Wikipedia Closes for the Day to Protest Against SOPA

According to the site, the project that is assessing the Capitol ” will harm the free and open internet “and provide new tools to” censor the international gateways. “Reddit, Boing Boing and others also suspended their activities.

Wikipedia’s website will be unavailable on Wednesday in protest against SOPA (anti-piracy bill) that is being tested in the U.S. Congress on Monday announced the foundation behind the electronic encyclopedia in a statement.

The popular community information source suspend operations of its versions in English on Wednesday and 24 hours in an unprecedented measure that reinforces the growing base of critics of the controversial initiative called SOPA ,Stop Online Piracy Act (Law Against Internet Piracy) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (Law for the Protection of Intellectual Property) that balances the Congress.

Wikipedia is considered one of the most popular sites on the Internet, with millions of visitors every day.

If passed, this law will damage the free and open internet , and bring new tools for censorship of U.S. international gateways, said the foundation of the portal.

The bills aim to attack the pirates to sell American products abroad. Its promoters include the industries of music and film , whose products are often sold illegally. They believe that the legislation is necessary to protect intellectual property and jobs. Opponents say that may damage the technology industry and violates the right to freedom of expression.

Source: AP

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Posted by Paracha on January 17, 2012. Filed under News, Technology, Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry