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IF YOU OBJECT to the legislation currently weaving its way through the US Congress and wish to participate in the 24-hour internet blackout taking place today then we suggest you stop reading now.
But if you are one of the many millions who access the online encyclopedia on a daily basis and wish to do so today then here’s how…
Firstly, the site remains accessible through mobile devices including its own iPhone app which we’ve tested this morning. You can also access it through the Safari browser on your iPhone.
On Android devices, the Wikipedia app works as does accessing the site through the phone or tablet’s internet browser.
On the iPad however, the site appears to have smartened up. Earlier it was accessible through the Safari browser but now any search displays the page momentarily before redirecting to this page:
However, this redirection can be avoided if you very quickly press the ‘X’ button in the URL bar on your iPad’s Safari browser before it loads.
Similarly on your desktop, if you press the ‘ESC’ on your keyboard before the page has a chance to fully load you will avoid the redirection to the blackout page.
This works on Chrome, Firefox and Safari which we’ve all tried this morning. It was less successful on Internet Explorer but it may all depend on how quickly you deploy the escape button and it may also depend on how fast your internet connection is.
The Wall Street Journal reports that cached versions of Wikipedia web pages are also likely to work as are sites which pull in information from Wikipedia – such as Facebook – to populate entries.
And of course if you speak Spanish, Italian, French or other non-English languages then these Wikipedia pages are all still available. ¡Buena suerte
Are you accessing Wikipedia today? What do you think of its blackout? Do you agree? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.
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What will all the journalists do without Wikipedia for research??
Not many journalists actually do any research nowadays. They just copy and paste from other news sites or repeat what they are told to.
Think we’ll manage for 24 hours Stephen. After all, Hugh managed to figure out how to write the article above…
Susan, Editor, TheJournal.ie
That’s a pretty sweeping generalisation there Kitalpha. It’s also not very true.
Sites down but have a read tomorrow Hugh!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_of_media_ownership Alot of AP releases on ths site.
don’t worry Susan I’ve a print out of the internet if you need to borrow it
Kitalpha, there are very few as far as I can see and we pay for use of the AP feed as we currently don’t have international reporters. But you will find that most Irish and other news is generated by us and I don’t think your original point was really about media ownership.
Surely then you have a duty to say something along the lines of:
This Press Release is from AP owned by the Rothschilds and may or may not actually be true. There may or may not be an alternative agenda here. As we have no journalists on the ground we have to take their word for it.
I dont know, use your imagination. I was sick reading the coverage of the genocide in Libya.
Or lack thereof.. ..
Thanks Stephen. I’ll get the messenger pigeon out of the coop to drop by and pick it up from you in a while :)
AP is owned by the various US broadcasters and newspapers who contribute material to it. Its ownership, therefore, is essentially the same as the ownership of the 1,700 newspapers who contribute material to it. That’s not the Rothschilds.
Also, what is the point in providing this work-around, unless The Journal supports SOPA?
Alternatively look at the cached version of the page, they still are working.
Using Wikipedia today is like breaking a picket line, don’t do it
Wikipedia allowing these workarounds kind of defeats the purpose of the blackout. The point is, if these bills or any similar ones pass in the states, there will be no workaround for any of us.
American politics truly is a shitty business.
Not strictly true.
A) The bill only affects the US.
B) It only offers control over the DNS entries for the sites, so anyone in the US wishing to use them would be able to use any DNS server outside the US, or browse using the IP addresses.
It only affects the US in that internal sites can be seized. This, in *theory* could include a site like facebook if the some singers get their knickers in a twist after some 12 year old uploads a video of their song.
But what I meant really was that if these bills pass in the states, I can imagine them being introduced in more countries.
There are already records of the states putting pressure on Spain and New Zealand to introduce these types of bills and I believe Denmark already has some similar laws under the disguise of child pornography protection.
