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I suspect that, among the informed, the main determiner of people's stance on this issue is their belief whether Wikipedia would be able to continue to exist in

by gwillen 15y ago

I suspect that, among the informed, the main determiner of people's stance on this issue is their belief whether Wikipedia would be able to continue to exist in a world with SOPA. I strongly suspect it would not. It is a specific goal of the new law to remove the safe harbor provision of the DMCA, which would allow the removal of infringing content as a defense; under SOPA, it appears to be within the realm of possibility for Wikipedia to be removed from the DNS in response to any copyright violation, even if it is later removed. I don't see how Wikipedia can survive in such an environment.

gojomo 15y ago
Wikipedia will survive. The silly laws of any one country – even its sponsoring Foundation's home country – would just drive Wikipedia activity into new jurisdictions.
- reissbaker 15y ago
  Except that no Americans could access it, thanks to SOPA's Great American Firewall. And I imagine Americans make up an overwhelmingly large portion of the editors, writers, and readers of English Wikipedia.
  - gojomo 15y ago
    I file a DNS-delisting of Wikipedia.org under "I'd Like To See Them Try It".
    - reissbaker 15y ago
      You'd like every judge in the country to have a Wikipedia kill-switch, and "see them try it"? Because let me tell you: the courtrooms in East Texas are filled with a bunch of nutjobs. And it only takes one of them to do it. Even ignoring the kill switch: this is a bill that would make it illegal to cite sources via hyperlink if the site being linked to contains copyrighted material anywhere, even outside of the linked page, or posted years after the link was originally created. Even if a user posted the link -- and even if that link was swiftly removed by an editor -- Wikipedia would have broken the law for allowing the link to ever have been posted at all, and would be subject to strict penalties. This is a law that Wikipedia literally could not comply with unless it changed its essential character.

by gwillen 15y ago

gojomo 15y ago

Wikipedia will survive. The silly laws of any one country – even its sponsoring Foundation's home country – would just drive Wikipedia activity into new jurisdictions.

reissbaker 15y ago
Except that no Americans could access it, thanks to SOPA's Great American Firewall. And I imagine Americans make up an overwhelmingly large portion of the editors, writers, and readers of English Wikipedia.
- gojomo 15y ago
  I file a DNS-delisting of Wikipedia.org under "I'd Like To See Them Try It".
  - reissbaker 15y ago
    You'd like every judge in the country to have a Wikipedia kill-switch, and "see them try it"? Because let me tell you: the courtrooms in East Texas are filled with a bunch of nutjobs. And it only takes one of them to do it. Even ignoring the kill switch: this is a bill that would make it illegal to cite sources via hyperlink if the site being linked to contains copyrighted material anywhere, even outside of the linked page, or posted years after the link was originally created. Even if a user posted the link -- and even if that link was swiftly removed by an editor -- Wikipedia would have broken the law for allowing the link to ever have been posted at all, and would be subject to strict penalties. This is a law that Wikipedia literally could not comply with unless it changed its essential character.