Why did wikipedia go dark?

[mincespy]

Is it to protest against piracy?

[Scruce]

A few seconds with GOOGLE gave me this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

Why is Wikipedia blacked-out?

Wikipedia is protesting against SOPA and PIPA by blacking out the English Wikipedia for 24 hours, beginning at midnight January 18, Eastern Time. Readers who come to English Wikipedia during the blackout will not be able to read the encyclopedia. Instead, you will see messages intended to raise awareness about SOPA and PIPA, encouraging you to share your views with your representatives, and with each other on social media.

Why is the blackout happening?

Wikipedians have chosen to black out the English Wikipedia for the first time ever, because we are concerned that SOPA and PIPA will severely inhibit people\'s access to online information. This is not a problem that will solely affect people in the United States: it will affect everyone around the world. Why? SOPA and PIPA are badly drafted legislation that won\'t be effective at their stated goal (to stop copyright infringement), and will cause serious damage to the free and open Internet. They put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won\'t have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn\'t being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won\'t show up in major search engines. And, SOPA and PIPA build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.

Please use Google next time.

[Technical Ben]

Is it to protest against piracy?

Um, it tells you ON THE PAGE. Sorry to shout, but it actually tells you. It\'s like your mother saying 'you are grounded because you broke a window' and then saying 'But why am I grounded!'

The link says it all...

(You don\'t even need google)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

[SteevyT]

This is why I downloaded NotScripts for Chrome (just like NoScript for Firefox). I can still use Wikipedia no problem because it is just a little Java thing that does it. I blacklisted Wikipedia so it can\'t run Java on my computer. I see the main page in that link instead of a big black screen.

[RC1062]

Hitting stop before the script takes affect also works... : D

[JupiterII]

Ya, it\'s not a very good protest. It\'s still really easy to get on the site. Just disable Java in your browser or use a phone.

[Darrknox]

Wikipedia has to host other language based versions of the english site too. It cannot shut them all down for one country\'s protest. Subsequently you can just stop the webpage before it redirects you.

[Altair1371]

Like they said, it\'s not going to just affect the US. The whole world is going to suffer because of our stupidity.

[sneakeypete]

Wikipedia has to host other language based versions of the english site too. It cannot shut them all down for one country\'s protest. Subsequently you can just stop the webpage before it redirects you.

I don\'t get it? Only the English wiki is effected. Other languages are actually made in other languages, they don\'t do a on the fly translation of the English one.

[JupiterII]

It\'s only a protest for the US.

[sneakeypete]

Err, no. The entire English wiki is effected, not just people from the USA.

In other words i\'m saying there\'d be no difference if the wiki itself was actually taken down.

[JupiterII]

Err, no. The entire English wiki is effected, not just people from the USA.

That\'s what I mean, English wiki is down. They\'re not really going to convince anyone to stop SOPA if thy block the Chinese wiki, now are they?

[sneakeypete]

Yes, but what i am saying is, because the entire English Wikipedia is effected, there is no reason why they couldn\'t have actually taken it down, instead of made a script run a screen after the page is loaded.

[RedDwarfIV]

Yes, but what i am saying is, because the entire English Wikipedia is effected, there is no reason why they couldn\'t have actually taken it down, instead of made a script run a screen after the page is loaded.

Shutting down a website comes with all the technical hitches of trying to get it running again. Especially with all the servers Wiki must have to run it all on.

[Darrknox]

Yes, but what i am saying is, because the entire English Wikipedia is effected, there is no reason why they couldn\'t have actually taken it down, instead of made a script run a screen after the page is loaded.

Unless all the wiki pages are hosted on one server. In which case, taking the English one down would take all of them down.

...Wikipedia runs on fewer than 300 servers from a single data center in Tampa, Fla. [sic] http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/06/24/a-look-inside-wikipedias-infrastructure/

After a few seconds of searching...

So, as was stated earlier, etc etc

[Technical Ben]

Ya, it\'s not a very good protest. It\'s still really easy to get on the site. Just disable Java in your browser or use a phone.

It\'s suppose to be easy. It\'s a message, not an attack. :

[Altair1371]

Unlike what SOPA will do to Wikipedia.

[sneakeypete]

That\'s a bit of a stretch...

And yes i realise that they might be on the same servers as the other language wikipedia\'s, but still, wouldn\'t it be possible to actually blank the english language one, is my point.

[Caesar15]

If only KSP website had 300 servers

[Darrknox]

That\'s a bit of a stretch...

And yes i realise that they might be on the same servers as the other language wikipedia\'s, but still, wouldn\'t it be possible to actually blank the english language one, is my point.

For 24 hours? That\'s extremely unnecessary.