Post by Fringe Pioneer on Jan 18, 2012 18:29:39 GMT
On midnight of Wednesday, January 18 EST, many sites banded together to protest SOPA and PROTECT IP, the latter of which is due to be voted for on January 24. Some sites, such as Google merely censored logos with prominent, hard-to-miss links to petitions and instructions to contacting congressmen and senators, whereas others like the English language Wikipedia blacked out access to everything except for information about SOPA and PROTECT IP and contact information for senators and congressmen who have you as a constituent.
In short, both bills attempt to stop piracy and miserably fail to do so, all while guaranteeing a new age of censorship at unprecedented levels with little to no means for due process.
Oh, you're not American, so this doesn't matter? You couldn't be more wrong. These American bills attempt to screw around with the underlying architecture of the Internet and World Wide Web, and such evil bills coming from "the leader of democracy" would likely get other world leaders to follow suit.
In solidarity with the efforts of nearly all other Internet users and developers, we have decided to replace the chat with a message about SOPA and PROTECT IP that links to an easy petition form from Google. The ToS for the petition is straightforward: only email and zip code are necessary, the email will only be used for sending you updates about the petition check the box for optionally opting in to receive updates, the zip code is to make sure the correct representatives are informed that SOPA and PROTECT IP are to be stopped, and that neither your name, email, nor zip code will be linked to any Google related account in any shape, way, or form.
Too long and didn't read? Sign petitions to stop SOPA and PROTECT IP, email your representatives, and tell everyone else to do so too.
The chat will be placed back up when the blackout fades away, or until you all actually do something to stop this madness, more likely the former but preferably the latter...
In short, both bills attempt to stop piracy and miserably fail to do so, all while guaranteeing a new age of censorship at unprecedented levels with little to no means for due process.
Oh, you're not American, so this doesn't matter? You couldn't be more wrong. These American bills attempt to screw around with the underlying architecture of the Internet and World Wide Web, and such evil bills coming from "the leader of democracy" would likely get other world leaders to follow suit.
In solidarity with the efforts of nearly all other Internet users and developers, we have decided to replace the chat with a message about SOPA and PROTECT IP that links to an easy petition form from Google. The ToS for the petition is straightforward: only email and zip code are necessary, the email will only be used for sending you updates about the petition check the box for optionally opting in to receive updates, the zip code is to make sure the correct representatives are informed that SOPA and PROTECT IP are to be stopped, and that neither your name, email, nor zip code will be linked to any Google related account in any shape, way, or form.
Too long and didn't read? Sign petitions to stop SOPA and PROTECT IP, email your representatives, and tell everyone else to do so too.
The chat will be placed back up when the blackout fades away, or until you all actually do something to stop this madness, more likely the former but preferably the latter...