Internet Archive Protests SOPA / PIPA

As stated on its blackout page: The Internet Archive believes that it is critical to protest and raise awareness of pending legislation in the United States: House Bill 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and S.968, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA).

We are going dark from 6am to 6pm PST on Wednesday, January 18 (14:00 - 02:00 UTC) to drive a message to Washington. We need your help to do this.

Legislation such as this directly affects libraries (pdf) such as the Internet Archive, which collects, preserves, and offers access to cultural materials. Furthermore, these laws can negatively affect the ecosystem of web publishing that led to the emergence of the Internet Archive.

For United States residents, please take action.

For non-US Residents: Sorry for dragging you into this, and if you are willing please sign a petition to the State Department to express your concern.

Wikipedia Protests SOPA / PIPA

On January 18, 2012, the Wikipedia community is blacking out millions of articles of content in the English version for 24 hours to protest pending US legislation: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). The decision to withdraw content was made by the global community of Wikipedia editors and is supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, which is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia and numerous related projects.

Wikipedia is urging US constituents to contact their elected representatives and voice their opposition to the two acts now under consideration in the House of Representatives and Senate. Wikipedia states further that:

SOPA and PIPA cripple the free and open internet. They put the onus on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the blocking of entire sites, even if the links are not to infringing material. Small sites will not have the sufficient resources to mount a legal challenge. Without opposition, large media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for small competing foreign sites, even if big media are wrong. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines.

In a post SOPA/PIPA world, Wikipedia --and many other useful informational sites-- cannot survive in a world where politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money in Washington. It represents a framework for future restrictions and suppression. Congress says it's trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the "cure" that SOPA and PIPA represent is much more destructive than the disease they are trying to fix.

To learn more about SOPA/PIPA, click here.

Dean Gasaway Tribute Symposium: Digital Publication and Libraries

The North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology of the UNC School of Law presents:

The Dean Laura N. Gasaway Tribute Symposium: Digital Publication and Libraries

Please join us in honoring Dean Laura "Lolly" Gasaway's three decades of service to copyright, libraries, and the legal and scholarly community.

March 19, 2010
1:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
The Carolina Inn
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Admission is free

The Symposium will comprise four consecutive panels:

:: Copyright and Libraries: The Challenge (Donna Nixon moderating)
Deborah Gerhardt - University of North Carolina
Julie Cohen - Georgetown University
Jessica Litman - University of Michigan
Sally Wiant - Washington & Lee University
Madelyn Wessel - University of Virginia

:: Copyright and Digital Distribution (Anne Klinefelter moderating)
Kate Spelman - Cobalt
Nancy Wolff - Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard, LLP
Llew Gibbons - University of Toledo
Jon Baumgarten - Proskauer Rose, LLP

:: §108 and Google Book Search Revisited (Peter Hirtle moderating)
Laura Gasaway - University of North Carolina
Dick Rudick - Copyright Clearance Center
Glynn Lunney - Tulane University
Tony Reese - University of California at Irvine

:: §108 Lessons Learned (David Harrison moderating)
Mary Beth Peters - U.S. Register of Copyrights
Mary Rasenberger - Policy Advisor for U.S. Copyright Office & OSI
Kenny Crews - Columbia University
Ann Bartow - University of South Carolina

For more information, please visit the North Carolina Journal of Law and Technology web site.