Oh no, please stop focusing only on SOPA or lesser part of Protect IP! Those two are just two battles by anti-Internet groups.<p>They tried one tactic with SOPA to fool people in thinking it was delayed until next year: <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/nfrru/sopa_has_not_been_postponed_to_2012_the_committee/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/nfrru/sopa_has_n...</a><p>There had been many anti-Internet attempts implemented and proposed: SOPA, DMCA, PROTECT-IP, COICA, CEST, OPENA, ACTA and more.<p>PLEASE. Demand Internet Freedom bills in place of such bills. Protect not only current and future Internet businesses, but also the future of children's access to knowledge and ability to share (Some people think the anti-SOPA are just Internet companies).<p>For example, making it illegal for government or corporations to shut down domains without due process. There's more potential in the SOPA by simply re-wording it to be pro-Internet Freedom.<p>Bonus: It'll make such Internet Freedom bills a template for pushing Internet Freedom on other countries! Especially UK and Australia.<p>If they won't stop outlawing/controlling parts of the Internet, then we need to fight back in outlawing anti-Internet attempts.<p>The war against the Internet will continue after SOPA.<p>Edit: I sent a message to reddit admins again (several attempts already in past). If you know any of the reddit admins, please pass on this Internet Freedom message quickly!<p>2nd Edit: hueypriest acknowledges the message: "We are well aware that the fight will continue long after SOPA/PIPA, and that this is just the first battle."
How would HN feel about joining in support? I would be in favor of it.<p>My god.. the productive output of Silicon Valley is going to triple on the 18th!
Blacking out Google is one thing and something that I hope happens if all else fails. Now I'm sure blacking out Reddit will at least get a certain demographic in the U.S. to notice, but isn't this the same demographic that is already working to remove certain members of Congress for their support of SOPA? So my question: what kind of impact will this have? Certainly there won't be too many Congress members worked up over a blacked out Reddit...
Why not a smart missile rather than a nuke?<p>Sites should only go completely dark for those users who appear to be geographically inside the district of SOPA-supporting legislators. "Your legislator wants an censorship-without-trial kill-switch for internet sites, so we're on strike against your district today."
I'm 100% in favor of HN blacking out. On top of that, I have another 'non-violent' proposal for how techies could protest this:<p>Let's create 'freedom.txt' files in the root of our servers. A simple text-file stating why the owner of the site (YOU!) opposes internet censorship.<p>It's a simple & geeky way to make a statement. You can do it <i>right now</i> and it should make it a bit easier to exactly count how many people oppose this bullshit.<p>Here's an example I wrote a week ago but kinda neglected promoting until now: <a href="http://fr.anc.is/2012/01/01/freedom.txt/" rel="nofollow">http://fr.anc.is/2012/01/01/freedom.txt/</a>
Someone needs to write a universal javascript plugin that would create an interstitial landing page with info and action items about SOPA. The user could then dismiss the interstitial page, and it'd roll up as a bar at the top of the site.<p>The javascript would be easy for site admins to add, and it would be easy to distribute.<p>I don't want to make this, but I'd add it to my sites if it was designed well. :)
A prime example of why money needs to be taken out of politics. It takes all this shouting from the 99% but nothing speaks to the congress members like the sweet dollars of the 1%.<p>If wikipedia was able to raise $20M in donations, an anti-sopa fund raised for lobbying could be quite effective, but then congress members would look utterly corrupt.
While putting up an interstitial to warn about SOPA/PIPA and get people to call their representatives would be almost as effective in its short term impact on those 2 bills, I think completely blacking out is a much more effective <i>long term</i> strategy.<p>The chance that politicians would try something like SOPA/PIPA anytime soon, if all major sites go dark in that day, is much smaller. Showing an interstitial could be a form of protest against <i>anything</i>. Going dark is clearly a form of protest against <i>censorship</i>. And I don't think any politician will want to be associated with that in the future.
Wouldn't it be better if instead of going dark, every single page displays a full window message, explaing the situation about SOPA, showing the picture, name, phone number of the us representative for the area of the visitor (using geoip). And letting the user close that message after a certain amount of time.<p>That way, the users will still be able to coordinate their actions. If not, you are giving SOPA supporters a big help, by generating chaos between the ones who opposes the bill.
Really need Facebook/Twitter to do the same to strike a nerve with a large demographic. Google would definitely bring attention to the cause, but the ability to broadcast oneself / status on a personal level needs to be hindered to have a meaningful impact. I almost might want Google to stay online and display information about SOPA on the homepage. a la "Why is the internet blacked out today?" .. consumption/direction to information is their strength.
Assuming this spreads, I believe a potential ramification of major sites blacking out would be new laws that would attempt to make such black outs illegal.<p>It could be seen as equivalent to strikes in essential service industries like transportation. Such strikes are semi-regulated and governments can and have ordered strikers back on the job to maintain public order. I see this possibility as a potentially major unintended consequence of putting Facebook "on strike".
I wish Reddit would make their planned anti SOPA page available as a template for other sites that wish to show their solidarity and join them on the day.
Is blacking out HN really necessary? Is there anyone here that doesn't know about SOPA/PIPA and the threat they represent?(I would ask the same about reddit but since I don't read the site I don't know if they have a broader demo)<p>I suppose the whole point in doing the blackout would be to draw attention to people who haven't realized there is problem.
So if they go dark for SOPA, why not NDAA? that one was even worse. No point in internet access when you are dead.<p>Or what about a military action against Iran -- surely millions death from radiation poising would be bad, even if they aren't US citizens?<p>Or what about the Iraq war? Reddit was around then.
I really don't understand the point of this on reddit. EVERYONE on reddit has been hearing about SOPA continually for the last month. You don't raise awareness of an issue by putting it in front of people who already know about it.
No offense, but Reddit going dark will affect only us. No one else will even notice. If something like Wikipedia goes dark, that would be something. Everyone will be forced to take notice.
Not only do I support this on Jan 18...
I will be posting links to Reddit and hopefully HN on all the non technical forums (auto racing) I visit in support!
Here is the only thing that will happen: doing this will just piss people off that they can't get to their site. Then, by the end of the next day, no one will remember it happened at all.
@scoofy: it looks like you might be on to something. Reddit quickly adopted this proposed date.<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3441117" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3441117</a>