Luke: If that is your test, I would feel better if WMF had a policy that said, "No blackouts unless the existence of Wikipedia is threatened." If you read the Senate bill you can see that is not the case now. As a US website, Wikipedia is liable for contributory copyright infringement now, but this does not threaten its existence. If Wikipedia moved offshore, the bill would allow a court to order it to take technically feasible steps to remove links to a priate website. (We have an external link blacklist already.) So, that is not the threat.
Wikipedia has no plans to promote pirate websites from offshore. It does not process money for repayment to pirate websites.
Unless the Justice Dept and Federal judges go crazy, where is the existential threat? I think we need more rational discourse and less passion in all of this. Reading through the RFC does not instill confidence in Wikipedia decision-making process. Thanks, --Bob
The difference is those wars did not pose an imminent threat to the mere *existence* of Wikipedia, unlike SOPA and PIPA.