The Vatican did just steal a bunch of pages off of Wikipedia without attribution, and sent them to journalists (presumably by email). That’s using the Internet to in essence steal intellectual property, isn’t it?

From the Guardian:

[E]yebrows were raised when the Vatican resorted to Wikipedia when it released potted biographies of 22 new cardinals who were appointed on 6 January. The biographies, sent to journalists, were cut and pasted from Wikipedia’s Italian language site without attribution.

How is that any different than a blogger stealing an entire New York Times article and republishing it without attribution? Or copying someone’s music and sending it to a number of colleagues without attribution?

So could Wikipedia, under PIPA and SOPA, shut down the Vatican’s Internet connection, Web site, and freeze its bank accounts?

A girl can dream.