If they do get it passed at home, it would give them
@ObligPic – You’re right, but the US considers ‘.com’, ‘.net’ and ‘.org’ to be US domains, and can therefore demand the blockade of any .com website even if it is based outside the US.
Also, I just noticed that the broadsheet.ie is doing their own blackout too and have highlighted the point about similar forms of censorship being introduced here. As highlighted by the attempted three-strike rule.
The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOx) is American only legislation, however it effect most business’ in the western world as in order to trade in/with the USA the must comply. The same would be true for SOPA/PIPA.
Focusing purely on DNS records was a stroke of genius for this act, as US owned/based company either own or manage the majority of top level domains (.com, .net, .info, mobi, .org, .edu, .gov). Even country specific TLD’s aren’t immune as many countries get service providers in the US to run/manage their ccTLD for them (.cc, .tv, .in, .me, .ln, .ag etc).
The FBI has in the past walked into DNS management companies and forced them to alter DNS records for sites they deemed illegal (AbsolutePoker.com, FullTiltPoker.com, PokerStarts.com).
I don’t get all the smart comments directed at journalists. This is a great free app. All worthwhile stories are shared and it’s great to be able to access them here in this format. Thank you journal.
Way to ruin a good protest!!!
Wikipedia may be down but Wookiepedia is still up and running for all those Star Wars fans out there. Where would we be without it…
Don’t think that you have ‘fooled’ Wikipedia! The site could easily have introduced measures that would completely restrict access! The blackout should be respected. SCABS out!
Or, just do it the easy way… Disable Javascript in your browser. If you use Firefox you can install the NoScript add-on and use that to selectively disable Javascript for only Wikipedia. The blackout is implemented in Javascript.
I won’t be reading the Journal.ie today, as quite honestly they have 0 respect for innovators- unsurprising that a journal based in advertising, with no cultural section and little of interest doesn’t give a shyte about internet censorship. If a similar law was mooted here, they’d be licking the arse of whichever businessman was paying their wages.Aggregators who don’t get the interweb or 15 years of development work by people who probably think this site is a rag.
Hi C Murray,
Are you not automatically breaking your pledge not to read us by commenting on this piece? Also we do have a culture section, it’s here: http://www.thejournal.ie/category/culture/
And as for respect for innovators, we have plenty. I think we’d consider ourselves to be innovators in Irish news who have enormous respect for others who are innovating in Ireland online, and offline.
Thanks,
Hugh
Why do you think we don’t care about internet censorship? Or that we don’t have respect for innovators?
This is a news website; we pay for the use of an AP commercial news feed, and for photo feeds from four different agencies. We pay our way and acknowledge the copyright and intellectual property of any content that we cover. (And, in fact, around 50% of the content on the site nowadays doesn’t aggregate from another news source – it is fully digested and written in-house, just as it would be anywhere else).
Yes, the website is based on advertising. it’s either that, or we charge you to use it. We’d rather have the service free, and expose it to as broad a readership as possible, than charge someone to view a service they could later decide they simply don’t like. We know we can’t cater to everyone’s tastes – but we’d rather give ourselves the opportunity to win new readers than to dissuade them by charging to read us.
Sorry that you’re disappointed with our cultural coverage – that’s noted and taken on board.
Dear Hugh,
I don’t think you grasp the magnitude of this stance. Yes, millions of people use Wikipedia for example, everyday for various reasons and this could end if this legislation within the US is passed.
Wikipedia will close – forever, with no ‘press escape key quickly’ work-arounds. (For the numb-nuts who will say this isn’t the US, its never long before the sheep in this country follow with the same brainless ideas)
So, what you have wrote is disappointing.
Would you do a piece on how to download movies from Pirate Bay? Didn’t think so!
I, as many, understand the two sides to the story….. unfortunately this article doesn’t discuss the two sides or the ramifications of such a bill – the pro’s or con’s or even how the innovation of an illegal application like napster gave Steve Jobs the idea of creating iPods and iTunes. Something this Bill would have stopped if around at the time. Nothing! Not even a link to how you can offer support to the likes of Google and Wikipedia.
