On 22 January 2012 08:30, Kim Bruning kim@bruning.xs4all.nl wrote:
Wikimedia foundation hires lobbyists on sopa, pipa http://www.politico.com/morningtech/0112/morningtech377.html
Interesting. Any details?
I thought we had already discussed this here, but maybe it was only discussed on the SOPA pages on-wiki? Upshot: the Wikimedia Foundation engaged a DC firm, Dow Lohnes Government Strategies, to help us better understand SOPA/PIPA. They are the folks who've been advising us over the past month or so, helping us figure out how big a threat SOPA/PIPA are, where they came from, what stage they were at, how likely they were to pass, what kind of response the blackout was getting, and so forth.
When Geoff or anybody from the Foundation was opining on-list or on-wiki about SOPA/PIPA, it was with the benefit of the expertise of the DC firm.
It remains to be determined how or whether we will continue using that firm (or any other similar firm). We don't have any intention of doing anything secretive or underhanded.
There is probably more information on enWP's SOPA-related pages.
Thanks, Sue