator Chris Dodd calling the effort a "gimmick, albeit a dangerous one." Other sites (Mozilla, TwitPic, Wordpress) have joined Wikipedia in its blackout, while other companies, like Google, which will post an anti-SOPA link, have taken less drastic measures.
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Even as the anti-SOPA camp can't quite agree on the right protest tactic, organizers have confirmed to Politico that over 7,000 sites will strike. SOPAStrike.com has the list of participants, which includes well known Internet destinations like Google, Icanhazcheesburger and Moveon.org. Not all of these sites will blackout, per se, but will "do the biggest thing you possibly can, and drive contacts to Congress," as the site describes. For others, the site also offers other ways to get involved, such as Tweeting #SOPASTRIKE or adding homemade plugins to WordPress blogs.
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Meanwhile, hoping to get the Wikipedialess on their side before the protest starts, the Pro-SOPA side is decrying the whole thing as a publicity stunt. "It’s time for the stunts to end and those who claim to care about rogue website theft to back up their rhetoric and work with us on meaningful solutions," Jonathan Lamy, a spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, told Politico's David Saleh Raud, Kim Hart and Jonathan Allen. The falls in line with Dodd's statement, in which he calls the blackout an abuse of power. "It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests," he said. And, just in time for the mega protest, the SOPA cheerleaders have something to celebrate, as the Judiciary Committee has announced the hearings will resume next month.
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Whether pro or anti the bill, prepare for some Internet outages between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. EST. For those who have some explaining to do to their Wikipedia dependent kids, this teacher explanation of Why Is Wikipedia Going Away for a Day? might help.
