January 18 Blackout

[ladyunicornejg]

UPDATE (Jan 19, 2012): the 24 hour internet strike/blackout seems to have made a significant difference. There are now more against the bills than for it in congress and many believe the bills are essentially dead. Furthering the opposition of these bills ever passing is the recent attacks on megaupload.

The blackout/strike did more than simply strike a devastating blow to these bills. The blackout itself and the discussion of the bills made it onto mainstream media news ending a different kind of "blackout." For once, discussion of the bills was not simply a matter of one group of people shouting "piracy is wrong" with no actual explanation as to why the bills were needed and the other side shouting "no internet censorship" with a bunch of their own propaganda. Instead, for once, actual discussion emerged and individual supporters (though far fewer in number than individuals opposing) actually spoke up and said WHY they supported it and what was wrong with the big-internet opposition to it.

One friend of mine who supports the bills said that "The 'censorship' trope is a red herring: the core issue is forcing ISPs, Google, and others to take responsibility for their current tacit support of bit torrent sites who are in the business of digital media piracy." and continued to explain about Google's current censorship of various other illegal activities. The blackout was quite successful, but were we doing what was right or just acting as pawns for a new master?

Original

Due to the threats of SOPA and PIPA, many sites are blacking out in protest on January 18th. As I have mentioned in the general discussion forum, these bills pose serious threats to the internet and directly to this site. If these are allowed to pass, the odds are extremely high that I would have to shut this site down or give/sell it to someone outside of the bills' jurisdiction. It's not even just this site, but most of the internet as we know it would either be impacted by these or would have never come to be had they existed when the sites started.

As such, on the 18th I will join in the blackout and stand in solidarity with countless small sites and even larger ones (Reddit is confirmed, others are rumored). However, being lazy as I am, it will probably be pretty easy to bypass this shutdown. Actually that detail has roots in more than laziness but that can be discussed later.

If you have any comments, concerns, questions, etc. feel free to post or message me.

[Cecilia Rose Demonic Princess]

I stand with you on this hun. I say lets do it.

[William Wolfheart]

yes...I stand with you as well....let's do it

[ladyunicornejg]

UPDATE: the 24 hour internet strike/blackout seems to have made a significant difference. There are now more against the bills than for it in congress and many believe the bills are essentially dead. Furthering the opposition of these bills ever passing is the recent attacks on megaupload.

The blackout/strike did more than simply strike a devastating blow to these bills. The blackout itself and the discussion of the bills made it onto mainstream media news ending a different kind of "blackout." For once, discussion of the bills was not simply a matter of one group of people shouting "piracy is wrong" with no actual explanation as to why the bills were needed and the other side shouting "no internet censorship" with a bunch of their own propaganda. Instead, for once, actual discussion emerged and individual supporters (though far fewer in number than individuals opposing) actually spoke up and said WHY they supported it and what was wrong with the big-internet opposition to it.

One friend of mine who supports the bills said that "The 'censorship' trope is a red herring: the core issue is forcing ISPs, Google, and others to take responsibility for their current tacit support of bit torrent sites who are in the business of digital media piracy." and continued to explain about Google's current censorship of various other illegal activities. The blackout was quite successful, but were we doing what was right or just acting as pawns for a new master?