Have you 'Googled' anything today? No? Have you tried to look anything up on Wikipedia today?
Popular information websites, reportedly tens of thousands of them, are protesting today. Among the well-known, Google blackened it's banner and Wikipedia simply blackened their site for 24 hours. They're protesting two bills currently making the rounds on Capital Hill having to do with piracy--not of the Captain Jack Sparrow variety, of the intellectual and artistic property variety.
So no wiki today? Will the world come to an end?
There are these things called books.
Back before information was a click away, it was a page-turn away. I'm not worried.
Nor am I worried that the Googles and Wikipedias will being going dark permanently. I have to trust that the battle over intellectual and artistic property will rage on, but not impact our insatiable appetite for information that technology can so swiftly satisfy. And where there's an appetite, there's a way.
Consider this: Moments after Wikipedia went black today, the internet sprang to life with dozens of ways users can bypass the blackout. Seems it's only Wiki's English page, so if you go to another language and then hit 'translate'... Seems they also neglected to blacken iOS browser versions, so if you Wiki on your phone or tablet... Seems they also left a few back doors open, so if you add thus and so to the address...
Worry not, info junkies and internet freedom fighters. The internet, legal and or bootlegged, won't let you down.
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