Stop Online Piracy Act & Protect IP Act

[Kevin]

Big news coming from Wikipedia. Co-foundeer Jimmy Wales has tweeted that the site will blackout on Wednesday in protest of SOPA/PIPA. This is being picked up a ton of news sources as well.

To understand the impact of this, Wikipedia is ranked #6 is both global and US traffic. That's 25 million vistors globally. I would be very surprised if the phones aren't ringing off the hook in Washington on Wednesday due to the number of people affected by this.

[Biafra Republic]

Big news coming from Wikipedia. Co-foundeer Jimmy Wales has tweeted that the site will blackout on Wednesday in protest of SOPA/PIPA. This is being picked up a ton of news sources as well.

To understand the impact of this, Wikipedia is ranked #6 is both global and US traffic. That's 25 million vistors globally. I would be very surprised if the phones aren't ringing off the hook in Washington on Wednesday due to the number of people affected by this.

Wikipedia is the latest in a long list of sites blacking out Wednesday. Click here to view the list.

In addition, scuttlebutt has it that our friends at Sonic Retro have something planned Wednesday.

[Jeffhog]

According to the list, they're participating in the blackout as well.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Now if only Facebook or Google join...that would be more than enough to send the message to those dumbass Congress...

These bills must die. Burned to the ground. Then after that I don't want them ever risen from their graves.

[Noir]

Ah such lovely melodrama in the last couple of pages.

It's nice to see such widespread support for those against these bills. Somewhat surprised that Wikipedia is joining the blackout considering the incredible amount of traffic they get (Same reason I'm not surprised, and am happy, that Google and Facebook aren't participating) but I guess it's not like they're losing any ad revenue so what do they have to lose?

At any rate, thank god 4chan will be up so the internet won't be so lonely on wednesday.

[novelty]

We should troll congress...

Allow the bill to pass, then black out the internet and shut it down...and after, reboot it under wraps.

[Death the Kid]

Big news coming from Wikipedia. Co-foundeer Jimmy Wales has tweeted that the site will blackout on Wednesday in protest of SOPA/PIPA. This is being picked up a ton of news sources as well.

To understand the impact of this, Wikipedia is ranked #6 is both global and US traffic. That's 25 million vistors globally. I would be very surprised if the phones aren't ringing off the hook in Washington on Wednesday due to the number of people affected by this.

Oh, hell yeah. not to mention if Facebook pulls this off on that same date or a couple days later? that only puts even more pressure because of all the people that use that.

in my opinion, the deal's sealed - SOPA and PIPA are unofficially finished; aka, meaning that they are basically shelved until further notice of an amendment to both where the effects of combatting piracy is basically not as drastic as it currently stands.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Shinigami

[Candescence]

I noticed this while I was about to check my email...

White House officials raised concerns on Saturday about SOPA saying they believe it could make businesses on the Internet vulnerable to litigation and harm legal activity and free speech.

"We're happy to see opposition is building and that the White House has started to pay attention," said Wales.

News of the White House's comments prompted a prominent supporter of the bill News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch to slam the Obama administration.

"So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery," he posted on his personal Twitter account Saturday. News Corp owns a vast array of media properties from Fox TV, the Wall Street Journal to Twentieth Century Fox studios.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/latest/a/-/newshome/12629306/wikipedia-to-shut-for-24-hours-to-stop-anti-piracy-act/

Butthurt, much, Mr. Murdoch?

[Mandyrobin]

I'm involving my sites in the blackout as well. SOPA and PIPA may be American bills, but since much of what's on the internet comes from the US, it will effect everyone else too.

[Chaos Warp]

http://wikimediafoun...i-SOPA_blackout

Wikipedia joins the blackout!

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate — that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. Here’s how it’s been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community’s discussion. From the public statement, signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:Billinghurst: It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web. Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support. On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations.

In making this decision, Wikipedians will be criticized for seeming to abandon neutrality to take a political position. That’s a real, legitimate issue. We want people to trust Wikipedia, not worry that it is trying to propagandize them.

But although Wikipedia’s articles are neutral, its existence is not. As Wikimedia Foundation board member Kat Walsh wrote on one of our mailing lists recently, We depend on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. And we depend on a legal infrastructure that also allows other sites to host user-contributed material, both information and expression. For the most part, Wikimedia projects are organizing and summarizing and collecting the world’s knowledge. We’re putting it in context, and showing people how to make to sense of it. But that knowledge has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikimedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to.

The decision to shut down the English Wikipedia wasn’t made by me; it was made by editors, through a consensus decision-making process. But I support it.

Like Kat and the rest of the Wikimedia Foundation Board, I have increasingly begun to think of Wikipedia’s public voice, and the goodwill people have for Wikipedia, as a resource that wants to be used for the benefit of the public. Readers trust Wikipedia because they know that despite its faults, Wikipedia’s heart is in the right place. It’s not aiming to monetize their eyeballs or make them believe some particular thing, or sell them a product. Wikipedia has no hidden agenda: it just wants to be helpful.

That’s less true of other sites. Most are commercially motivated: their purpose is to make money. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a desire to make the world a better place — many do! — but it does mean that their positions and actions need to be understood in the context of conflicting interests.

My hope is that when Wikipedia shuts down on January 18, people will understand that we’re doing it for our readers. We support everyone’s right to freedom of thought and freedom of expression. We think everyone should have access to educational material on a wide range of subjects, even if they can’t pay for it. We believe in a free and open Internet where information can be shared without impediment. We believe that new proposed laws like SOPA and PIPA, and other similar laws under discussion inside and outside the United States — don’t advance the interests of the general public. You can read a very good list of reasons to oppose SOPA and PIPA here, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Why is this a global action, rather than US-only? And why now, if some American legislators appear to be in tactical retreat on SOPA?

