Event though SOPA is temporarily crippled it is not yet dead, and PIPA (the lesser of two evils?) is still going strong. So the fight against internet censorship i all but over... it has just begun.
In fact today Wednesday January 18th will be a global internet "Black Out" day, basically an internet strike. This in protest againt SOPA and PIPA.
Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, WordPress, BoingBoing, and many others will shut down their sites for different lengths of time (Wikipedia a full 24 hours) in protest today.
Even Google are doing their part and although they will not go dark today they will however be linking to anti-SOPA/PIPA information that will be seen by millions of users worldwide.
Even political parties are taking a stand....
Today the Swedish Pirate Party and It´s youth league, Young Pirates join in on the worldwide web strike.
"Today, Wednesday January 18th, a significant proportion of the Internet is on strike against the proposed U.S. censorship laws SOPA/PIPA. True adding a black screen or otherwise censoring their websites organizations, companies and individuals are taking part in this global “Black Out”.To read the pressrelease in Swedish.
Legislative packages SOPA/PIPA opens for the possibility that at any time and without a proper legal process shut down sites that are suspected of copyright infringement.
- Even today, the copyright industry is acting extremely aggressively and uses accusations of copyright infringement as a means to silence people and organizations, says Anna Troberg, leader of the Swedish Pirate Party. With the support of the SOPA/PIPA it would be an even greater threat to our right to freedom of expression, fundamental rule of law and democracy.
- It is extremely important to show how much of what we all take for granted in our every day life would be lost if SOPA/PIPA legislation goes through, says Troberg. Internet is not copyright industry's private youth center, which they can lock the door to when they feel like it. The Internet is a democratic tool that belongs to us all.
SOPA/PIPA and other similar legislation are a real threat to individuals' opportunities to gain a voice in public debate. The ability for individual users to enrich the internet’s waste ecosystem would suffer greatly as these laws in principle would prevent user-generated material, such as comments, twitter and other social media.
- We hope that the strike will cause the politicians to become aware of how great off impact this kind of repressive legislation may have on the society we have built on and around the internet, says Troberg. Today, anyone who has a blog or website can make a real difference for our common future. I hope that as many as possible take the chance."
Our sister parties in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany are also joining in on the protest against SOPA/PIPA!
Related:
Newsmill - Därför stänger vi ner Wikipedia
SvD Ledarblogg - SOPA möter hårt motstånd
Anne-Marie Eklund-Löwinder .SE - SOPA är död – PIPA lever?
Henrik Alexandersson - Onsdag: Strejk på internet
Full Mental Straightjacket - Tänk om Internet inte fanns?
Hultins tankegång - Far åt PIPA:n SOPA
Swedish media:
SvD | Metro | Aftonbladet
International media:
BBC | The Washington Post | CNN | TIME | Global Voices | The Guardian
