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Websites go dark in protest of SOPA
Two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act, are currently under consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. The bills aim to curb sales of pirated products overseas. Provisions in SOPA would allow authorities to pursue court orders against sites suspected of distributing pirated material. Accused offending sites could be blacklisted, removed from search engine listings and have their access to users eliminated. The backlash has been loud and broad ranging from Silicon Valley kingpins and Internet Service Providers to legal scholars and human rights groups. A group of some of the Internet’s biggest websites are protesting the bills by blacking out some or all of its sites for 12 to 24 hours. The sites argue the bills threaten a free and open Internet. Participating sites going dark include Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit, WordPress.org and TwitPic, a site where Twitter users share photos. Google plans to post a notice on its website as a form of protest, but won’t be going dark. Globe reporter Omar El Akkad will be following reaction and posting updates throughout the day.
- For a great primer on why SOPA and PIPA have the Internet up in arms, read Omar El Akkad's story here: Four reasons why the Web hates the U.S. anti-piracy acts
- This from @KenJennings is pretty great:
I printed out Wikipedia yesterday so if you guys have papers due, tweet me and I'll try to help.
twitter.com!/KenJennings/status/159503337153236992 
Ostentatious green arrow is my own
- Google goes for subltle on its doodle/landing page: "Please don't censor the web!"
The link is to a "take action" page, that includes this big .pdf graphic. 
503: Service Unavailable
- BoingBoing.net has a special message on their 503: Service Unavailable error screen: "Boing Boing is offline today, because the US Senate is considering legislation that would certainly kill us forever. The legislation is called the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), and would put us in legal jeopardy if we linked to a site anywhere online that had any links to copyright infringement.
This would unmake the Web, just as proposed in the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). We don't want that world." - Hi everyone. My name's Omar. I'm the Globe's tech reporter. I'll be joining Shane today in covering the anti-SOPA protest.
I can haz it both ways?
- The Cheezburger Network of sites has taken a less principled stand, adding a pop-over add that supports the anti-SOPA forces, but so far at least you can still check out crazy popular sites I Can Has Cheezburger?, Fail Blog, Memebase, The Daily What for cat pictures, humliating fails and rage comics.
- Off the bat, I should let you know I've previously taken a position on SOPA. Here's the opinion piece I wrote about it last month.
- Hey Omar... welcome! Yeah, that piece was great here's one of my favourite bits: "SOPA also has opposition – massive, unprecedented opposition. The reasons for this opposition are varied, but basically boil down to this: within the bill’s 78 pages is a blueprint for ruining the Internet. In that sense, SOPA is a remarkable achievement. Rarely does a proposed law manage to be so bad in so many different ways."
- Also this from your column, which is in many ways more troubling than the expanded powers the bill grants to U.S. justice officials: "The bill also gives individual intellectual property holders such as record labels and cable companies the ability to issue similar notices to ad networks and payment processors, demanding the same kinds of remedies. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, copyright-holders can issue takedown notices for individual bits of content, such as infringing Youtube videos. SOPA extends a variation of that power to cover entire Web sites. The onus is then on the blacklisted sites to prove the absence of infringing content."
- The community blog Metafilter is one of the sites protesting SOPA today (they've got a pop-up explaining why on the main page, but once you close it you won't see it again on subsequent visits. Here, Metafilter founder Matt Haughey explains his previous troubles with other copyright laws that nearly shut the site down.
- Wordpress.org going down is a little odd since people have to pay for that one. My www.patrickivan.wordpress.com site is up and accessible, however only the main page of .com is sort of closed. As for facebook, well, who cares in the end? It's just facebook. And twitter pic sharing, again, not a big protest there. If they stopped the main site, that would be more noticable. Though I use it for OPP traffic updates and don't want it down!
- Indeed Wordpress.org's main page has the big blackscreen effect today as well:
"Many websites are blacked out today to protest proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). From personal blogs to Wikipedia, sites all over the web — including this one — are asking you to help stop this dangerous legislation from being passed."
- Yeah, a lot of the sites that are run by public companies (see: Google) have investors to answer to, and so may be reluctant to basically give up all ad revenue for a day. Sites such as Facebook also have a massive number of non-U.S. members they may not want to upset with a blackout.
- Video site Vimeo is still up today, but they are hosting this anti-SOPA video Wordpress linked to: vimeo.com
- There are reports of workarounds to the blackout. For instance, if you hit ESC while Wikipedia is loading, you can avoid the blackout page. Any other examples found?
