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Wikigeddon Is Upon Us. Oh My!—What The SOPA/PIPA Controversy May Mean
By Roger Lee, the History Guy
As the world prepares for Wikigeddon, also known as the “Blackout” of Wikipedia and Reddit, and other, less significant websites over proposed anti-piracy legislation, the question comes up, just what is SOPA and PIPA going to do to the internet if passed by Congress and signed by President Obama?
Depending on what sources you look at, these bills will either wipe out freedom on the internet, including Wikipedia, YouTube, Reddit, and many other popular sites, or, it will merely prevent off-shore websites from selling fraudulent goods by allowing courts to order domain servers to shut down those offending sites.
For proponents of SOPA and PIPA, as well as for their opponents, there appears to be no middle ground. But what would they do if passed into law? Not being a lawyer, I daresay I don’t really know, and most of the pundits on the internet do not know either, but they prefer not to admit that uncomfortable truth. What I DO know about our legal and political system, is that regardless of whatever the law’s proponents say now, only the court system will actually be able to tell us what the consequences may be, and that will only happen after someone, or some internet entity, has suffered actual damages as a result of SOPA/PIPA enforcement.
As I sat down to weigh the pros and cons of this blackout set for January 18, I came to the conclusion that from a purely selfish point of view, the Wikipedia blackout could benefit my own website, Historyguy.com, because Wikipedia is one of Historyguy.com’s main competitors for website visitors. Many of the historyguy.com pages are at or near the top of the Google Search Results Pages, and often, if not for Wikipedia, my pages would get the better ranking. For example, a Google search for “Gulf War,” puts Wikipedia’s entry as the first search result, and the Historyguy.com page on the Gulf War as the second result. If, as the naysayers predict, SOPA passes, and sites like Wikipedia are in peril, then logically, the Historyguy.com site, which is 95% original content (the rest being public domain items like the 1707 Act of Union Between England and Scotland), would benefit.
Despite this supposition, the fact that the internet has grown and developed to the point where it now shapes daily life, lifestyles, news, politics, industry, and so much more, is largely due to the freedom of individuals to experiment, dream, and develop new ideas without fear that the government will shut them down due to a piece of legislation allegedly designed to halt online piracy, theft, and fraud. Those problems are real, and need to be addressed by legislation designed with a more narrow and specific focus. Congress should scrap SOPA and PIPA, return to the drawing board, and create new proposals that do not put the fear of authoritarian government crackdowns on those who publish, create, develop new ideas on the internet. Stop SOPA!