They're blacking out the internet today

[Sutterkane]

good luck learning anything on wikipedia.

This is in response to congress looking at passing sopa and pipa. Well, I would know a lot more about those 2 bills if I could read about them on wikipedia, which I can't.

 

[Faustdog]

<div class="tweet-row" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 15px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left; background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.0976563); "><span class="tweet-user-name" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">JonahNRO<span class="tweet-full-name" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 12px; ">Jonah Goldberg</span></span><div class="tweet-corner" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline-block; "><div class="tweet-meta" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-size: 11px; "><span class="icons" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><div class="extra-icons"><span class="inlinemedia-icons js-icon-container" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 2px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline-block; "></span></div></span></div></div></div><div class="tweet-row" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 15px; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-align: left; background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.0976563); "><div class="tweet-text js-tweet-text" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; line-height: 19px; word-wrap: break-word; ">Once Wikipedia goes dark I'm going to make crazy statements of fact and no one under 30 will know how to prove me wrong. Bwahahaha!</div></div>

<div id="isChromeWebToolbarDiv" style="display:none"></div>

 

[engie]

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

 

[MSUArrowCS]

(with Google's own slant, but still interesting to see what that is)
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/sopa-pipa/

A Google search can find you a bit more from various slants.

At the core is the idea of US companies being held responsible for what their users do. That's a pretty top-heavy idea and could hurt many existing business models, regardless of what you think of censorship in general.

 

[Bobby Ricigliano]

...you will find the following (the bold type being links):<div>
</div><div><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"Detailed information about these bills can be found in the</span><b style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Stop Online Piracy Act[/b]<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">and</span><b style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">PROTECT IP Act[/b]<span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">
</span></div><div><font face="sans-serif" size="2"><span style="line-height: 19px;">
</span></font></div>

 

[AssEndDawg]

http://vimeo.com/31100268

One important thing to understand is that this could affect ANY site containing user generated content. So wile this may not seem to apply to us it absolutely does. Under this bill DS would be liable, probably personally, for any infringing work posted on this site. It would become his responsibility to scour the site and remove any possibly copyrighted work or any link to any other infringing site or copyrighted work.

If you look at the gifs we use, including mine, those are almost assuredly copyrighted works. Which means they could be used to sue DS and Yuku. So there is a lot of content we consider fun and meaningless that other people could easily use to shut down this site. I don't see DS using his cash to hire lawyers and spend most of his day scouring the site for infringing material and links in order to provide a free service.

So, for any of you wondering how this pertains to you, that's how! If this passes you will see a large portion of the web, the part that relies on user generated content like this message board, go away for good. These are two VERY bad bills.

 

[mstateglfr]

just click the link off google and once the page is half loaded, stop the loading(click the X).
The page loads all the text and links, but stays up to read.

 

[mstateglfr]

.</p>

 

[SwampDawg]

nt

 

[boomboommsu]

Nm

 

[maroondawg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwuXNv8fJM

I was linked to this a few weeks ago when I had just heard about PIPA/SOPA. These are horrible bills that are going to effect the entire world not just the US.

 

[AssEndDawg]

http://www.ted.com/talks/defend_our_freedom_to_share_or_why_sopa_is_a_bad_idea.html

This one speaks to the motivations of the content providers. They have been trying to stop copying and sharing since the cassette tape. This is just the next step for them.

 

[starkvilleswami]

This legislation feels like some pissed off 1% ers going after the dirty hippy bloggers that have been occupying.

 

[MSUArrowCS]

it reeks of the RIAA's years of attempts to control piracy through the court system via ridiculous civil suits. They've upped their lobbying enough to get this additional ammo proposed.

My $0.02:
It's not necessarily poorly intentioned as much as it is naively constructed. Piracy is a problem for all kinds of intellectual property, and it's by no means a "right" of Internet users. But the thing that makes the Web (and especially the Web as we know it now) cool is all of the user-driven content. It would suck to lose much of that freedom in the name of controlling piracy.

 

[dawgs.sixpack]

it's a lot easier for the big movie studios and big record companies to go after a big site (google, wikipedia, facebook, etc.) than it is to go after each individual user. this is why they want this legislation passed. it's impossible for the entertainment industry to literally go after millions of internet users, many of whom are outside of the usa. which is another motivation behind the proposed laws, if they can't go after the kid in bangladesh who downloaded a leaked copy of the new lady gaga album, then they want to go after the owner of the websitewheresomeone posted the album. <div>
</div><div>it's just a poorly written and conceived attempt to curb piracy. </div><div>
</div><div>i could go on a lengthy rant about how particularly with the music industry, some level of pirated downloads actually helps 90+% of the bands out there and really only cuts into the profits of the u2's and lady gaga's and taylor swift's of the world - not that they are going to be struggling to get by. the faulty premise behind the record companies logic is that each illegal download is a missed album sale. that's not correct, many people will download a leaked copy of any album to give a band an honest listen, but would have never dropped the $$ on a download (and 30 second clips or 1 or 2 full songs don't give you a full picture either. at least not for a music geek like myself). if they like it, they end up buying some vinyl or going to concerts and buying the t-shirt (which is all money that goes more directly to the band and doesn't filter through the record label's hands). with the music industry, there is little to no need for the major labels anymore. most music is digitally downloaded, so the logistics of figuring out how to mass produce CDs and LPs isn't really an issue for most bands anymore - just release an albumdigitally, put together a kickass LP limited edition box set for the big time fans and charge a premium for it. and with home qualityrecordingand mixing software out there for relatively cheap prices, the need for a label to front you the money for time in a top notch studio isn't necessary for a young band either. then you have big bands like radiohead circumventing the labels all together and releasing stuff directly to the fans themselves. this is a final attempt by the record labels to stay relevant in a world where they really aren't relevant anymore. right now the music industry has increasingly few huge artists and increasingly growing 'middle class' of artists who built themselves through word or mouth and internet downloads with essentially no radio play...and that's a good thing. let the cream rise to the top and the fans determine who they like without major labels shoving the "hit" album down your throat and the clear channel radio playing an adele song every 30 minutes.</div>

 

[UpTheMiddlex3Punt]

Should we come down hard on piracy? Well, yes if it involves violence and stealing of physical goods. If by 'piracy' you mean some basement dweller who has the entire Barry Manillo CD collection on his computer, no.