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I need my fucking internet. Inconsiderate.

Woot woot!

I'm glad that this coincides with my first day of work

You know how this thing goes big? If Google decided to blackout Youtube. THAT WILL PISS PEOPLE OFF.

It is great that Wikipedia is doing this but to make any real impact, they will need to be joined by the other huge sites (Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, etc).  Not sure if they are ready for that kind of a move, though.

Craigslist has a message up on their main page, it looks blacked out but you can still get to the site

Woooo countdown! 18 minutes!

So exciting. Better than new years.

Looks like Google's just blacking out their logo.  At least it's a very visible act and doesn't leave any ambiguity as to where they stand.

hmmm. i see nothing different. is it because i'm in canada?

It's always because you're in Canada.

works in the UK too, maybe parts of the empire that stayed loyal don't get it.

i knew it was coming but reddit's 502 bad gateway was still kind of a let down

Bryce said:

i knew it was coming but reddit's 502 bad gateway was still kind of a let down

Agreed =(

Slideshow of the sites that are down, along with their blackout messages.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16608314

most of these are still up for non-us citizens, lol

All SOPA and PIPA really are is a set of passed laws and legal fabric to allow precedents for corporations to more easily sue each other and individuals. It's all about being able to win money in court.

That is the INTENT of the bills.  The reality is that, as Blaze said in his thread a while back, there could be serious consequences for those who operate any and all sites that allow users to contribute information, because they could potentially be held liable for everything that is posted on their site.

Nearly 10,000 sites participated in the blackout today and 3 of the bill sponsors withdrew their support this week.  It's not the best response but it's making progress.

Your "reality" is the same thing. "Serious consequences" and potential liability will all be dished out in court. SOPA and PIPA are setting US Law into the way the internet works and how private you are when you use it. I don't think the internet can exist as a completely free environment when money is to be made from it. When we start paying websites for services and entertainment, you HAVE to expect there to be regulation. A sad future yes, unless we make a drastic change, to a system of nonprofit. That is one of the tenants of my organization, that in all cases progress can be made without the use of money. I know many people who are experts in their field and are attempting to make several useful services free to the public. I am one of them.

Who, exactly, is making money off copyright infringement on the internet?  Torrent sites don't make shit and they're the main target of this bill.  I don't even have a huge issue with them shutting down torrent sites; I do agree that it is stealing when you download pirated material and getting it on the Internet is no different legally / morally than swiping it off a shelf in a store.  The fear of arrest is what drives me to not steal things in stores, and there is no such apprehension in the wilderness of the Internet. 

All the legit sites that make money are already regulated.  Google is a publicly traded company, Wikipedia is nonprofit and has to run donation drives to stay ad-free, Amazon vendors charge taxes whenever appropriate.

Censorship is a scary and dangerous thing, no matter what it is that is being censored.  I see this as the first step down a very dark road, leading to the loss of various freedoms that I see as being synonymous with the U.S. 

I also feel that the way this bill has come out really shows the ridiculous amount of power that the entertainment industry has here in the states.  If passed this will basically leave it up to the major copyright holders to decide what websites we can and can not access in this country, because if there is anything objectionable they can just sue them and shut them down.  That is WAY too much power.

You misunderstood with the very first question. I said that people make money on the internet. As such, there is money to be had by claiming possession of content and "intellectual property." Back in the day, nobody got more than internet famous by making interesting comics or videos or whatever kind of website. At most there was ad revenue. Now that the industry has grown and there is now great cash to be had by manipulating the internet or producing content, there is always sure to come the regulation behind it. SOPA and PIPA both make it standard practice for lawsuits to be had over any web related matters, and authoritative control in the form of the censoring powers. I think people should be less combative to our national government and more willing to help change it. If you think about it, everybody on this planet was once a child and was grown into their systems. SOPA and PIPA bring up great examples of bad legislation such as our copyright system and our patent system. I think my biggest problem is that the entire anti-SOPA brigade is about censorship when the bill is much more powerful than that, and we should focus on changing our heavily litigous society.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16623831

More backers drop the bill (from 3 to 8)

The reasons for the bill are irrelevant; the fact is that handling copyright infringement with SOPA / PIPA is like poisoning everything in the ocean to kill a few man-eating sharks.  There are already provisions for lawsuits over copyright infringement (Napster, Limewire, Morpheus, etc).

