Popular sites go dark to protest SOPA

[Koharuchan]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending...174211626.html

Am I the only one that thinks this would have a much bigger impact if facebook joined in on this?

I'm all for the protesting. I really wish more sites would do this. What do you guys think about it?

[Incompris]

Facebook, twitter, and google should all join. Wikipedia is a good start, but all the big sites going down would be a real wake up call.

[Koharuchan]

Check out this political cartoon. Language warning!

[TigerTank77]

Protesting a bill being able to shut down websites... by shutting down your website for the day.

Next, lets protest racism with a lynch mob! Yeah!

[Brandon]

Originally Posted by TigerTank77

Protesting a bill being able to shut down websites... by shutting down your website for the day.

Well, I believe that they are doing it to show what damage SOPA can do if you don't act before everything goes into effect. Like cars, if you notice the problem before it gets worse, you've saved more time and money that way in the long run by preventing something. It's to raise awareness, to my knowledge...not to shoot themselves in the foot.

[TheBabyEater]

Google IS going down. Along with Facebook. I personally can't wait, kids need to get off their asses, get off their computers and shit, and go outside. Have a social life. It's healthy.
Here's a full list of websites I'm aware of that are going down:

Reddit
Wikipedia
AOL
eBay
Etsy
Facebook
Foursquare
Google
IAC
LinkedIn
Mozilla
OpenDNS
PayPal
Twitter
Yahoo!
Zynga

[Maverick.]

I'm surprised wikipedia has actually agreed to participate in this. I guess we will see how this pans out.

[Koharuchan]

I'm not surprised wiki is doing it, but I am surprised about google and facebook. I wasn't aware they were going down. I'm glad, hopefully such big sites going down will have a much larger impact.

The government needs to focus on fixing our screwed up economy and unemployment rate, not playing around with the internet.

[TheBabyEater]

Here is a better list, there are a lot of rumors about Facebook, so I don't know actually if it's going down. I really hope it would, like I said, real social life is needed among us.


http://sopastrike.com/

[Koharuchan]

Holy shit. That's a lot of sites.

[TigerTank77]

Check the websites.

They've all been "censored"

This is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever seen.

[Lugez]

I personally think it's pretty awesome...I'm interested to see what impact this will have. People are so focused on the election right now that most people I've talked to don't even know what SOPA/PIP acts are and how it could severely effect the internet.

[Snufkin]

Originally Posted by TigerTank77

Check the websites.

They've all been "censored"

This is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever seen.

Completely agreed, this is just stupid. Someone said on FB last night...

"Can anyone explain how "going dark" tomorrow will help and who in power is supposed to care? No hurry, you can get back to me Wednesday if you like. I'll be here."

This is just pointless and an inconvenience to everyone.

[Digilodger]

Originally Posted by TigerTank77

Check the websites.

They've all been "censored"

This is the dumbest fucking thing I have ever seen.

Originally Posted by Snufkin

Completely agreed, this is just stupid. Someone said on FB last night...

"Can anyone explain how "going dark" tomorrow will help and who in power is supposed to care? No hurry, you can get back to me Wednesday if you like. I'll be here."

This is just pointless and an inconvenience to everyone.

Look, you've said it yourself: This is [...] inconvenience to everyone. Thus, this would get more people's attention.

Many people still don't know or don't understand SOPA/PIPA yet; of those who aware of them, many still don't care or don't care enough to take a stand. This would at least raise more awareness among those who aren't familiar with these two bills yet, and potentially give those who are hesitating to take a side on the matter finally decide to take a side.


Actually, we're having this thread on here today is because of the strike. And around the web, many popular sites, forums, and blogs are also holding active discussion on SOPA/PIPA today, too. How can you say that it's pointless?


===========================

Kind of sad that the major players like Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Paypal, and Facebook (especially Palpay and Google, since it includes so many services like YouTube, Calendar, Adsense, etc., and Palpay because a lot of transaction take part within a day) aren't going to "completely black out" though. If they all gone for about a week, I'm pretty a lot more people would take action.

But how hard is it for Congress to pull down the bill though? I mean, if nearly the entire internet is against it and 99% of IT professionals and enthusiasts alike are against SOPA/PIPA, then it's a pretty good sign that they're bad idea. Yet they still try to pass it. I don't get politics sometimes.

