Jimbo Wales ponders Wikipedia blackout
Found on The Register on Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales is contemplating taking "the encyclopedia anyone can edit" down – temporarily – in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) currently wending its way through Congress.
In a nutshell, supporters claim that SOPA is needed to protect rights-holders from unauthorized use of their content online, while those opposing it say that the law goes too far by placing undue burdens on content-hosting sites, search engines, and ISPs both nationally and internationally, and is based on a "guillty until proven innocent" model.
That might actually be a good move, because politicians only act when they are affected. Taking Wikipedia away from politicians is such a move. On the other hand, letting SOPA pass might not be that bad either as it most likely kills Silicone Valley and causes a change of future development locations to other more Internet friendly countries.