wikipedia blackout

From 5:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18th Wikipedia blacked itself out in a dramatic attempt to show people what would happen if SOPA and PIPA were passed by the US congress. People responded in their millions, but the threat has not gone away. We join in publicising these links for our readers' benefit and urge you to do whatever you can to protect your ability to read and publish on the internet. And please be aware of copyright infringements.

"Thank you.

The Wikipedia blackout is over — and you have spoken.

Source: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/SOPA/Blackoutpage
More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge. You said no. You shut down Congress’s switchboards. You melted their servers. From all around the world your messages dominated social media and the news. Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet.

For us, this is not about money. It’s about knowledge. As a community of authors, editors, photographers, and programmers, we invite everyone to share and build upon our work.

Our mission is to empower and engage people to document the sum of all human knowledge, and to make it available to all humanity, in perpetuity. We care passionately about the rights of authors, because we are authors.

SOPA and PIPA are not dead: they are waiting in the shadows. What’s happened in the last 24 hours, though, is extraordinary. The internet has enabled creativity, knowledge, and innovation to shine, and as Wikipedia went dark, you've directed your energy to protecting it.

We’re turning the lights back on. Help us keep them shining brightly.

Read more

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Make your voice heard!"