Re: Re: Wikipedia   
     By: Ajk to Interloper on Wed Jan 18 2012 06:44 pm   
      
    > Wikipedia's leadership team are playing a fine line between being the    
    > most trusted and comprehensive knowledge resources and playing in US   
    > politics. Do we want our encyclopedias to have poilitical views?   
      
    > --    
    > Cheers,   
    > Alex Kemp (ajk) telnet://norbertbbs.org   
      
   Well, I'd certainly hope any traditional encyclopedia would be morally opposed   
   and outspoken against a regime that was attempting to burn books...  Wikipedia   
   stepping up to defend the Internet is hardly any different in that regard.  I'm   
   glad they don't get involved in politics normally (frankly, I can see some   
   other areas that I might not be opposed to, but also don't blame them for   
   maintaining professional silence about), but in this case, it was a matter of   
   the very medium they use for their existence being threatened.  That's not   
   politics; it's self-preservation.   
      
   Piracy is a problem (and to those who don't agree with me based on "industry"   
   cases we've grown weary of, consider cases where the GPL is violated by   
   companies attempting to use open-source GPL code in a proprietary product).    
   SOPA/PIPA, however, were/are NOT an acceptable answer, given the amount of   
   damage they do to the very essence of the Internet.  This is a little off   
   topic, but I might suggest checking out an effort known as OPEN (   
   http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399070,00.asp ), which is a much more   
   tolerable attempt at curbing piracy/counterfeit products while maintaining the   
   infrastructure of the Internet.    
      
   cykros   
   Discordia BBS: An apple a day keeps the goddess at play...fnord.   
   telnet://discordia.dyndns.info   
      
   ---   
    þ Synchronet þ Discordia BBS   
    * Origin: Time Warp of the Future BBS - Home of League 10 (1:340/400)