And those of you who are entering panic mode about not being able to edit the wiki for 24 hours, why not take it as an opportunity to try editing one of the sister projects? It's looking like the sister projects are going to remain online. Come write something for Wikinews! ;-)

All, Just a followup email to let you know that the English Wikipedia community have decided on an action for the English Wikipedia with regard to the SOPA and PROTECT acts. The English Wikipedia will be blacked out, worldwide, from 5am GMT on 18 January. The blackout will last for roughly 24 hours. There's a timer counting down at http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/event?lid=0 <http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/event?lid=0&h=0&sts=22114080&sln=5-6&a=show&e uid=2a1130f2-81f4-e3c4-7d37-0a1c1001632d> &h=0&sts=22114080&sln=5-6&a=show&euid=2a1130f2-81f4-e3c4-7d37-0a1c1001632d. If you get any UK press interest, forward them to Jon and me in the office on 020 7065 0990, or to press(a)wikimedia.org.uk. We have a few volunteers with press experience who will be helping out, too (many thanks to them, they know who they are!) Bear in mind that tomorrow will be extremely busy in the WMF and WMUK offices, even though Wikipedia itself will be down. The key points to remember are: . It's the community who decided to do this - not a decree from Jimmy or the WMF, and not Wikimedia UK. We all support the decision of the community, however - we're all in this together . These acts are something that will hurt the freedom of information globally, even though they're (on the surface) US laws. This may well affect every .com, .org or .net site worldwide . Non-English Wikipedias may (or may) be blacking out, depending on the views of their individual communities If you have any major problems over the course of the next 48 hours, or a press query, please get in touch. And if you're looking for something to do, Commons isn't being blacked out, and I imagine that there is a fair categorisation backlog. All the best, Richard Symonds Office & Development Manager Wikimedia UK -- Wikimedia UK is the operating name of Wiki UK Limited, a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Our Registered Charity No. is 1144513. The Registered Office is 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A 4LT. Wikimedia UK is the local chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation (who operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects). It is an independent non-profit organization with no legal control over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents. Visit <http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/> http://www.wikimedia.org.uk/ and @wikimediauk

What is the official UK call to action here? Emailing the embassy? Or could you create a Number10-esque petition? Or did I miss something else entirely?

On 17 January 2012 11:09, Harry Burt &lt;harryaburt(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: I'm wondering too ... we need to know ASAP. - d. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org

On 17 January 2012 11:09, Harry Burt &lt;harryaburt(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

> What is the official UK call to action here? > Emailing the embassy? Or could you create a Number10-esque petition?

1. Find an American friend. 2. Shout at them until they write to their congressman/senator.

I'm really not sure what we can do to help in the UK, though....

Her Majesty's Government should voice its disapproval of any proposed American legislation that would limit the ability of British citizens to speak freely on the internet.

AFAIK, there hasn't been time to put in proper geolocation notices, and the WMF are still asleep (it's 4 or 5am there). However, I believe the best place to forward any comments would be the Foreign Office. That said, I think there's a petition being set up, however... _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org

I note that there is a petition with 280 signatures available at: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/26143 It seems to be fairly strongly (but not badly IMHO) worded, so therefore worthy of our support if we can get geolocation going. -- Harry (User:Jarry1250) On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 12:48 PM, Richard Symonds < richard.symonds(a)wikimedia.org.uk&gt; wrote:

As of time of writing, the U.S. Congress is currently considering the issue of whether to tighten internet policing laws with regard to digital rights enforcement. Whilst the overall goal of these pieces of proposed legislation (mostly notably those known as SOPA and PIPA) is not necessarily disagreeable, the suggested mechanisms for rights enforcement risk damaging the quality, quantity and free character of speech on the internet. Given the global nature of the internet, we, the undersigned, feel that the British Government should consider the possible impact of these measures on British citizens, and are confident that upon doing so it would see the overt and immediate need to speak out on our behalf in this matter. My stab at things. Thoughts? Does it need more explanation? Or is brevity key?

On 17 January 2012 12:51, Harry Burt&lt;harryaburt(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: I'd rather we wrote out own petition. We should focus on the freedom aspects and the workability of the acts, not things like job losses (which I'm not even sure are true).

One thing to make clear when talking to anyone about this is that whilst SOPA/PIPA are proposals in the USA, they are *explicitly* targeted to "foreign" websites. And though the DNS aspect may have been delayed at present it is still in there and will be re-introduced at a later stage. This permits them to block DNS resolution for .COM .NET .ORG and some other TLDs, no matter that the owner of the website/webservice concerned may be in the UK (aka not in the USA), and the servers may be in the UK and the users may be in the UK *and even if geo-IP is used to ensure that only non-USA people can access the site/service then SOPA/PIPA would *still* permit that site to be blocked / taken offline. Also, given that even .UK .IT .NO and all the rest of the ccTLDs refer back to the dozen of so root DNS servers, they too could be poisened under the draft bill as it exists. So make no bones about it, these proposals *will* affect just about every country in the world if they go through. AlisonW _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org

wrote:

Hi all, Personal opinion: The best place to discuss UK-specific text, including for the proposed petition, would be on-wiki at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Proposed_Messages since it would probably have to be a community-driven action rather than a WMUK/WMF one, as with the other non-technical aspects of the blackout (but feel free to disagree with that. ;-) ). Thanks, Mike

Also, given that even .UK .IT .NO and all the rest of the ccTLDs refer back to the dozen of so root DNS servers, they too could be poisened under the draft bill as it exists. So make no bones about it, these proposals*will* affect just about every country in the world if they go through. AlisonW

----- Original Message ----- A very good question indeed ;-P And the answer, of course, is it depends on who you are talking to. Even though it shouldn't. And the people in one country disagree with the rest of the world. Well, who does and who should is two different matters....

----- Original Message ----- A very good question indeed ;-P And the answer, of course, is it depends on who you are talking to. Even though it shouldn't. And the people in one country disagree with the rest of the world. AlisonW

Okay, so http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/27728 is now available, the product of the earlier conversations on this list and onwiki. Thoughts on linking to it in a completely voluntary manner from the blackout notice? Time is of the essence, rather.

Indeed. And what is more, the main page doesn't lead with the SOPA news (but does include a featured article, which I feel quite sad for as few will see it), likewise the [[Portal:Current events]] completely omits the days big event. Given that mobile users, non-scripting browsers, etc. can see these pages it seems somehow wrong that there is nothing on them. AlisonW _______________________________________________ Wikimedia UK mailing list wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l WMUK: http://uk.wikimedia.org