Wiki Page, Social Media: W3.4 SOPA and PIPA Protests

Wiki Page
2013-05-15T09:38:48-06:00

SOPA and PIPA Protests

(aka "The Day Wikipedia went black ...")

I was teaching Social Media the day of the Wikipedia Blackout. It was quite amusing to do a Twitter search for "Wikipedia" and read all the tweets from desperate people who could not access Wikipedia (and didn't think to do a google search on how to get around it). The simultaneous blackout of many popular sites across the Internet sent a powerful message and "rallied the troops" to contact members of congress and sign petitions.

Description from TEDtalksDirector: What does a bill like PIPA/SOPA mean to our shareable world? At the TED offices, Clay Shirky delivers a proper manifesto -- a call to defend our freedom to create, discuss, link and share, rather than passively consume.

Defend Our Freedom to Share (or Why SOPA is a Bad Idea)

Description from Al Jazeera: In January 2012, two controversial pieces of legislation were making their way through the US Congress. SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, the Protect Intellectual Property Act, were meant to crack down on the illegal sharing of digital media. The bills were drafted on request of the content industry, Hollywood studios and major record labels. The online community rose up against the US government to speak out against SOPA, and the anti-online piracy bill was effectively killed off after the largest online protest in US history. But it was only one win in a long battle between US authorities and online users over internet regulation. SOPA and PIPA were just the latest in a long line of anti-piracy legislation US politicians have passed since the 1990s.

Al Jazeera: Fault Lines: Controlling the Web

Here are a few different perspectives on the SOPA / PIPA Bill.

Beyond SOPA Editorial, New York Times, Jan 28, 2012.

What is SOPA Anyway? A Guide to Understanding the Online Piracy Bill, by Amy Schatz, The Wall Street Journal, Jan 18, 2012.

Defending SOPA and PIPA (Transcript), On the Media, Jan 20, 2012.

| |