Today’s shutdown of Wikipedia, one of the Internet’s most-visited sites, is not sitting well with some of its volunteer editors, who say the protest of anti-piracy legislation could threaten the credibility of their work. “My main concern is that it puts the organization in the role of advocacy, and that’s a slippery slope,” says editor Robert Lawton, a Michigan computer consultant who would prefer that the encyclopedia stick to being a neutral repository of knowledge. “Before we know it, we’re blacked out because we want to save the whales.” Wikipedia’s English-language site shut down at midnight Eastern Standard Time Tuesday and the organization says it will stay down for 24 hours. The Wikimedia Foundation, which administers the site, announced the blackout late Monday. The protest is aimed at the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act under consideration in the Senate. Both bills are designed to crack down on sales of pirated American products overseas, and they have broad support in the film and music industries. Among the opponents are many Internet powerhouses such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and AOL. They say the bills would hurt the industry and infringe on free-speech rights. Many sites are demonstrating their opposition to the bills by shutting down today or otherwise making statements about SOPA and PIPA on their sites. Read the full story by The Associated Press here. CBSnews.com, meanwhile, has an overview of SOPA and PIPA at its website here.
Today’s poll question: Do you think the online protests being staged today by Wikipedia and others will strike a blow to the SOPA and PIPA bills?
