Pro-tip: If you still want to find out how much a sea urchin weighs, just stop Wikipedia before it finishes loading, because the blackout script is the last thing to load. Not that I don't support the effort of course, but they're preaching to the choir in my case, and I need to know Peter Parker's body fat index.
Ah, I was wondering why the thing was still working. NoScript. Very good.
Not like there aren't a million mirrors anyway.
(Had the morning news on before I left for work; the guy said you could go to their website for information on how to access Wikipedia anyway -- not sure if it was a mirror link or your method. Newscaster added "There's always a workaround"; I assume he didn't realize that this also applies to why SOPA is fucking stupid in the first place.)
They've been writing articles and blog posts and posting on forums for two months. It's a big part of why the bill hasn't passed yet in the first place.
They're trying to raise awareness to the issue to the kind of people who aren't politically active.
Right, precisely. If you think Boingboing and Reddit have not actually put any effort into reporting on SOPA, then you have clearly not been reading Boingboing or Reddit. Or this thread, where I link to Boingboing approximately every third post.
People who read Boingboing and Reddit already know about this thing; in their case it's more about a show of solidarity. Wikipedia is rather a much bigger deal.
Rupert Murdoch is flipping out on twitter it's really funny
http://www.twitter.com/rupertmurdoch
Yeah, all the major players are throwing a fucking temper tantrum right now.
Again, Joxam's pretty much nailed it -- to them this is a very real existential threat. They legitimately believe that they are set upon by a pack of thieves who wish to destroy their livelihood, and now a bunch of freetard bullies are throwing their influence around to spread lies and uncertainty to scare people into pressuring the government into caving in.
In Murdoch's specific case, I am curious as to whether he's angry that Wikipedia is beating him at his own game, or really thinks what he does is completely different from that sentence I just wrote.