Hallo zusammen,

manche von Euch dürften schon von dem "Stop Online Piracy Act", kurz: SOPA bzw. dem "Protect IP Act", PIPA, gehört haben der in den USA am 18. Jänner als neuer Gesetzentwurf diskutiert wird. Ähnlich wie bei dem Gesetz, welches vor wenigen Monaten zur Protest-Abschaltung der italienischen Wikipedia geführt hat, werden hier grosse Zugeständnisse an die "Content-Industrie" gemacht so dass diese mit einfachen Mitteln missliebige Seiten jederzeit abschalten lassen können.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/US-Senat-Neuer-Anlauf-fuer-Zensurgese... http://netzpolitik.org/2012/sopa-proteste-nehmen-form-an/

Als Protest dagegen wird am 18. Jänner die englische Wikipedia abgeschaltet ("blackout"). In der deutschsprachigen Wikipedia wird ein Info-Banner zu dieser geschaltet. Untenstehend die Pressemitteilung der Wikimedia Foundation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Initiative_gegen_den_SOPA

Auf Initiative des Liberalen Humanisten diskutieren wir gerade darüber eine Pressemitteilung dazu zu versenden. Da die Zeit viel zu knapp dafür ist - die Mitteilung muss heute noch raus um morgen bei den Medien zu sein - haben wir jetzt den Text von der deutschsprachigen Wikipedia hergenommen und im Mitgliederwiki zur vorbereiten der Meldung.

http://mitglieder.wikimedia.at/Projekte/SOPA

Bitte gebt bald Bescheid wie wir verfahren sollen oder helft ggf. mit den Text zu kürzen / umzuformulieren, so dass Christoph ihn heute Nachmittag zur APA geben kann - es sei denn, es kommt Ablehnung zu dieser Idee, dann bitte hier kund tun.

Vielen Dank und Grüsse,

Manuel

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Internal-l] English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:01:12 -0800 From: Jay Walsh jwalsh@wikimedia.org Reply-To: Local Chapters, board and officers coordination (closed subscription) internal-l@lists.wikimedia.org To: Local Chapters board and officers coordination (closed subscription) internal-l@lists.wikimedia.org

(x posted to comcom as well)

Please also see the related blog post, http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-sop...

The release is posted here: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_to_go_d...

*English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA * San Francisco -- January 16, 2012 -- On January 18, 2012, in an unprecedented decision, the Wikipedia community has chosen to blackout the English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United States.

Wikipedia administrators confirmed this decision Monday afternoon (PST) in a public statement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action#Summary_and_co...):

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

“Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. "This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world."

We urge Wikipedia readers to make your voices heard. If you live in the United States, find your elected representative in Washington (https://www.eff.org/sopacall). If you live outside the United States, contact your State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs or similar branch of government. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and want the internet to remain open and free.

*About the Wikimedia Foundation *http://wikimediafoundation.org http://blog.wikimedia.org

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix, Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation receive more than 474 million unique visitors per month, making them the fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, November 2011). Available in 282 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20 million articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000 people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and grants.

*Media Contact: * Jay Walsh Head of Communications Wikimedia Foundation Tel. +1 415 839 6885 x 6609 tel:%2B1%20415%20839%206885%20x%206609 jwalsh@wikimedia.org mailto:jwalsh@wikimedia.org