Wikimedia Releases Statement Regarding Developments In America On SOPA And PIPA

By James Ashworth

ON JANUARY 18, due to the worldwide blackout of Wikipedia, millions of US citizens called their Congressional representatives to denounce SOPA and PIPA as attacks on the free and open Internet.

Now, leaders in the House and Senate have announced consideration of the bills would be indefinitely postponed, after many members of Congress, including some who previously supported the bills, issued statements disassociating themselves from the legislation.

Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said:

“The Wikimedia Foundation welcomes these developments. This is another step towards the ultimate destruction of these two pieces of proposed legislation. But let’s be clear, these bills are not dead. They will return, and when they do, they must not harm the interests of the hundreds of millions of people who contribute to the free and open Internet."

“The blackout was led by millions of ordinary Internet users, and the people who make projects like Wikipedia possible - writers, photographers, editors and illustrators. They sent a clear message to Congress: don’t mess with free expression, don’t destroy the free and open Internet, and don’t do the bidding of traditional corporate interests. This is a moment in history when the people who create and share works on the Internet as part of the free knowledge movement, and the people who depend on access to those works, are asking to be heard and to have their freedom of speech protected.”

So it seems that for now the SOPA and PIPA bills will not be passed, and that a free and open Internet will still reign. But, it cannot be said what will happen when the bills are brought back to the Congress again, and whether or not the same drastic measures will be taken by Wikipedia and other sites in order to stop the bills forever.

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