Actually, make that a lot of times.

[ShimmeringFaerie]

Originally Posted by TheBabyEater

Google IS going down. Along with Facebook. I personally can't wait, kids need to get off their asses, get off their computers and shit, and go outside. Have a social life. It's healthy.

Whilst I can understand your point, it's not just "lazy kids" who use FaceBook. My parents run an online business and therefore use FaceBook a lot to advertise and communicate with their customers. Not being able to tell their customers when they have new stock would seriously injure their sales, and I'm sure it would have a big impact on other small online businesses as well. Personally, I think there are better ways to get kids outside than just shutting down the Internet, thus creating issues for people who might actually need it.


On the topic of "going dark" to protest SOPA though... I guess it will be good to raise awareness of SOPA. Being in Australia, I honestly haven't heard much about it at all, so this definitely made me more aware of the issue (though the explanations that I've seen haven't really cleared up what it is about anyway). But I don't see how it will make a difference to the people in power.

[Snufkin]

Originally Posted by Digilodger

But how hard is it for Congress to pull down the bill though? I mean, if nearly the entire internet is against it and 99% of IT professionals and enthusiasts alike are against SOPA/PIPA, then it's a pretty good sign that they're bad idea. Yet they still try to pass it. I don't get politics sometimes.

Actually, make that a lot of times.

Becuase of the money that the movie and music industries lose year upon year due to illegal downloads? How dare they try to uphold copyright laws. Those industries back this completely, unsurprisingly.

Yeah, it's a bit OTT, and I think those industries ought to find other ways to make up for their losses (people went to see Avatar; people bought Adele's album - people will pay if the quality is good), but I don't think because we can get away with copyright infringement really easily these days that that should be generally accepted.

Logically, anyway.

I have my own opinions on that but the law is the law, you can't expect them to sit there and not want to try and regulate illegal activity on the internet. Sure, they're doing it wrong, but they were always going to try. I don't think this bill will pass anyway, and if it does it won't be anywhere near as effective as people think it is.

Yes, I disagree with the whole thing. I think the choice of commiting an illegal activity such as downloading should be there, and it should be your choice whether you partake or not. This bill won't stop that happening, they couldn't possibly stop the internet. But the fuss created over the whole thing is really bugging me. Some small forum going offline for a day MAKES NO DIFFERENCE. I was aware of SOPA before Wiki decided to turn itself off for a day, but I don't feel any different now that they're away, except annoyed I can't randomly read articles during a boring day.

I think I might just go back to bed for the day.

[TheBabyEater]

Originally Posted by ShimmeringFaerie

Whilst I can understand your point, it's not just "lazy kids" who use FaceBook. My parents run an online business and therefore use FaceBook a lot to advertise and communicate with their customers. Not being able to tell their customers when they have new stock would seriously injure their sales, and I'm sure it would have a big impact on other small online businesses as well. Personally, I think there are better ways to get kids outside than just shutting down the Internet, thus creating issues for people who might actually need it.

Can you point out to me exactly where I said the only people who use Facebook are lazy kids?

[BDF]

This SOPA and PIPA... if those bills pass it offers countless opportunities for other crazy laws to piggyback on top of them. You could probably order the whole modern internet to be shut down, through some indirect links between websites where only some of them are supporting piracy.

Besides... in my opinion we NEED piracy. It is a MAJOR competitor to the media industry. Imagine if there was no piracy, they would happily raise their prices knowing that there is no where else for consumers to turn to. I'll buy an original if it is reasonably priced... and I have been doing so more recently. I remember when tracks on itunes where £1 each I think, maybe 5 or more years ago. Taking into account inflation, that adds up to hell loads of money to just download several albums. What's to stop them raising the prices back to what they were before if piracy is stomped out? What's to stop all sorts of mainstream corporations demanding payments for the smallest scrap of bullshit on internet, and labelling everything else piracy? Nothing... if these bills come into effect.

[BDF]

Originally Posted by Snufkin

I was aware of SOPA before Wiki decided to turn itself off for a day, but I don't feel any different now that they're away, except annoyed I can't randomly read articles during a boring day.