Glad to see the support continuing to dwindle.

Have any of you read the bills?  I'm thinking of going through them today after a trusted lawyer friend told me they were pretty solid (we have similar opinions, so now i'm confuzzled)

I actually haven't read any part of the bill. I've only had it explained to me by fervently opposed ideologues.

DOWN WITH THE BILL.

Lamar Smith looks like a really nice guy.

My levels of apathy are off the charts.

Considering how little the others affect them, is it really surprising?

fusi0n said:

The reasons for the bill are irrelevant; the fact is that handling copyright infringement with SOPA / PIPA is like poisoning everything in the ocean to kill a few man-eating sharks.  There are already provisions for lawsuits over copyright infringement (Napster, Limewire, Morpheus, etc).

Glad to see the support continuing to dwindle.

This. 

The Dunwich Horror said:

Considering how little the others affect them, is it really surprising?

This is exactly the problem, kids feel disconnected from reality, where real things happen, like laws and shit

creed said:

The Dunwich Horror said:

Considering how little the others affect them, is it really surprising?

This is exactly the problem, kids feel disconnected from reality, where real things happen, like laws and shit

i love you

TPOE said:

One scary thing I find about this bill, that I don't see so many people pointing out, it that it could easily be used as a weapon against individuals.

I've been saying this to friends at every opportunity but it never seems to stick with them. People are silly.

creed said:

This is exactly the problem, kids feel disconnected from reality, where real things happen, like laws and shit

But one is revolution and natural disaster which doesn't actually affect them and there isn't much they can do besides donating money. There will always be more natural disasters.  The other is an election which they can't vote for and even if they did, the difference between which candidate won would be a minor impact.

Then there is the final one.  One the drastically affects them.  One that they can contribute to without spending money.  One that IF their actions work, the result will be vastly different from if the bill passes.

The kids don't feel disconnected from reality, they ARE disconnected from those realities.

If you are afraid for individual rights, then incorporate.

The Dunwich Horror said:

creed said:

This is exactly the problem, kids feel disconnected from reality, where real things happen, like laws and shit

But one is revolution and natural disaster which doesn't actually affect them and there isn't much they can do besides donating money. There will always be more natural disasters.  The other is an election which they can't vote for and even if they did, the difference between which candidate won would be a minor impact.

Then there is the final one.  One the drastically affects them.  One that they can contribute to without spending money.  One that IF their actions work, the result will be vastly different from if the bill passes.

The kids don't feel disconnected from reality, they ARE disconnected from those realities.

Replace "elections" with "create social difference", "natural disasters" with "create a meaningful life", switch out anything you want for any kind of actual life-affirming positive experience and the levels of interest will still be right around where the graph says, BURIED in the fucking internet, browsing reddit and lolcats

Cazb0t said:

If you are afraid for individual rights, then incorporate.

Is this the latest catch phrase? I don't think I get it. 

Incorporate means form a corporation, or a company. The instant you do that, your individual rights don't matter, because you have the shield of a corporate entity to both protect you from legal attacks and give you access to corporate rights. It's the easiest thing to do.

you also need lots and lots of money

Not initially. I already formed my nonprofit. The paperwork cost 300 dollars to file. I still need to request tax exempt status, but even without that we were given a lot of tools and information on how to receive funds and contributions. It only takes a good idea and some work to make a corporation or nonprofit successful. I think if more people knew how easy it was and the perks of being incorporated, we could see some real positive change happening on a more local scale. Instead, a lot of kids are out of luck without a job (or with a low wage one) barely scraping by and doing nothing for society except being a fast food slave. These are the people who complain on the internet about lack of opportunities and a biased system. If you can recognize that, why not use the bias for your own gain, and then make some steps to fix it? I got the idea to make a nonprofit in December, and it's already come to fruition before February. By March we'll have a dozen members and a sizable building in Greenville. American investors will fund any plan that intelligently approaches an economic or welfare obstacle, and with the modern reach of the internet, finding funding is as easy as ever.