[Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA

[KIZU Naoko]

Thanks, Jay and everyone both involved and concerned. I tried to give
an input but page was too edited and thus cause edit conflict, and
perhaps I'd not be alone :D I hope everyone who happened to miss the
opportunity to submit their own voices to the wiki page, they however
are pleased to the process and result community consensus.

On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 12:22 PM, Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for this announcement Jay, and everyone involved in the planning of
> this unprecedented action.
>
> Quick clarification:
> What time, precisely, will this be occurring?
> The on-wiki summary states "...for 24 hours starting at 05:00 UTC on
> January 18, 2012, or at another time as determined by the Wikimedia
> Foundation." could you just confirm what time this will happen, thanks.

Same clarification of the exact hour is highly appreciated. Reuters
say it'll begin at Jan 18, 2012, EST, 0:00, but I don't know their
source. If the given hour is incorrect, the sooner collection, the
better.

Cheers,

>
> -Liam
>
> On Tuesday, 17 January 2012, Jay Walsh <jwalsh at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>> Please also see the related blog post,
>>
> http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-sopa-blackout-january-18/
>>
>> The release is posted here:
>>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_to_go_dark
>>
>> *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_conclusion
>> ):
>>
>> 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.
>> _______________________________________________
>> foundation-l mailing list
>> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>>
>
> --
> Peace, love & metadata
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l



-- 
KIZU Naoko / 木津尚子
member of Wikimedians in Kansai  / 関西ウィキメディアユーザ会 http://kansai.wikimedia.jp