Intellectual piracy legislation puts Net at crossroads
Wikipedia has shaped the way the common person accesses and uses information. In protest to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Wikipedia took its English version offline.
I find Wikipedia to be a rather convenient website for information regarding pretty much anything. Their articles provide a good amount of both primary and secondary sources. The only criticism I have is how they allow anyone with an account to freely edit any of their pages. In grade 8, I was researching the study of ions and looked up Wikipedia's article on ions. According to Wikipedia, ions have a neutral charge and are made of several kinds of gas particles. Some of the things you find on their articles can either be well sourced, paraphrased information or just crap posted by yet another internet troll.
Despite Wikipedia's major flaw of allowing its users to edit just about anything on their articles, it has proven itself to be the internet's most significant source of general information. It would be a great loss to students and scholars if Wikipedia were to be shut down by SOPA.
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