Topic: Statement regarding SOPA

[nend]

nend no-one is disagreeing with you.  It is important that everyone stand against SOPA in its current format.

I know, I just want everyone to realize what can happen. You know, give them that extra push to do something about it instead of just agreeing.

[playful]

Thank You SimpleMachines for educating me about SOPA.

I found your statement beautifully coherent and cogent. Until reading it, I had not realized the sinister extent of that bill.

I am grateful that you took time out of your other tasks to compose this amazing statement. It affects people well beyond SMF, so I have forwarded it to a non-SMF friend.

Wishing you a beautiful day.

[CoreISP]

Thank you playful, that is exactly what we hope to accomplish: make as many people aware of this as we can and try to give people just that nudge to take action

[holodoc]

I fear time will come when the Internet itself will be divided into several separate DNS zones completely isolated from each other. With SOPA alive that idea is certainly coming closer to reality - the Internet as we know it utterly destroyed and for what? Money and pure greed.

[青山 素子]

The big problem with the lawmakers dealing with SOPA is they are well aware they are ignorant of technical items and are not willing to bring in experts to discuss issues.

The last big hearing before the committee had a bunch of pro-SOPA companies and Google. Google tried quite decently to warn about the damages of the bill, but when they are being described as a pirate site by the lawmakers dealing with the bill, you know things are well stacked in favor of getting the bill passed.

There are a few sane folks on the committee and they are doing their best to stall the bill and keep it from ever being voted in, but even that may fail. Hopefully Google, Facebook, Twitter, and PayPal will go through with their coordinated blackout in protest if the bill exits the committee.

[Arantor]

The irony is that if the bill does go through, it'll be just like all the other BS like DRM - legitimate users will be penalised and those who flout the rules will just work around it like they always do.

[nend]

Hopefully Google, Facebook, Twitter, and PayPal will go through with their coordinated blackout in protest if the bill exits the committee.

That would be big if they did went with a blackout. What would one do on the internet, I don't know the extent of the Google blackout, but allot of my sites use allot of the Google and Facebook API's that allot of features would be gone off my sites if they blacked out. Also you wouldn't be able to eBay or many other online merchants, Google Checkout and Paypal will be offline. Revenue and data for my sites will be gone, no Google Analytics or Adsense.

These bigger sites are the backbone of allot of smaller sites which will not work correctly if they blacked out. If they blackout, I might as well blackout too since it would be allot easier to explain to users that we blacked out because of SOPA then the stupid SOPA bill caused all these problems.

Anybody know of the date of the blackout, one day without the net isn't going to hurt me too much if it is for the greater good of protecting the internet as we know it. It isn't like I am going to go on a full blackout just maybe a landing page with information.

[青山 素子]

Anybody know of the date of the blackout, one day without the net isn't going to hurt me too much if it is for the greater good of protecting the internet as we know it. It isn't like I am going to go on a full blackout just maybe a landing page with information.

According to the latest news article I could find, here, the plan is for January 24. This happens to be the day that the Senate is scheduled to vote.

If you want to participate in things, check out Stop American Censorship. They have tools on the site for participating in the protest.

[BryanD]

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I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit:
http://americancensorship.org/posts/33365/uncensor

[nend]

Anybody know of the date of the blackout, one day without the net isn't going to hurt me too much if it is for the greater good of protecting the internet as we know it. It isn't like I am going to go on a full blackout just maybe a landing page with information.

According to the latest news article I could find, here, the plan is for January 24. This happens to be the day that the Senate is scheduled to vote.

If you want to participate in things, check out Stop American Censorship. They have tools on the site for participating in the protest.

From article

Many consider the bill to be a form of censorship, similar to the way the China has blocked certain content from being accessed via internet. Now, major sites like Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, Ebay, Wikipedia,Yahoo, Paypal, and more are planning to completely black out their services on January 23, instead displaying a message urging users to contact their reps and speak out against SOPA.

So it looks like the 23, it would probably be easier to set my forums in maintenance mode I think then hassle with the domain folder. Other custom sites I have I plan to put a include in the main script file which can kill the rest of the script. So it seems pretty simple to bring them down. I am debating about doing this myself. 

I just posted on one of my forums, so I guess I am going through with it. This forum is heavy on API's so it might not work anyways if they go through with it.

My post @ my site

Title

Our stance on SOPA

Body

Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google,  PayPal, Twitter, Yahoo, Wikipedia and many more have planned a blackout to show congress what could happen if SOPA is passed. The blackout will be for January the 23 of 2012 and all services from these providers will be halted.

This means on that day you will not be able to browse the internet as freely as you can now. You will not be able to check your Facebook, Google+ or Twitter status. You will not be able to shop eBay or Amazon or pay for a purchase at a site that takes PayPal. You will not be able to use Google or Yahoo search also. You will not be able to use any of the services provided by these sites.

