SOPA strike

I guess this is the place to put this up. Many of you have heard of SOPA, the internet law that is going through congress right now that could hurt our freedom of speech. If you would like to read more about it here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Many big internet sites are going to on strike this January 18th, this are some:

-Reddit
-Mozilla
-MoveOn
-Tucowscheezburger,
-Fail blog,
-Dailywh.at and more
-Good.is
-TwitpicFree
-Software Foundation
-Rage Maker
-Destructoid
-Red 5
-Minecraft
-Good Old Games
-The Leaky Wiki
-Doxie Lovers Club
-Mojang
-XDA-Developers
-A Softer World
-This Is Why I'm Broke
-Cake Wrecks
I would like to call the Org to officialy join. Everyone that is with me please comment. If you aren't I would love to hear your oppinion. Remember, we got until the 18th to make a decision. This might not affect this site but it will affect the lives of all the people that us the internet in the U.S.

I've got a question first. What effect will this strike have on the people that support this act, or the legislators that have to decide upon it? I am sorry for being blunt, but this sounds like slactivism to me: "Yeah, let's not do anything on the internet for one day, that'll teach 'em!".

I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but I'd say letting your representatives know how you feel is a more effective response. In fact, if you truly feel this way: do so today. Then go on strike.

I fail to see how informing gamers and nerds, who are the primary demographic of most of these sites, of SOPA, something practically all of us know about, by taking down a site for a day will help.

If SOPA passes, Google, Twitter, and probably Facebook will be doing this. That'll get the word out to a lot more people than just taking down nerdy websites.

We aren't trying to hurt the government by not using the internet but are trying to get more people involved. Not everyone in the US and not even everyone that uses the internet in the US know about this. BTW I have tried to contact my representatives already...

I'm sorry but as someone who believes in a totally free and open internet for everyone I'm going to have to say that I'm against getting the Org involved in this, for a few key reasons:
1) The Org is non-political. This forum has thousands of members and cannot claim to speak for all of them. If we join this without any truly democratic vote then I don't see how we (as in the leadership) could justify it.
2) The precedent. We did not experience any similar shutdown when the Australian parliament was debating similar legislation. If we shut down this time then will we be expected to continue to do so whenever any government discusses internet censorship?
3) This site is not based in the US, nor are many of its patrons.

So yes, as someone who supports the idea of the protests, I don't support us getting involved. My two cents.

In any even http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...cy-legislation appears the issue has been shelved. Although PIPA is still active

Those are some good news!! Looks like I see that many of you are against the idea so I will not insist on this "nonsense".

For:
There is a precedence for shutting down the Backroom for the winter truce.

Wikipedia is looking at shutting down too.

So if it was limited to the Backroom I wouldn't have any objection.

Against:
I do find it very US centric however, and almost arrogant in assuming that the US = Internet. If we were to take a more eglatarian approach we would be closed 24/7 in protest of Chinese censorship. Hardly a practical approach. So given neither the specific nor general cases should be heeded IMDHO we should just get on with it.

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Originally Posted by Papewaio

Against:
I do find it very US centric however, and almost arrogant in assuming that the US = Internet.

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No offense but US=internet. When the US makes rules regarding internet or IP, they force it on other countries. They blackmailed Spain into following US law, they forced Sweden into taking down the Pirate Bay under US and not Swedish law. The US does in fact make the global rules when it coems to the internet.

Wikipedia is joining and Google will too. Might as well shut down the thrown room. I know that many of you don't like the idea but at least other sites won't be able to say that we didn't at least try to contribute. I'm not saying that the Org will make a difference by shutting down or something like that but at least you can tell your grand kids that you helped try to stop something. I don't know abut you guys but this generation seems kind of lazy compare to what other people protested and were passionate about back in the day. I'm not asking for much...

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Wikipedia is joining and Google will too. Might as well shut down the thrown room. I know that many of you don't like the idea but at least other sites won't be able to say that we didn't at least try to contribute. I'm not saying that the Org will make a difference by shutting down or something like that but at least you can tell your grand kids that you helped try to stop something. I don't know abut you guys but this generation seems kind of lazy compare to what other people protested and were passionate about back in the day. I'm not asking for much...

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You want us to retroactively shame our descendants? Or do you expect that this will seem heroic to them?

Cool story to tell your kids :confused:

Write a letter to your Conressman/woman, infinity more powerful and useful than shutting down a small forum for a day.

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Originally Posted by critviz

I don't know abut you guys but this generation seems kind of lazy compare to what other people protested and were passionate about back in the day. I'm not asking for much...

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That's the problem. You are not asking for much, so it won't impress the policy makers. Taking down the website is still lazy compared to what previous generations did. If you wish to raise awareness, there are better ways of doing it.

I strongly oppose SOPA. I have contacted both of my Senators and my Representative about this issue. I believe that what Wikipedia and others are doing is noble and worthy of praise. I also believe those sites are large enough to make a difference. I do not believe that the Org has enough of a presence on the internet to make any difference whatsoever with a blackout. Any American who would be aware of the issue due to actions by the Org would already be aware of the issue due to the blackouts on the numerous other, much larger, sites, as well as the current media coverage tidal wave that's making everyone aware of it even if they don't turn on a computer today. Blacking out the Org would accomplish nothing except to deprive our members of their daily entertainment. As for how posterity will see it, we're not draft dodgers in WW2. What we did or did not do today will not even be remembered next month, let alone 20 years from now.

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Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name

No offense but US=internet. When the US makes rules regarding internet or IP, they force it on other countries. They blackmailed Spain into following US law, they forced Sweden into taking down the Pirate Bay under US and not Swedish law. The US does in fact make the global rules when it coems to the internet.

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Not quite. The US is the major player for the internet. But it is not the sole player. After all HTML was developed at CERN, DNS servers are distributed around the world, the specifications are driven through RFCs which in turn are contributed to globally.

If the US equaled the internet they'd be able to stop Chinese censorship that hurts US business interests and they'd be able to shutdown Russian hackers in an instant rather then watch them post their exploits with location. And pirate bay wouldn't still be around too.

The Wikipedia shutdown was ridiculous.

First of all only the en.wikipedia.org was shut down, so I could still go to the acceptable nl.wikipedia.org.
Secondly you could just use google cache to view Wikipedia.

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Originally Posted by Drunk Clown

The Wikipedia shutdown was ridiculous.

First of all only the en.wikipedia.org was shut down, so I could still go to the acceptable nl.wikipedia.org.
Secondly you could just use google cache to view Wikipedia.

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The blackout wasn't about preventing you from going through the wikipedia. Simply shutting down your javascript would allow you to go through english wikipedia normally. They did that to raise world public awareness, and more specifically in the US, to get news headlines, get people talking about the blackout and the law itself, why it's bad and why it needs to be stopped.

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Originally Posted by Jolt

The blackout wasn't about preventing you from going through the wikipedia. Simply shutting down your javascript would allow you to go through english wikipedia normally. They did that to raise world public awareness, and more specifically in the US, to get news headlines, get people talking about the blackout and the law itself, why it's bad and why it needs to be stopped.

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Then they could've done it otherwise. Just a notification when you go to en.wikipedia.org which fills the screen and then continue to Wikipedia itself.