I think I might just go back to bed for the day.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Is it still possible to access Wikipedia in any way?
Yes. During the blackout, Wikipedia is accessible on mobile devices and smart phones. You can also view Wikipedia normally by disabling JavaScript in your browser, as explained on this Technical FAQ page. Our purpose here isn't to make it completely impossible for people to read Wikipedia, and it's okay for you to circumvent the blackout. We just want to make sure you see our message.

..............

[Snufkin]

You can also just hit escape before the page is fully loaded, since the blackout screen is just basically a cover on top of the article you searched for. Still, not the point!

But your argument about prices raising due to lack of piracy is one of the most sensible arguments I've heard. I like that argument.

[TheNumber42]

Originally Posted by Snufkin

Completely agreed, this is just stupid. Someone said on FB last night...

"Can anyone explain how "going dark" tomorrow will help and who in power is supposed to care? No hurry, you can get back to me Wednesday if you like. I'll be here."

This is just pointless and an inconvenience to everyone.

The point is that it is an inconvenience to raise awareness. The more people that know, the more pressure there is on lawmakers to not fuck up.

[FriendZoneMayor]

Originally Posted by Snufkin

Completely agreed, this is just stupid. Someone said on FB last night...

"Can anyone explain how "going dark" tomorrow will help and who in power is supposed to care? No hurry, you can get back to me Wednesday if you like. I'll be here."

This is just pointless and an inconvenience to everyone.

The point isn't to get people "in power" (I use quotes because technically, we all have that power) to say no to the bill, it's to get us everyday people to stand up and contact those in more power than us (senators, state reps, etc) to tell them how we feel. I know in America, it's those peoples' jobs to act in the best interest of their state/region, and to do what the majority wants. HOWEVER, if the majority doesn't speak up, they're going to act on their own moral standpoint, which won't always reflect the wishes of the people they represent, or even what's right.

[Snufkin]

Since when did politicians ever listen to what the people wanted? Why has it taken this to unite people? Couldn't we do this over gay marriage?

Also, fail @ the creator of SOPA http://twitpic.com/88ueqz

[Cosmo]

I hope Facebook and Google and Twitter also go down. That way a lot more awareness will be raised about SOPA. I'm fucking sick of the US playing world police, telling the rest of the world what to do. A British man was extradited to the US because he broke their laws... FROM THE UK. He ran a website that LINKED to copyrighted content. Not in the US? They don't care and I've had it up to here. Someone needs to put those fucktards in Congress and in the Senate back in their places; ie, out on the street. We don't need them. We're strong and intelligent enough that we don't need these corrupt assholes telling us what to do. It's time to get rid of this archaic pyramid system and finally evolve, this is holding us back.The idea that the US Govt., via SOPA, can tell me what I can and can't see online sickens and enrages me. Fuck them, fuck SOPA, and fuck anyone who supports it.


Apologies for the expletives.

[BDF]

Originally Posted by Cosmo

A British man was extradited to the US because he broke their laws... FROM THE UK. He ran a website that LINKED to copyrighted content. Not in the US?

You make it sound like most of the under 21s/over 18s in the UK could get extradited to the US for drinking "under age", simply because their drinking age is higher.

And actually it's not far off...

[ShimmeringFaerie]

Originally Posted by TheBabyEater

Can you point out to me exactly where I said the only people who use Facebook are lazy kids?

You didn't and I didn't say that you did. You did say that you couldn't wait for FaceBook to shut down because it would be good for kids and as someone who knows plenty of families that rely on FaceBook for income, I felt it necessary to point out that maybe there are better ways to get kids outside than undermining online businesses.

[craz33me]

If they are participating, how do you black out facebook? Cause mine's working as is my twitter.

I thought they were, in fact, I read on both sites they were but I don't know.

Tumblr is also participating. If anyone didn't already put that.

[dr2005]

Originally Posted by BDF

Besides... in my opinion we NEED piracy. It is a MAJOR competitor to the media industry. Imagine if there was no piracy, they would happily raise their prices knowing that there is no where else for consumers to turn to. I'll buy an original if it is reasonably priced... and I have been doing so more recently. I remember when tracks on itunes where £1 each I think, maybe 5 or more years ago. Taking into account inflation, that adds up to hell loads of money to just download several albums. What's to stop them raising the prices back to what they were before if piracy is stomped out? What's to stop all sorts of mainstream corporations demanding payments for the smallest scrap of bullshit on internet, and labelling everything else piracy? Nothing... if these bills come into effect.