No, instead spend half you morning trying childish ways to get into the site and 5 minutes writing this sh*te.
If people need Wikipedia that badly they’ll figure out how to get onto it and then understand what the world would be like without such websites. This being the point of the black-out.
Robert,
The two sides of the story are discussed in an earlier news piece here: http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/sites-go-offline-in-protest-at-us-anti-piracy-legislation-330596-Jan2012/ as well as a piece my colleague Susan Ryan wrote earlier in the week: http://www.thejournal.ie/reddit-boing-boing-plan-website-blackout-over-sopa-but-what-is-it-329012-Jan2012/
Both pieces are linked to at the bottom of this story so really your argument isn’t based on a fair and full examination of this article at all.
Also, my morning was spent writing a number of more important stories than this. The sum total of time devoted to this was no more than half-an-hour and judging by the amount of people who have looked at it it was worth informing them of the various ways around the blackout, which some people – quite rightly – are opposed to.
As I’ve alluded to in other responses here, it’s our responsibility as a news website to be open and honest about what’s happening as opposed to coming down on one side of the argument.
Thanks for your comment and have a great day.
Hugh
Cannot wait to see the black screen popping up on all the computers in college today
Wikimedia/Wikipedia actually tell you different ways to circumvent their blackout:
This article disappoints me.
Yes, I am accessing it. here is another way. But…
If you really want the content of Wikipedia on blacking out day[18.01.2012], then use it.
1.Serach in google with “site:wikipedia.org” as suffix text.
2.Chosse the desired page.
3.Upon visit the page, quickly hit Ctl+A and ctl+C (before it redirect).
4.Now just paste it in any word tool and view with web layout.
I have an urgent requirement so I used this trick, But I have all the support for them.
I have suggested on twitter that people read journalists who actually don’t talk through their arses when it comes to tech , like Kernel Magazine http://www.kernelmag.com/editors-blog/98/introducing-the-kernel/
They actually report on innovation, tech , legal issues and understand the ramifications of SOPA for internet users but sure go on have a laugh > take the work of a generation and pee on it.I don’t like your culture section and if this passes for SOPA reportage *vomit*
No one cares what you think C Murray.
C Murray,
I do actually read Kernel Mag and am a fan of the work it does and its writing but we are, first and foremost, a news website whose job it is to report the news, fairly, accurately and honestly – giving both sides of the story. And in this arguement there are, as ever, two sides to the story. There are people who are well within their rights to access Wikipedia today and we’re just pointing out how it can be done.
We have a piece outlining SOPA and the arguments here: http://www.thejournal.ie/reddit-boing-boing-plan-website-blackout-over-sopa-but-what-is-it-329012-Jan2012/
Sorry you don’t like our culture section. Not much we can do about that.
Hugh
Just disable JavaScript on your browser and you can access all of Wikipedia – its a JavaScript block/redirect.
As said about the “black out” is implanted in JavaScript, meaning that when the page is loaded fully it redirects, hence you can use the “x” button. Also by default iPhones use a small screen version of wiki, there is a link on the bottom that lets you view the page like it was on a big screen, that will redirect you to a black out also. This is why iPad will work as the CSS used to control what way the page loads will detect the screen size.
Nerd bit over… Wrok on wiki for making this stance…
Brilliant, thanks, I use wiki most days!
Best article i have read about SOPA and Protect IP http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html
If your on a lunch break better to bookmark it otherwise hit the switch on the kettle
I have an app ‘wiki offline’ installed on my iPad that gives me full database (3.2gb) which comes in very handy when I’m out and about, wifi coverage being as poor as it is.
You can also download a version of Wikipedia (one from 2008) directly to a desktop through the site itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download#English-language_Wikipedia
i was under the impression that we would have access to wiki till noon today. meaning that we blackout the same times as the states.
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