Senators drop support of piracy bill after protests

[moe.ron]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...M9P_story.html

Amazing to watch the power of the internet, shows you how powerful it can be.

[AGDee]

Show me what democracy looks like!

THIS is what democracy looks like!

(To borrow an Occupy chant)

[ElieM]

Good work everyone!

It's been a terrible day for me though. Everything I use to procrastinate has been blacked out. I actually had to do some work.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by ElieM

Good work everyone!

It's been a terrible day for me though. Everything I use to procrastinate has been blacked out. I actually had to do some work.

Eh. The mobile version of The Wiki was working just fine today -- wasn't blacked out at all. I didn't come across anything else blacked out.

Count me among those who didn't really get the point of the blackout.

[DrPhil]

"Vast swaths of the Web effectively went dark" is a huge exaggeration.

Wikipedia is one of 2 sites (the other one I have never heard of) that completely went dark. Craigslist made people read through an opening letter before the reader looks down to "go to (regular craigslist)" which lets them search as normal. Then there is an excerpt on the screen about SOPA but that is easily ignored if you don't care. Google only blackened its name on the search engine but searching was unchanged.

If SOPA fails it probably fails for a number of reasons. The mode of protest by these sites was nothingness because it probably did not have a big impact on most people.

ETA: Wikipedia and the other site urged other sites to participate in the blackout but Google, facebook, and twitter said "helllll no we aren't losing money over this." LOL.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news...9?preview=true

[DubaiSis]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

"Vast swaths of the Web effectively went dark" is a huge exaggeration.

Well, not exactly. As the article states, Google "went dark" by making their google face literally dark. It just didn't go dark in the sense of shutting down. Semantics? Absolutely. And not an exaggeration if you want to split hairs.

What this should show people is if you browbeat your elected officials, they WILL listen. Well, they'll listen if you can get several hundred people to browbeat them along with you. The other thing this should show people is that you should know what your electeds are supporting and what they're not, and keep holding their feet to the fire.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Well, not exactly. As the article states, Google "went dark" by making their google face literally dark. It just didn't go dark in the sense of shutting down. Semantics? Absolutely. And not an exaggeration if you want to split hairs.

The need to split hairs is exactly why it is an exaggeration.

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

What this should show people is if you browbeat your elected officials, they WILL listen. Well, they'll listen if you can get several hundred people to browbeat them along with you. The other thing this should show people is that you should know what your electeds are supporting and what they're not, and keep holding their feet to the fire.

If this is an important topic to people. I do not consider it of particular importance. Yet we need people to fight for different causes, even if there is no consensus regarding the importance.

The fact that sites like Google, facebook, and twitttter either did no blackout or a halfassed blackout means something.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

The need to split hairs is exactly why it is an exaggeration.



If this is an important topic to people. I do not consider it of particular importance. Yet we need people to fight for different causes, even if there is no consensus regarding the importance.

The fact that sites like Google, facebook, and twitttter either did no blackout or a halfassed blackout means something.

Yes, critiquing people on what they choose to wear on Halloween is a topic of much greater importance than a proposed bill that would allow the Government to shut down websites based on loosely defined circumstances. GC could be shut down just based on whats in the "you laugh you lose" thread.

All snark aside, hopefully the media blitz generated by SOPA and PIPA will wake the American people up and allow them to see that these idiots in Washington are slowly trying to strip us of our rights and freedoms. Not even one month into 2012 and we have had the NDAA signed into law allowing the military to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely without trial, these web censorship bills, and now the Enemy Expatriation Act which if passed would give the Government the ability to strip the citizenship of U.S. citizens... Police State anyone?

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Yes, critiquing people on what they choose to wear on Halloween is a topic of much greater importance than a proposed bill that would allow the Government to shut down websites based on loosely defined circumstances. GC could be shut down just based on whats in the "you laugh you lose" thread.

All snark aside, hopefully the media blitz generated by SOPA and PIPA will wake the American people up and allow them to see that these idiots in Washington are slowly trying to strip us of our rights and freedoms. Not even one month into 2012 and we have had the NDAA signed into law allowing the military to detain U.S. citizens indefinitely without trial, these web censorship bills, and now the Enemy Expatriation Act which if passed would give the Government the ability to strip the citizenship of U.S. citizens... Police State anyone?

+1

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by PiKA2001

Yes, critiquing people on what they choose to wear on Halloween is a topic of much greater importance than a proposed bill that would allow the Government to shut down websites based on loosely defined circumstances.

I agree 100%. You are being jokingly sarcastic but this is exactly how I feel.

I consider perceived discrimination to be a larger indication of human liberty than what the government does with the Internet. But, like I said, there are millions of people in this world and tons of human liberties to address. Not everyone fights the battles that I find worth fighting and I will not fight the battles that everyone else finds worth fighting.

[ElieM]

A number of blogs I read were blacked out:
Regretsy
Cakewrecks
Some other smaller ones

Wiki obviously. A number of blogs were also talking about it.

[DrPhil]

Oh blogs. I don't read blogs but I guess some people do.

The only major and widely used site that was dark is wikipedia. Even that is blah.

[Boodleboy322]

Wow!

[DaffyKD]

This site had a great blackout. don't usually go to this site, but thanks to my niece I had to check it out today.

http://theoatmeal.com/sopa/

DaffyKD

[33girl]

Originally Posted by DaffyKD

This site had a great blackout. don't usually go to this site, but thanks to my niece I had to check it out today.

http://theoatmeal.com/sopa/

DaffyKD

The Oatmeal is THE BEST. Props to my awesome Alpha Chi Rho friend who turned me on to it.

And yes, he's had his content pirated so many times it's not funny - so if anyone is well qualified to say that this bill is over the top and stupid, it's him.