SOPA ‘shelved’ indefinitely, but Reddit’s Jan. 18 blackout is still on, as PIPA fight continues [Update: Wikipedia joins blackout]

Andrew Couts
Digital Trends

With a vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) delayed indefinitely due to political pressure, Reddit.com has confirmed with Digital Trends that it still plans to blackout the popular site on Wednesday, in protest of the equally-controversial Protect IP Act (PIPA).

UPDATE: Wikipedia will also blackout its pages on Wednesday. See more details here, and below.

A vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been delayed indefinitely, but the fight against Internet censorship continues: Reddit.com will go forward with its site-wide blackout on Wednesday, January 18, to protest the Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA), Digital Trends has confirmed. PIPA, a similar bill to SOPA, is scheduled to go up for a vote before the Senate on January 24.

“Protect IP Bill is still scheduled for a vote. Senator Reid said on Sunday that they’re still going forward with it, so [the Reddit blackout is still on],”

said Erik Martin, Reddit’s general manager, in a phone interview with Digital Trends on Monday morning.

While SOPA has received the brunt of the backlash, PIPA contains similar provisions, which critics say could usher in an unprecedented level of government-enforced censorship online, harm the underlying infrastructure of the Internet, and hamper online innovation by stifling investment in Internet startups due to a more risky investment environment.

In the face of constituent outrage, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), co-author of PIPA, said in a statement on Thursday that he would be willing to remove the portion of the bill that would empower Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to foreign websites that have been accused to distributing copyrighted material illegally.

Despite the possible removal of this highly contentious provision, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Trevor Timm wrote on the EFF’s website today that

“the fight is still far from over,”

due to a number of other potentially “damaging” parts of the bill. These include the “vigilante” provision, which allows ISPs to block sites voluntarily, without recourse; and the anti-circumvention provision, which seeks to punish sites that give users information for how to access blocked sites.

In addition to Sen. Leahy’s admitted willingness to remove one of the most-criticized parts of PIPA, six Republican senators sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, urging him to postpone a vote on the bill, reports ComputerWorld.

“We have increasingly heard from a large number of constituents and other stakeholders with vocal concerns about possible unintended consequences of the proposed legislation, including breaches in cybersecurity, damaging the integrity of the Internet, costly and burdensome litigation, and dilution of First Amendment rights,”

the senators said in the letter. Signers of the letter include Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), John Cornyn (R-TX) Mike Lee (R-UT), and Tom Coburn (R-OK).

Greater focus on PIPA follows an announcement from House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), a vocal opponent of SOPA, who said that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) “assured” him that SOPA will not be brought up for a full House vote until consensus on the bill is achieved.

“While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House,”

Issa said in a statement, quoted by The Hill.

”Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote.”

Sen. Cantor’s promise to shelve SOPA indefinitely — a major win for the opposition — follows a statement from President Obama’s chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra, and National Security Staff cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt, which said that the White House “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” The statement is not an explicit declaration that President Obama would veto SOPA or PIPA, were they to make it to his desk, but the possibility of such a veto appears to have resonated on Capitol Hill.

In addition to Reddit, BoingBoing, Mojang, Destructoid, Anonymous, and the entire Cheezburger Network have announced blackouts planned for Wednesday. We are in the process of contacting each of these parties to confirm whether or not they still plan to follow through. Wikipedia, one of the first sites to propose a blackout protest, has not yet announced its plans. (SEE DETAILED UPDATES BELOW.)

UPDATE: IHeartChaos.com says that it too will go black on Wednesday, as will the website of Raspberry Pi.

UPDATE 2: Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh has confirmed with Digital Trends via Twitter that all of its sites, including I Can Haz Cheezburger, The Daily What, Know Your Meme, and others, will also be blacked out on Wednesday. Huh urges readers to call their Senators to voice their opposition to PIPA.

UPDATE 3: BoingBoing will also follow through with its blackout plans, according to a tweet by BoingBoing’s Xeni Jardin.

Thus, for best results it is suggested to have this medicine prior an hour of carrying out any kind sildenafil 10mg of sexual activity. cialis fast delivery The price is also within affordable range. Tension or anxiety, drinking buy women viagra on sale here and smoking, drugs for depression are just few causes why sexual dysfunction occurs. When ordering viagra australia mastercard online one should be alert from the duplicate and harmful medications. UPDATE 4: Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales says that the ubiquitous online encyclopedia will go offline for 24 hours on Wednesday, according to Neal Mann, digital news editor at Sky News. The blackout will only apply to English-language articles, and will last from 12am ET, through 11:59pm, on Wednesday, Jan. 18.

UPDATE 5: Destructoid Editor-in-Chief Dale North has confirmed with Digital Trends that it too will follow through with its blackout plans. And an Anonymous spokesperson, Arturas Rosenbacher, the man behind @AnonDaily on Twitter, tells us that a number of popular Anonymous-affiliated Twitter feeds will also go dark on Wednesday. A number of other Anonymous-related Twitter feeds, including @AnonDaily, will remain live to report on the day’s various blackouts and the surrounding activities. We’ll have more details on Anonymous’  Jan. 18 plans, and how to follow the action online, tomorrow morning.

Updated with additional information at 11:43am ET

Source: Digital Trends

 

Wikipedia to black out all 3.8 million English-language pages to protest PIPA

By Andrew Couts

Wikipedia will blackout all 3,847,673 of its English-language articles in protest of the Protect IP Act (PIPA), according to co-founder Jimmy Wales.

Wikipedia is going black on Wednesday, January 18, to help fight the contentious Protect IP Act (PIPA), which is set to go for a vote before the Senate on January 24. The move, first reported by Neal Mann, digital news editor at Sky News, was announced by Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the far-reaching online encyclopedia, on Twitter. Wales says the blackout was a “community decision.”

The blackout will only apply to English-language articles on Wikipedia — all 3,847,673 of them. It will run from 12am ET on Wednesday, through 11:59pm, says Wales, who estimates that as many as 100 million people will view the blocked protest pages.

Wales first proposed a blackout of the site in early December of last year, and asked the Wikipedia community for their input. According to a chart of the responses, created by hacker Shishir Bashyal, nearly 86.6 percent or respondents supported the move, while only 10.5 percent voice opposition to a Wikipedia blackout.

Wikipedia joins the likes of Reddit.com, BoingBoing.net, IHeartChaos.com, and the entire Cheezburger Network, among others, all of which will also be blacked out on Wednesday.

While now focused on PIPA, these planned blackouts were also originally intended to voice opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). This past weekend, however, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) told SOPA opponents in Congress that SOPA would not come up for a vote until consensus on the bill could be met. This follows a declaration from the White House that it would oppose any “legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet” — all of which SOPA and PIPA would do, according to critics of these bills.

Source: Digital Trends

 

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H.R.3261 – Stop Online Piracy Act.  This bill would establish a system for taking down websites that the Justice Department determines to be dedicated to copyright infringment. It would also make unauthorized web streaming of copyrighted content a felony with a possible penalty up to five years in prison. For more details, go here.

S.968 – PROTECT IP Act of 2011.  Establishes a system for taking down websites that the Justice Department determines to be “dedicated to infringing activities.” In some cases, action could be taken to block sites without first allowing the alleged infringer to defend themselves in court.  For more details, go here.