So... about SOPA...

[Boldek]

oh dude, this wont lasts long! lt is just a short period of protest. wiki is not going to fight against a law that is unseemingly to change so dauntlessly. l think few weeks later everything will work as usual.

Wikipedia is 'blacking out' in the US for today only. But wikipedia is fighting and will continue to fight SOPA/PIPA (not necessarily by continuing the blackout), since it infringes on just about everything Wikipedia stands for... free and unbiased (to the extent that such a thing is possible) knowledge. And with other heavyweights like Google, Twitter and Facebook (to name a few) batting against the bills and spreading the word of what these billls would do to the internet and freedom of speech if passed, I'm hoping that the bills will be defeated in the end.

Totally right there! Though I doubt that Wikipedia and Google are going to somehow sway this, the government or any other organization should have no right to decide what people should think or read. Back then people read the press, and now it's the internet. To filter and censor what people use to rely on others and communicate information is downright wrong, and we know it!

[Pentarctagon]

The funny thing is how easy it is to get around the wikipedia blackout

[artisticdude]

Well, the idea isn't to restrict access to Wikipedia entirely, which is why they allow you to circumvent the blackout so easily. They wanted to raise awareness of the SOPA/PIPA bills, and what better way to do it than have a SOPA/PIPA awareness page come up whenever anyone tries to visit Wikipedia? The whole 'total blackout' idea is more of a media and uninformed Joe-Shmoe hype that has gotten spread across the Internet. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it certainly has increased awareness if nothing else.

[Kalajel]

Mike Mozart has uncovered some dirt on teh a-holes who loby for SOPA. Make sure your lawmakers see those videos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzS5rSvZXe8

[Shinobody]

ESA dropped its support of SOPA.
I think Tycho from Penny Arcade summed it up best: "Wise."

[Dunno]

Even Hitler is talking about it now (might be NSFW)

[Pentarctagon]

Looks like Godwin was right

[Kalajel]

Looks like Godwin was right

...so what did people inevitably brought up before the Nazis existed?

[uncleshelby]

I have one thing to say. SOPA sucks.

[Pentarctagon]

It seems this wasn't Lamar Smith's only terrible idea recently. He also is sponsoring the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, which would require ISPs to keep all records of your internet history and online financial transactions for 18 months.

And then there's ACTA...

[artisticdude]

...which would require ISPs to keep all records of your internet history and online financial transactions for 18 months.

I've heard that a lot of them already do that - or something similar to that - to some degree or another (although some of those supposedly allow you to opt out of this ). Perhaps not for 18 months, although in some cases it might be indefinitely.

[Adamant14]

And what about this?

http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/?fp


ACTA - a global treaty - could allow corporations to censor the Internet.

[Pentarctagon]

Yeah, its worse than SOPA/PIPA. I think the best (or maybe the worst) part of it is that the countries signing it don't even agree what it does. For example the EU says its a binding international treaty, whereas Obama signed it as an executive agreement (which in this case is likely unconstitutional) which essentially means he doesn't have to send it to the senate but also means that he can ignore any of the provisions he doesn't like.

[orbegox]

SOPA, ACTA, PIPA.... why are they taking all the acronyms from spanish words?

[Adamant14]

2.000.000 have already signed

http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/?fp