Wikipedia founder and current online pin-up Jimmy Wales has announced that he may well blank out every page on Wikipedia in response to the Stop Online Piracy Act bill that's set to take place in the US.
Wales has been against the idea of the bill since day one, believing that it will throw the web into disarray and many a website will be harmed by faulty claims of copyright infringement.
White out
The US senate, however, believes the bill is needed to make sure the country's rights holders are given a fair shout at stymieing online piracy.
Wales is planning to fight the bill by blanking out Wikipedia US in its entirety – a kind of self-censorhip sit-in.
This is something that happened in Italy earlier in the year and by all accounts actually worked, with Wales noting: "A few months ago, the Italian Wikipedia community made a decision to blank all of Italian Wikipedia for a short period in order to protest a law which would infringe on their editorial independence. The Italian Parliament backed down immediately."
Wales is currently consulting Wikipedia editors on a blackout, which he is hoping will send out a strong message to English-speaking internet users.
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