Thread: Google and Wikipedia protests anti-piracy bills

You may notice today that many websites like Firefox, Demonoid, and Reddit have a censorship bar over its title. It's to protest the anti-piracy bills, PIPA and SOPA, that may pass here in America. When a new anti-piracy bill emerges, wherever in the world, there has always been a push-back from civil rights groups and Internet users. Unfortunately, these protests are almost exclusively ignored by lawmakers. In the coming hours hundreds of millions of Internet users will be confronted with blacked out pages and similar “strikes” in opposition to the PIPA and SOPA bills, and if enough people take action the American government may just listen.

UPDATE: 4.5 million people signed Googles anti-SOPA petition yesterday. And, with 26 senators opposed to the PIPA bill, it looks like these two bills will not get passed.



For more information or to take part: Stop American Censorship

Source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/18-new-senators-oppose-pipa-after-yesterdays-protests-2012-1
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/tech...-petition.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/technolog...s-door/251517/
http://torrentfreak.com/historic-the...-bills-120118/

Amen to this! Everyone should go to wikipedia and put in their zip code (american users), it will link to local elected officials' info at which point you can contact them through phone, email or snail mail to vent disapproval and frustration with SOPA / PIPA. GO ON AND DO IT!

I have already done so and urge all of you to do the same. Glad someone else was posting this for today, gHOs. On a sidenote, I can't get bme or bmtv to load today, Sopa related or coincidence? (lol)

Would lawmakers be wise to do this???

I mean sites like Google, and Yahoo are very important for the economy.
By censoring these sites, they are just asking for a recession.

Wikipedia is on strike as well, it was actually quite bothering to find out when I was trying to access a certain page there. Fortunately, I am smart and realized that all I had to do in my Google search was view the cache of the web page and there was the page with all the info I needed.

Good thing for Google Cache. :)

Originally Posted by bsbsbsbsbsbsbs

Would lawmakers be wise to do this???

I mean sites like Google, and Yahoo are very important for the economy.
By censoring these sites, they are just asking for a recession.

who ever said lawmakers were wise? j/k

yes, it just seems like they are led around by their noses by big media interest who dangle cash in front of them ala the carrot-and-stick approach. not surprisingly they are the same top 5 media conglomerates with regard to revenue, according to the 2011 Fortune 500 list, who happen to support SOPA; i.e. The Walt Disney Company, News Corporation, Time Warner, CBS Corporation and Viacom. (source: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortu...145/index.html -- thanks wikipedia!).

a lot of things pass in congress without the benefit of foresight or prudent research and planning. this is what makes them so dangerous, and us heavy internet users so scared regarding this particular SOPA bill.

---------- Post added at 03:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:45 PM ----------

Originally Posted by FearfulCannon

Wikipedia is on strike as well, it was actually quite bothering to find out when I was trying to access a certain page there. Fortunately, I am smart and realized that all I had to do in my Google search was view the cache of the web page and there was the page with all the info I needed.

Good thing for Google Cache. :)

alternatively you can just turn off java to access wikipedia pages (or if you use NoScript with firefox, just forbid their domain from running scripts).

Kudos to Wiki !!! All power to 'em and none to those damn politicians who strive every day to destroy the 'free internetz'!! Let's hope more get on board (like Demonoid) and show support , cos this is war ! And those of you that think this doesn't effect you better wake up now , cos although this is just going down in America atm, the whole world is watching and it will be a 'domino effect' . The rest will follow. It's 'Black Out' day ! Go Wiki !!


Watch This​

List of Companies and Organizations that support SOPA

thanks for the list bsbs...

Such a shame as I have a reluctant relationship with some of those companies... like comcast and symantec (as they are the only broadband isp in my area, and they provide NAV for free). Though I am seriously considering going with Avira Free bundle and perhaps even moving to the east coast for some Verizon FIOS (their service is better/cheaper anyway)