UNITED KINGDOM: A day after the online encyclopaedia shuttered its service to protest proposed U.S. anti-piracy legislation, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says Hollywood is blowing the cost of piracy out of proportion

Record ID: 836613

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: A day after the online encyclopaedia shuttered its service to protest proposed U.S. anti-piracy legislation, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says Hollywood is blowing the cost of piracy out of proportion
  • Date: 21st January 2012
  • Summary: OXFORD, UNITED KINGDOM (JANUARY 19, 2012) (REUTERS) WIDE VIEW OF JIMMY WALES SPEAKING DURING AS PART OF FREE SPEECH DEBATE AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY OXFORD PROFESSOR ASKS FOR QUESTIONS FREE SPEECH DEBATE SIGN (SOUNDBITE) (English) JIMMY WALES, WIKIPEDIA FOUNDER SAYING: "There's a lot wrong with these bills. The reason - the stated reason which I think is actually the reason is to combat piracy. There's a lot of money that flows into Washington from Hollywood. Hollywood is very concerned about the problems of piracy. They are unfortunately in my view quite prone to exaggerating the size of the problem." VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JIMMY WALES, WIKIPEDIA FOUNDER SAYING: "My view is that the solution to this can't start with thinking about ways of censoring the internet, thinking about ways to block access to things. First of all it's completely hopeless, the internet just doesn't work that way." VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JIMMY WALES, WIKIPEDIA FOUNDER SAYING: "These are global companies. If they could find a Chinese Tom Cruise, they would replace him in a heartbeat. I don't really think it's about American jobs." AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) JIMMY WALES, WIKIPEDIA FOUNDER SAYING: "What do I think ordinary people in China can do? I think they're well on the path. One of the things about China is that there's a strong and growing blogging culture. People do blog quite a bit in China and as I understand it, the central government has been reasonably accepting of allowing criticism of corrupt local officials mainly because the central government has no interest in corrupt local officials. They may not be all about good governance for themselves. What they're doing without really realizing it is they're creating a whole generation of people who see that there's corruption, if you criticize it positive change can come about, and those people are going to feel very empowered when the time comes and who knows when that's going to be. When will there be a Chinese spring? I don't know when. Sometimes you never know what's going to trigger it. I think there will be a Chinese spring and I think the Chinese government will decide if they want to stay in power they will have to allow people to criticize them." OXFORD PROFESSOR THANKS WALES, AUDIENCE CLAPS (SOUNDBITE) (English) JIMMY WALES, WIKIPEDIA FOUNDER SAYING: "On a normal day, 25 to 30 million people would come to English Wikipedia but we had over 160 million people check out what was going on. We had over eight million people in the U.S. look up the phone number for their Congressman. We don't know how many actually called but the reports we heard back from Capitol Hill was that they were swamped. The House phone system went down at one point so that was exciting. And we've gone from last week having five senators opposed to this legislation to 35 who've announced opposition and that's pretty cool." OXFORD PROFESSOR TIMOTHY GARTON ASH SPEAKING TO REUTERS JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) TIMOTHY GARTON ASH, OXFORD PROFESSOR OF EUROPEAN STUDIES SAYING: "Everybody gets their knowledge online. Everybody who's online - which is two billion people - gets their knowledge online and a lot of it comes from sites which is basically first amendment U.S. jurisdiction. So the whole of Wikipedia, Google.com. So what America does impacts on the whole world." VARIOUS OF OXFORD STREETS/ BROAD STREET WITH BALLIOL COLLEGE AT NIGHT OXFORD UNIVERSITY SHIRT IN COLLEGE GIFT SHOP WINDOW
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Crime,Communications,Science / Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA8DFA544NV0E6XSZMDQRWIJJDZ
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: The founder of the non-profit online encyclopaedia Wikipedia says Hollywood should wake up to reality.
    Speaking at a free speech debate hosted by Oxford University a day after Wikipedia blacked out its site for the first time in protest of proposed U.S. anti-piracy legislation, Jimmy Wales said he felt Hollywood was over-estimating the cost of piracy, and going about combating it the wrong way.
    "There's a lot wrong with these bills. The reason - the stated reason which I think is actually the reason is to combat piracy. There's a lot of money that flows into Washington from Hollywood. Hollywood is very concerned about the problems of piracy. They are unfortunately in my view quite prone to exaggerating the size of the problem," he told the student audience.
    "My view is that the solution to this can't start with thinking about ways of censoring the internet, thinking about ways of blocking access to things. First of all, it's completely hopeless. The internet just doesn't work that way."
    Wales also said he wasn't convinced by the argument that the proposed legislation was motivated by an urge to protect American jobs.
    "These are global companies. If they could find a Chinese Tom Cruise, they would replace him in a heartbeat," he joked.
    Later he was asked about the state of internet freedom in China.
    "One of the things about China is that there's a strong and growing blogging culture," he replied. "When will there be a Chinese spring? I don't know when. Sometimes you never know what's going to trigger it. I think there will be a Chinese spring and I think the Chinese government will decide if they want to stay in power they will have to allow people to criticize them," Wales said.
    Speaking to Reuters TV, Wales said he felt the blackout of Wikipedia had been a success.
    "On a normal day, 25 to 30 million people would come to English Wikipedia but we had over 160 million people check out what was going on. We had over eight million people in the U.S. look up the phone number for their Congressman. We don't know how many actually called but the reports we heard back from Capitol Hill was that they were swamped," he said. "We've gone from last week having five senators opposed to this legislation to 35 who've announced opposition and that's pretty cool."
    Professor Timothy Garton Ash of Oxford University explained why there is such interest in U.S. laws in the halls of UK academia.
    "Everybody who's online - which is two billion people - gets their knowledge online," he replied. "A lot of it comes from sites which is basically first amendment U.S. jurisdiction. So the whole of Wikipedia, Google.com. So what America does impacts on the whole world."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register