It has not been determine if the blackout level will affect any of the API's hosted by these services. If it does then any site that uses an API provided by the sites that are in the blackout will not work at all or will not work properly. So this means any site you see the Facebook, Google, PayPal or Twitter logo will not work properly or not at all. The API's for most of these sites also extend to external applications, such as those you find on your Android, IPhone or even your PC.

We have determine it is in the best interest of this website and internet as a whole to support these sites as they descend into the blackout. On January the 23 if any of these services are off line meaning they went through with the blackout, the chances are that we would of have pulled the plug also.

If you plan to take action against SOPA or need more information on SOPA please visit the links below.
https://www.eff.org/action
http://americancensorship.org/
http://savehosting.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act

We know how much of an inconvenience this may be to you and we should be back on the 24th. Please understand this blackout is a attempt to show congress what could happen if they pass this bill. This bill affects are freedom of speech on the internet and it must be shot down.

Sorry for any inconvenience,
SI Team

[青山 素子]

I could have sworn the article said January 24 when I read it. Oh well, January 23 then. Should be fun to see if they go through with it. Having tumblr down earlier resulted in the House of Reps phone system overloading, I can't imagine what will happen if sites with a much wider audience do this.

[Thantos]

What we really need is for the House's and Senate's upstream provider to block those sites on a copyright violation claim.

[InfoStrides]

This is a pressing issue. I will advise all SMF users to campaign against the BILL our various forums.

[Antechinus]

What we really need is for the House's and Senate's upstream provider to block those sites on a copyright violation claim.

That would work, and I bet they would have some content that would provide an excuse.

[Oldiesmann]

I have a feeling there's some shady business going on here as well, given the political clout and deep pockets that some of the supporters have. I'm sure a few of them have "encouraged" their politicians to support the bill with the promise of a large donation to their election campaign. Teamsters in particular has a lot of influence as far as politics go.

I can't figure out why some of these groups are supporting it though - how to the FOP, Mastercard and Visa benefit from this bill? Less work for them to do as far as fighting piracy?

One way we can help though. I just found a site that includes contact info for every organization supporting COPA

http://companiessupportingsopa.com/list-of-companies-backing-sopa/

Click on a company and it'll give you info on how to get in touch with them.

[JBlaze]

Personally, I think SOPA is the proverbial wool over our eyes. It was introduced as a means to keep us distracted while they (the Congress/House of Reps) draw up an even more sinister way to censor the internet and other things.

I hope to every deity that I am wrong. But, I've noticed that I am not alone in feeling this way either.

Also, in regards to the proposed "blackout" on January 23rd, I have only one thing to say about that...

[青山 素子]

I have a feeling there's some shady business going on here as well, given the political clout and deep pockets that some of the supporters have. I'm sure a few of them have "encouraged" their politicians to support the bill with the promise of a large donation to their election campaign. Teamsters in particular has a lot of influence as far as politics go.

Think of how well this would have worked against sites like Wikileaks.

I can't figure out why some of these groups are supporting it though - how to the FOP, Mastercard and Visa benefit from this bill? Less work for them to do as far as fighting piracy?

To some degree. FOP will always want to look tough on "crime" of course. As far as Mastercard and Visa, there are many websites out there that sell fake cards, holographic seals, and other items that can be used for credit fraud that costs them quite a bit.

Of course, this law is a bad way to go around counterfeit and otherwise illegal goods, but that won't stop any company that has a vested interest from taking what they can get.

[nend]

I can't access anything Google right now, anyone else experiencing this. Arghh right in the middle of some Android development and can't even read the docs.

My ads are showing on my sites, strange but My G+ connect does not work. Did they do a early test?

[SleePy]

Personally, I think SOPA is the proverbial wool over our eyes. It was introduced as a means to keep us distracted while they (the Congress/House of Reps) draw up an even more sinister way to censor the internet and other things.

I hope to every deity that I am wrong. But, I've noticed that I am not alone in feeling this way either.

Also, in regards to the proposed "blackout" on January 23rd, I have only one thing to say about that...

Must be the Protect IP Act that nobody seems to know about because SOPA is getting all the attention.

[青山 素子]

I can't access anything Google right now, anyone else experiencing this. Arghh right in the middle of some Android development and can't even read the docs.

Google's working for me. Also see http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/google.com.

Personally, I think SOPA is the proverbial wool over our eyes. It was introduced as a means to keep us distracted while they (the Congress/House of Reps) draw up an even more sinister way to censor the internet and other things.

I hope to every deity that I am wrong. But, I've noticed that I am not alone in feeling this way either.

I think it's more of the whole asking for something utterly insane, then scaling back to something bad but much better negotiation technique. Either way, I think there will be yet more bad laws, but perhaps SOPA is just a way of making something bad look that much better.

Must be the Protect IP Act that nobody seems to know about because SOPA is getting all the attention.

PIPA looks like a gem compared to the insanity in SOPA. Both are bad, however.