Wikipedia Is Not A Weapon

The New York Times calls the 24-hour shutdown of the English version of Wikipedia a "political coming of age". I disagree. If anything, it shows lack of maturity.

Whatever you think of the law, which seems like an overly broad and clumsy attempt to solve a very real problem - online theft of intellectual property - today's protest is naive, bordering on stupid.

The web is a utility for the mind. It should never be shut down, never turned into a spigot that anybody can turn on or off. Just look at China where the autocratic leaders takes information and communication extremely serious, arming an army of controllers with the latest surveillance tools to monitor the collective mind for any signs of cracks and dissent. The opponents of SOPA may think that they are fighting for freedom, but they actually opened the door to a very dark room.

Hans Sandberg