- The folks at Reddit have been leading the SOPA strike for a while now. Here's a detailed explanation
- on their site of what they don't like about SOPA
- There are also, uh, unofficial workarounds to Wikipedia's absence. Such as the #factswithoutwikipedia parody hash tag that is blowing up right now.
- “@TimOpper: Moose, mousse and mouse are actually all spelled the same.
#FactsWithoutWikipedia” and meese is the plural formby corvinellia via twitter 1/18/2012 1:41:40 PM - There are no farmers left in Britain - most UK farms are now run by automated cows #FactsWithoutWikipediaby banxii via twitter 1/18/2012 1:41:44 PM
- Twilight is based on a true story. Only real difference is that Bella has blond hair in real life. #factswithoutwikipediaby scottdsmith23 via twitter 1/18/2012 1:41:50 PM
- Thanks #factswithoutwikipedia, I wouldn't have known any of that without you stepping in today.
- Wired.com has an interesting approach to the 'go black or not' question: Blackout bars that make the statement, but disappear when you roll over them with your mouse.
- Reddit now has their blackout page up (it wasn't there before 8 a.m. ET when I checked.). Their statement:
Dear reddit,
Today, for 12 hours, reddit.com goes dark to raise awareness of two bills in congress: H.R.3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" and S.968 "PROTECT IP", which could radically change the landscape of the Internet. These bills provide overly broad mechanisms for enforcement of copyright which would restrict innovation and threaten the existence of websites with user-submitted content, such as reddit.
Please take today as a day of focus and action to learn about these destructive bills and do what you can to prevent them from becoming reality. - by Sifichick via twitter 1/18/2012 1:52:48 PM
Well played Fark
- Fark.com is being satirical in their support, as you might expect from the premier purveyors of the extremely dark and funny headlines:
"While a bunch of other sites are going "dark" to protest SOPA/PIPA, we're over the moon about the whole thing. Why? Honestly, we've been bringing you the latest news happening across the internet for 12 years, and we're tired. And SOPA/PIPA is the perfect excuse to quit.
While SOPA might be "almost dead," it's not quite all the way there, and under various drafts of both SOPA/PIPA, Fark could have its DNS assignment (the thing that turns an IP address, like 10.0.0.1, into words like Fark.com) revoked without notice simply for linking to content that could come under foreign copyright claims. This means, even if it is actual news in and of itself, if we link to it, we can be shut down. And thank God, cause we’re about ready to crack under the strain of being on top of the news all the time. "
www.fark.com Fark's video in "SUPPORT" of SOPA/PIPA
- Here's a statement from the Motion Picture Association of America. As you'd expect, they're not big fans of the strike
- Hah, that link is to Scribd, which has a huge STOP SOPA/PIPA banner right over the MPAA statement.
- Former Senator Chris Dodd cranks up the danger rhetoric on the MPAA blog as well:
"It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power given the freedoms these companies enjoy in the marketplace today. It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests." - So if you're looking for the one item that's probably most responsible for getting SOPA shelved (for now, at least), it's this statement from the White House, in response to a citizen petition, explaining why Obama won't support certain types of copyright-infringement legislation.
Imagine a world without craigslist, Wikipedia, Google, [your favorite sites here]... News Corp, RIAA, MPAA, Nike, Sony, Comcast, VISA & others want to make that world your reality. 80 Members of Congress are in their sway, 30 against, the rest undecided or undeclared. ★ ★ ★ Please take a minute to tell your Members of Congress you OPPOSE PIPA & SOPA ★ ★ ★ CLICK HERE for MORE INFO & EASY ACTION ITEMS PS: corporate paymasters, KEEP THOSE CLAMMY HANDS OFF THE INTERNET!
- Craigslist is doing something interesting, if you attempt to go to the local site for a city like, say, Washington D.C. you get a blackout message:
- This is pretty interesting: I just got an e-mail from the folks at CanadaDrugs.com saying they're also going dark in protest of SOPA. Some of the bills biggest proponents like it because it'll help clamp down on the practice of buying cheap drugs from non-U.S. online pharmacies (which, depending on who you side with, is dangerous or cost-effective)
- Here's the press release by a bunch of members of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association.
- Mozilla.org's homepage is dark, they are the makers of the Firefox web browser. Not sure how vital their homepage is... though I suppose they couldn't safely turn off your browser.
