

Pledge support to Wikipedia if they do a SOPA blackout - yanowitz
http://www.wikipediablackout.com/

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kevinalexbrown
I support an HN blackout, a Reddit blackout, and I would even be happy, if
somewhat hesitant, about a Wikipedia blackout.

But I absolutely do not support the conditional donation (excuse me, payment)
to Wikipedia to get it to take a particular political stance, even if that
stance concerns its long term survival. This is worse than "donate to a
politician, hope they vote your way" -- this is "pay Wikipedia money if and
only if it performs a specific action on a specific date and time." That goes
so far against why I love Wikipedia, and why it performs such a unique
service. Small, tight teams, no strings attached donations, unfettered public
input. Those are things worth preserving and fighting for, but not at the cost
of those things themselves.

I would hope Wikipedia returns the money or donates it to some other worthy
cause in the event of a blackout. Culture of an institution is a delicate
thing, and where and, perhaps more importantly, _why_ you get your money can
dramatically shift that culture one way or another. Wikipedia has a great
culture. Is that really worth risking?

~~~
redthrowaway
Agreed. I made my donation to the WMF during their last fundraising round, and
I'm participating in the discussions about a blackout. That's the extent of
the influence I feel comfortable attempting to exert.

The proposal comes from the right place, but it goes against everything
Wikipedia stands for.

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lell
I pledged. In fact I'll donate $100 if they blackout. Those who oppose
blackouts claim that sites like wikipedia google might lose money, or that
they are essential services like utilities. I'm not sure if the essential
service analogy is valid, but it doesn't matter: correct me if I'm wrong but
the letter of the law of SOPA says that wikipedia.org can be wiped off the
internet as soon as it passes without ANY due process, just because some
people have uploaded images they don't own copyright for. Of course,
apologists will note that shutting wikipedia down won't happen, because the
bill is aimed at stuff like counterfeiters and torrents. To this I can only
say it won't be the first thing that happens. What it does is that it gives
the US government a guillotine around wikipedia's neck that they could pull at
any moment: the legal power and infrastructure for shutting it down. This is a
total affront to the independence of wikipedia as a non-profit organisation
(and to google & facebook as corporations).

By pledging we can reduce the cost of a blackout, make it more economically
viable for them, so they do it and show the world that if wikipedia(google,
facebook) really are essential, then their independence should be protected
from the growing nationalistic forces of the US government.

~~~
studentrob
This has probably been beaten to death but I wouldn't support a Google or
Wikipedia blackout. What if someone were bitten by a snake, snapped a photo of
the snake, and needed to look up the type of snake in order to administer the
right anti-venom? I bet you anything doctors these days are using the web to
do quick checks just as the rest of us do in our day jobs.

On the other hand, homepage placement for Google or something on every page of
Wikipedia for a day would be nice.

FB is non-critical but I wouldn't expect them to go for it. They are off on
their own island of hubris and not about to cooperate with any other
organization, much less with Google who is encroaching on their social
territory.

If twitter did it the entertainment industry + followers would be running
around with their heads cut off

~~~
jarin
What will happen if these sites are taken down permanently and someone needs
to look up the type of snake?

~~~
rcavezza
There is a 0% chance SOPA will lead to Wikipedia or Google being taken down
permanently.

~~~
redthrowaway
No, but it may well lead to increased legal costs for Wikipedia, as well as
forcing them to hire people to ensure no copyrighted material is posted (a
daunting task on a site that size). Those increased costs could seriously
affect their ability to continue to finance themselves through donations.

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eekfuh
How do I know if I donate through this site that Wikipedia will actually get
the money.

Also the domain registration is private and through GoDaddy too. (less
credibility to me)

(I'd gladly donate to wikipedia, but not through this site)

EDIT: I thought they were taking the donations, my bad. It's a demand progress
site. Odd that they'd still use GoDaddy (even if GoDaddy eventually denounced
SOPA).

~~~
rhizome
GoDaddy has not denounced PIPA, and at any rate the BSA is still on the ball
as well. GoDaddy is playing both sides of the game.

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Permit
If Wikipedia follows through, I definitely intend to donate more than one
dollar. I hope this can get some traction, as it would really help the fight
against SOPA if they participated.

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neilk
I don't know if anyone cares, but Wikipedians have been discussing a SOPA
action for some months now.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative>

The Wikimedia Foundation will support whatever the community decides. And the
community is not waiting for a "money bomb" or whatever. So I don't think
donations are going to matter in the slightest.

Activists' support for a boycott may influence it a little bit, but it's
really going to be a matter of consensus, and then someone in the community
stepping up to the plate to implement something.

The proposals have "triggers" attached, like, "if SOPA is going to a floor
vote, trigger blackout 48 hours beforehand" (that's just an example). Nobody
has yet talked about a trigger in sympathy with a site like Reddit.

In my opinion, while it might make sense for Reddit to go dark when kn0thing
is testifying before a committee, I think there is some risk of weighing in
too early. You can't do this sort of thing twice.

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acangiano
There is an error around "I'm not in the US". I had to manually run
javascript:go_foreign().

~~~
lell
I had this error too. To "manually run" the javascript, replace the URL in the
URL bar by "javascript:go_foreign()" w/o the quotes and press enter.

~~~
dserodio
This doesn't work for me, "Uncaught ReferenceError: go_foreign is not defined"

~~~
JamesBlair
And there are no contact details, so we can't even tell them that their page
is broken.

edit: Taking a gamble on emailing the registrant.

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ultrasaurus
I support the blackout, and the company I work at is trying to figure out how
to support it (we aren't consumer facing), but isn't influencing the site
through money the kind of thing Wikipedia wanted to avoid by not allowing
advertisements?

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brunoqc
The "(I'm not in the US)" link is broken.

It's : "<http://act.demandprogress.orgjavascript:go_foreign()>

Should be : "javascript:go_foreign()"

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rhizome
How about we pledge $1 for every day, starting now, that they blackout until
both PIPA and SOPA are killed unceremoniously? Why wait, just do it now.

~~~
jarin
As a frequent Wikipedia reader, I support the minimum blackout period
necessary to generate mainstream media coverage and no more.

~~~
rhizome
Don't worry, I'm sure there are enough people like you where it wouldn't take
very long. Leahy's staffers, for instance.