The reality is that we don’t think SOPA is going away, and PIPA is still quite active. Moreover, SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. All around the world, we're seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the Internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond SOPA and PIPA: they are just part of the problem. We want the Internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone.

Sue Gardner,On January 18, we hope you’ll agree with us, and will do what you can to make your own voice heard.

Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation

Edited January 17, 2012 by Chaos Warp

[Jeffhog]

By the way, you know that website with an entire list of all participating website blackouts?

I can't seem to access it.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

YourGamerCards will be also joining the fight against SOPA/PIPA. Our trophy cards and profiles will be blacked out for tomorrow.

[Patticus]

SOPA returns to Congress next month, folks:

http://judiciary.house.gov/news/01172012.html

This is a war far from won, but we must remember that SOPA may yet prove to be designed just to get PIPA passed: Take a bill unlikely to be passed, create a bill that's actually a lot worse, offer them both up at the same time, and watch the legislators shoot down the decoy and take on the more palatable one of the two and pass it, exactly as you wanted.

[Cobalt_Bolt]

We need to kill both SOPA and PIPA. If those politicians think they can sneak PIPA past while everyones attention is on SOPA we need to let them know we won't be fooled. Pressure the politicians and companies who support these bills to make them see what will happen if they passed. Spread the word to everyone you know locally and internationally. Do not back down!

[The future]

No wonder these old politicians are mad at the internet. Cause it exposes their nonsense and corruption. The interent is a revolutionary tool for the younger generation to promote and express ourselves. SOPA and PIPA is only the beginning, I'm afraid. We need to take them down and anything like them in the years to come.

[Nitwit_Speed]

I've been avoiding posting in this thread- not sure why in retrospect, but i want to build off of what you said, the future. It's a testament to what a powerful thing the internet is at promotion and expression that it's being utilized extremely well to fight off the injustice that would be neutering it. The fight it's putting up alone is proof enough that it's worth fighting for.

Edited January 18, 2012 by Nitwit_Speed

[Mick]

SOPA and PIPA are gonna be a bit hard to topple, but the fight is worth it. If I had a big time Internet website Google, I would shut down my servers. I cannot believe that Google is refusing to participate in the blackout. If they didn't refuse, that would be quite something and it would make a huge difference.

[Kevin]

SOPA returns to Congress next month, folks:

http://judiciary.hou...s/01172012.html

This is a war far from won, but we must remember that SOPA may yet prove to be designed just to get PIPA passed: Take a bill unlikely to be passed, create a bill that's actually a lot worse, offer them both up at the same time, and watch the legislators shoot down the decoy and take on the more palatable one of the two and pass it, exactly as you wanted.

[Shyanne Firefox]

Don't know if someone already posted about this or not, but apparently ESA supports SOPA/PIPA. Several gaming journalists have put together a video asking people to contact their fiavorite gaming publishers and/or developers to stop attending and convering E3 (which is run by ESA) until they stop supporting SOPA/PIPA.

Here's the vid: http://www.screwattack.com/StandTogether

Well...what are you all waiting for? Get to emailin'! D:<

[Dark Qiviut]

And the protest is already underway. Wikipedia blacked out, and Google posted a blurb protesting the site along with "censoring" their own logo.

Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

https://www.google.com/

[Danj86]

Wow, I was struggling to understand the situation, but having read Dreadknux Soap post, I think I'm starting to get it. How dare these politicians try to ruin something on a global level! Who do these clowns think they are?! They don't rule the world! We all know Eggman does!!

I'm happy that so many sites are showing there support and I'll gladily sacrifice some time with my internet friends to help stop this. A small sacrifice is better then a major tragedy.

So it's in effect at 12:00 noon until 12:00 midnight GMT here. As I type this, that will be in...roughly 6 hours. It will be different for our overseas friends.

I'll be going to bed soon, so this will be my last post before this thing starts. So fight the power, people! And I'll see you all again on Thursday. *raises fist*

*Edit*

4:00AM until 4:00PM PST

5:00AM until 5:00PM PDT

According to this. http://wwp.greenwich...nvert/index.htm

Edited January 18, 2012 by ファント

[Edward_Elric]

Wikipedia didn't so much as "black out" their site, but rather stopped you/me from viewing its content and redirecting you/me to an information page about SOPA and why its bad. I thought the site was gonna actually go offline for a day. While this way is certainly more informative, and I guess better, I can't get any lulz out of it.

[LATER BUDDY]

Wikipedia didn't so much as "black out" their site, but rather stopped you/me from viewing its content and redirecting you/me to an information page about SOPA and why its bad. I thought the site was gonna actually go offline for a day. While this way is certainly more informative, and I guess better, I can't get any lulz out of it.

[Aoi]

In my opinion, I kinda wish the SSMB did this as well, mainly because I'd like to see how it is if I couldn't go on today.

[Emperor Robrainiac]

I'm sorry for asking this, but is anyone planning on doing this blackout again? I'm over my complants over this protest and actually want this protest to be done more than once.

Cause if this is a one time thing, then I can't really say how much that annoys me. As long as that bill still exists, then I think that this blackout should be done a bit more. Not like every month mind you, but every now and then, especially if the bill ever gets picked up again.

There's a rumor going around that there might be another minor blackout on the 23rd, but take it with a grain of salt. If this is true, then will SSMB be participating?

Edited January 18, 2012 by the ORIGINAL recolor