Freedom of the internet vs. the government Giorgina Orofino, assistant news editor
Sites such as BoingBoing, Reddit and Wikipedia temporarily shut down to go against the Stop Online Piracy (SOPA) and Protect Intellecutal Property (PIPA) Acts. As a result, more than 162 million people saw the protest message on Wikipedia, 18 senators backed away from the proposed legislation, and 4.5 million people signed a petition against the acts. The cause for this was the government’s attempt to censor the Internet.
“I would say I’m on the fence on this one. As a recording artist I have music available for purchase, but much of the time my creative works are shared without my consent. These acts would mean that people would not be allowed to share files without the artist who created
them giving permission. Is this a bad thing? Still, I would not like to see some sites shut down because of copyright issues,” said Mr. Cross, English teacher.
SOPA and PIPA would allow copyright holders to enforce disciplinary actions against websites selling false goods or violating intellectual property rights. According to Robert Yu, writing for USA Today, Sen. Marco Rubio, a key sponsor of PIPA, withdrew his support, as well as Sen. John Cornyn. As seen on his Facebook page, Cornyn urged Congress to slow down in pursuing the bills’ passage and that it is “better to get this done right rather than fast and wrong.”
“I think it’s a bad idea for the government to try to control the Internet. It’s like we don’t have any privacy to do what we please anymore. It’s horrible and I definitely am happy that this bill wasn’t passed,” said Andleeb Kushnood, junior.
On January 20th, Sue Gardner, Executive Director of Wikipedia writes on her blog, (http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/20/the-message-from-the-wikipedia-blackout-please-leave-the-internet-alone/) “We’ve made history together, all of us. And I think it’s important we understand what’s happened here, because the ground has just shifted under our feet.”
“I thought it was a great idea, if they wouldn’t have done that, the bill would have went in with a much less fuss. Nobody wakes up and hears about whats going on with the world, with this website being shut down it was a great way to have people nationwide go against this bill,” said Dr. Baribault, Science teacher.
Sidebar:
Websites that were shut down on January 18th
Wikipedia.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ap-interview-wikipedia-founder-hails-communitys-success-in-halting-us-anti-piracy-bills/2012/01/26/gIQAsYV8SQ_story.html -wikipedia founder