Wikipedia/Google Black Out - TAKE ACTION: End Piracy, Not Liberty!
 

Wikipedia is limiting access to its site to raise awarness about the proposed SOPA and PIPA bills in the US. Gotta be honest, I know very little about these bills other than what I have just read on wikipedia. Seems like the bills would hurt small, independant sites and probably limit alot of what larger sites are prepared to link to.

A positive step towards the fight against piracy or just another tool to increase control over what we have access to? Interested to hear what people think.

link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

A very dangerous and draconian bill, IMO, that would severely limit freedom of expression and has a strong likelyhood of abuse.

From what I understand, SOPA is actually dead in the water, as they decided to not even bring it to a vote, but PIPA is still on the table.

TAKE ACTION: End Piracy, Not Liberty
 

For those of you who are avid Google Users like I am, you may have already noticed today the ominous black bar across the Google logo.

The black bar is promoting the End Piracy, Not Liberty campaign, a movement that aims to stop two bills in US Congress to censor the web.

WHAT IS THIS MOVEMENT ABOUT?

Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.

Sign the Petition: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Learn more about SOPA and PIPA: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/sopa-pipa/


I don't typically try to SPAM petitions or push my beliefs on folks who may not feel as passionate about a cause as I do, but I am honestly concerned that censorship bills like these are just a dangerous slippery slope to limiting freedom of speech. One of the wonderful things about the internet is that it is a vehicle for all users to post their thoughts, words, images, videos and it allows them to collaborate with like (or unlike) minds across the world. The idea of instituting bills that will curtail this freedom honestly troubles me.

Sign if you agree (if you're in the States)... Or post your thoughts... Or discuss even if you don't agree.

Just wanted to put this up here. Thanks for your time.

Oops - Thanks.

That pretty much sums up my feelings on it.

█ ████████ ██████ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ██. ███ ███ This comment has been found in violation of H.R. 3261, S.O.P.A and has been removed.

I've been encouraging everyone to send a letter to their local representative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup

or at least sign Google's petition: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

First they came for the the people who downloaded nazi exploitation,
and I didn't speak out because I hated Ilsa.

Then they came for the people who downloaded the lastest Zombie Films,
and I didn't speak out because I don't like the idea of running zombies.

Then they came for the people who pirated blaxploitation films.
and I didn't speak out because I never got all that jive talk.

Then they came for the people who bootleged horror remakes,
and I didn't speak out because I thought they deserved it.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Beautifully put.:) I remember getting irritated with the people that didn't give a crap about Human Centipede 2 getting banned because it looked like a terrible film. This is exactly why.

Stalin is back!!

This shit is really fucked up. America will be deciding what the rest of the world is allowed to view on their computers. If this bill is passed it'll be abused to no end and it's not going to just be "pirate" sites that will be taken down.

I've always found facebook to be disturbing because it's basically just getting people used to a homogenised internet where you log in get feed the stuff that's deemed acceptable while they keep tabs on you the whole time.

I read this morning that MegaUpload has been taken down... despite that a lot of the time it is used for legitimate file sharing :mad:

Yes but "Anonymous" a hacking group know for taking down PSN took down justice.gov due to that.

Copyright infringing files were always removed from MegaUpload too. It's pretty unfair that they are being charged with being a "criminal organisation". Totally unreal.

Signed the petitions yesterday. From what I've heard, SOPA is most likely not going to pass, which is good. Both of those bills are pretty ridiculous.

Yeah, looks like they could each get up to 55 years in prison. Really insane.

It's getting really silly over here with the media. Everyone's got it in their heads that these guys made all of their money off piracy. These guys were one of the first to see the opportunity of providing people online data storage/file transfers. They got their payday by being pretty shrewd and resourceful (something that's usually praised? Like Universal has ethical business practices... give me a fucking break). The disclaimers and terms of use stated copyright material wasn't to be uploaded and it was a pretty useful service especially how MegaUpload allowed to upload and download large files. Where does it leave people who have lost data? I'm sure some fairly important stuff has now been lost.

Oh yeah, I'm sure people lost tons of really valuable data. It's crazy and asinine to take such an overkill measure, which is exactly what the SOPA and PIPA bills are.
However, Sen. Harry Reid has cancelled the PIPA vote based on people's reactions:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/pip...en-harry-reid/

I'm sure it will pop up again in the future in another form. SOPA is still alive, though.

Alright! We did it! SOPA and PIPA are both dead.
For now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16655272

It's basically to set precedent so they can have that power despite the bill not passing.

Yeah, that's what's so scary about this stuff. The precedents they'll set are really terrifying.

I was really saddened to see the end of megaupload and I think the treatment of the people involved was disgraceful. I just pray that our last media of freedom of speech and expression-the internet-is never censored.