Oh dear. I've read some daft things in my time, but this is right up there. Prices in an open market are determined both by supply and demand and presence of competitors within the industry, not piracy outside of it. Piracy actually has the complete opposite effect to what you claim, as by depriving legitimate companies of revenue it forces them to increase their prices to recoup their costs. That happened with the black market during the Second World War and it's exactly the same now. iTunes has been forced to lower its prices because others such as Amazon have gotten in on the act and cut their prices, and record companies have followed suit - that has nothing to do with piracy, it's down to genuine competition. That's what happens in free markets, so your concern that prices will suddenly balloon without piracy is, with respect, a bit wide of the mark.

On your question of who will stop companies label everything on the Internet "piracy", I can think of two very pertinent things: intellectual property laws and the courts. You can't claim a violation or demand a payment over something you don't own, and the courts take a pretty dim view of frivolous lawsuits.

Originally Posted by Cosmo

A British man was extradited to the US because he broke their laws... FROM THE UK. He ran a website that LINKED to copyrighted content. Not in the US? They don't care and I've had it up to here.

I'll admit that I'm not fully aware of the facts in Richard O'Dwyer's case, but I can safely say that (a) he has yet to be extradited and (b) he's only going to be extradited if there is a legitimate case to answer. The UK has refused to extradite suspects to the USA in the past, up to and including last year, so viewing this as some form of conveyor belt is unfounded.

Originally Posted by Cosmo

Someone needs to put those fucktards in Congress and in the Senate back in their places; ie, out on the street. We don't need them. We're strong and intelligent enough that we don't need these corrupt assholes telling us what to do. It's time to get rid of this archaic pyramid system and finally evolve, this is holding us back.The idea that the US Govt., via SOPA, can tell me what I can and can't see online sickens and enrages me. Fuck them, fuck SOPA, and fuck anyone who supports it.

On the first point, I would quote Agent K from Men in Black: "A person is smart - people are dumb, crazy, panicky animals and you know it." There's a reason why we have developed dedicated forums within our democratic system, and it's mainly because mob rule tends to be as bad if not worse. On the second point, SOPA and PIPA have nothing to do with the US Government telling you "what I can and can't see online", however badly drafted they are - all they would actually allow if passed (which is looking increasingly unlikely) is for content owners via the DoJ to apply for court orders to close down sites which violate copyright and refuse to correct it. The court will not simply rubberstamp every request, and if necessary it will devise its own tests to ensure the Constitution is respected (as it has done time and again in the history of the United States. That's what it's there for). I'm all for SOPA and PIPA being sent back to the drafting stages, and sincerely hope they are, but anyone seriously claiming this is going to lead to wholesale censorship or that kneejerk reactions along those lines are in any way going to help is deluding themselves. Piracy is a problem which is going to need addressing one way or another if we're still going to have film/TV/music to enjoy, whether that's through enforcement of IP laws or websites such as Google, Facebook et al carrying out better policing, and the sooner we can all collectively grow up and face reality the better it'll be. We don't have a God-given right to have other people's work for free.

[Snufkin]

Well it's working http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16623831

[TheBabyEater]

It was working before Wednesday. The White House already said they would veto the bill no matter what, and Congress doesn't have near enough votes to override it. With Obama's current unhappy standings? I really doubt he'd actually approve it. They're trying again in February, but will all the protesting, no one really wants to loose votes by approving this bill. Politics are all about getting reelected. Money comes next.

[Digilodger]

Originally Posted by Snufkin

Well it's working http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16623831

It's definitely working! PIPA is now unofficially gone for good. The Senate used to have more supporters for PIPA; now the two sides are pretty even. The bill-opposing side actually has a few more than the bill-supporter side right now. (33 in support of the bill; 36 oppose the bill; and 15 undecided. The rest are unknown yet.)


