Lance Ulanoff, the editor in chief of Mashable, probably said it best when he said that implementing the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) would be like returning to the Dark Ages - back when the World Wide Web hasn't been launched yet and everything for most of us was, well, boring. A few days ago, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced that the popular resource site will shut down for 24 hours today, Wednesday, to protest against the SOPA. There is no doubt that Wikipedia has become the world's most beloved resource site in the Internet. To support the cause many other internet giants like Google, reddit, Mozilla, Wordpress, tumblr, Vimeo, flickr, *****, Wired, Imgur, Namecheap and thousands more also protested their views by participating in the organized "virtual protest".

Last year, Wikipedia had over 420 Million unique visitors every month with over 20 Million articles across 300 languages online. While today's protest will only affect the English version of the site, it is important to note that Wikipedia accounts for approximately 25 Million visitors daily - an obviously scary situation for every English-speaking Wikipedia fanatic. If you will head over to the site right now, you will be confronted with the compelling line "Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge". What follows are a set of instructions that will give you the option to reach out to the U.S. Congress in hopes of melting the phone systems in Washington.

On the other hand, the Wall Street Journal said that a Wikipedia representative has confirmed that the mobile version of the website will continue running online (Check out en.m.wikipedia.org). Other popular sites including Reddit, WordPress, Mozilla and Google are joining in the protest as well. Remember that when this bill passes, YouTube will be kicked out too! And that would also mean goodbye for Twitter and Tumbr as well. It's scary isn't it? Help us in condemning SOPA by visiting Reddit's official website right now.


Posted: 18 Jan 2012 06:13 AM PST

I wonder what all the internet providers are thinking about the SOPA bill.If,this bill happens to pass then a lot of people are going to save that $40$ a month and just
disconnect internet service.I think this SOPA bill will impact internet providers to.
I don't know i am a newbie what do i know.

Well turning your site black in protest is pretty silly. Its like breaking your own nose so the bully can't do it.. If Sopa passes it will be like back in the day with BBS's but we have wireless and infrastructure to take advantage of. If Sopa passes lots of new networks will spring to life and it will be the wild west all over again.. ;o)~
Im against Sopa but there must be better ways to protest.

Mainly,wikipedia blacked out page in protest against proposed US laws to stop online piracy ...

I thought it was a good idea. Many people said "Why is wikipedia off today?" That prompted the conversation, which was the goal.

IMHO: I think more people asked 'why is google's logo blacked out'.

Originally Posted by Punch-ur-Soul

I thought it was a good idea. Many people said "Why is wikipedia off today?" That prompted the conversation, which was the goal.

IMHO: I think more people asked 'why is google's logo blacked out'.

After many articles I had read, it seemed that students had been affected the most by wikipedia's outage, and lots of search's of sopa had been made by them. Even in my own school. In almost every class I walked into people were talking about sopa/wikipedia.

I am against SOPA and PIPA also, They will ruin the internet market and supposedly all the websites and even the sales will go down. They will also put taxes to it right? Really crazy. what a crap idea