Source: Ars Technica [PIPA support collapses, with 13 new Senators opposed.] (It's actually 18 more now, as of Jan. 19.)

You can check where each of the 100 US Senators stand here: Open Congress [Protect IP Act Senate whip count]


Next is SOPA

Oh, and is anyone on here living in New York? I heard an offline protest actually took place at New York, on the same day as the online "blackout" protest.

[craz33me]

Yeah, I heard that too!
My friend put a wall paper on facebook that said "SOPA? How about NOPA?" lol

[Digilodger]

Who doesn't know about the SOPA/PIPA and the blackout protest?

Well, apparently A LOT of people.


Check this out! Herpderpedia shares a collection of tweets people have made during the 24-hour blackout of Wikipedia. And boy, they are hilarious! They'll give you a good laugh.

Two things come to mind:

1. I never thought so many people would be out of touch with major current events. I have a penpal (e-pal?) in Finland who knows about the reason for the blackout; yet here we are, seeing people who live in the US but still know NOTHING!
2. I never thought so many are dependent on Wikipedia. I mean, it's only 24 hours; but so many seem devastated!

[Loving Linux Penguin]

To the people who are saying this is dumb and stupid:
I'm rather sure that the idea here is/was to make users aware. The sites that are doing are basically saying "Hey, this is what could happen to your favorite sites, PERMANENTLY, if these laws are passed". It's sorta like the Day of Silence, where people protest the "silencing" of LGBT youth and their supporters by way of being silenced themselves. "Going dark" in itself won't prevent anything, but asking people to contact Congress will. And Wikipedia is reporting that some 162 MILLION people contacted Congress yesterday, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation says that at least 18 senators have withdrawn their support from these bills. Sure seems like it worked well to me.

[JKmadu619]

Cyanide and Happiness was offline yesterday as well.

- Justin

[BDF]

This forum should have a smiley throwing the middle finger. It'd be most appropriate.

Fuck you to SOPA and PIPA, with a kick in the nuts.

Good bye.

[Jocelyn.]

Originally Posted by Digilodger

Who doesn't know about the SOPA/PIPA and the blackout protest?

Well, apparently A LOT of people.


Check this out! Herpderpedia shares a collection of tweets people have made during the 24-hour blackout of Wikipedia. And boy, they are hilarious! They'll give you a good laugh.

Two things come to mind:

1. I never thought so many people would be out of touch with major current events. I have a penpal (e-pal?) in Finland who knows about the reason for the blackout; yet here we are, seeing people who live in the US but still know NOTHING!
2. I never thought so many are dependent on Wikipedia. I mean, it's only 24 hours; but so many seem devastated!

The funniest (or saddest) part is that basically all of the websites protesting had big "CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO!!!" buttons. Why would clicking that possibly tell you why Wikipedia isn't working? /shrug

[Snufkin]

Well Megavideo/Megaupload have been shut down. That's annoying.

[BDF]

Originally Posted by Loving Linux Penguin

To the people who are saying this is dumb and stupid:
I'm rather sure that the idea here is/was to make users aware. The sites that are doing are basically saying "Hey, this is what could happen to your favorite sites, PERMANENTLY, if these laws are passed". It's sorta like the Day of Silence, where people protest the "silencing" of LGBT youth and their supporters by way of being silenced themselves. "Going dark" in itself won't prevent anything, but asking people to contact Congress will. And Wikipedia is reporting that some 162 MILLION people contacted Congress yesterday, while the Electronic Frontier Foundation says that at least 18 senators have withdrawn their support from these bills. Sure seems like it worked well to me.

Power to the people. Slightly boosted my mood.

[ToGoOmniscient]

A friend and I decided not to use Twitter or Facebook from 8 am to 8 pm yesterday. We joined the blackout and we're both protesting SOPA online in any possible way a 15- and 17-year-old can.

I personally download music and watch movies and stuff online.
I also personally don't care.

I get that they're trying to stop piracy and illegal downloading, blah blah blah.

You don't have to shut down Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google, etc...
Because if SOPA/PIPA passes, we will lose all those sites because of streaming, search engines, copyright infringement, music, etc.

This is my shorthand take on it.
You're trying to stop piracy?
Well yo, ho, ho, it's a pirate's life for me.