Wikipedia, others to be "going dark" on January 18

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Permalink Reply by Juan 2-3 or more mi. on January 16, 2012 at 5:33pm

I'd like to see FB and Twitter do the same.

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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on January 19, 2012 at 1:13am

Facebook and Twitter are weenies.

MPAA statement on the "blackout:"

Only days after the White House and chief sponsors of the legislation responded to the major concern expressed by opponents and then called for all parties to work cooperatively together, some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging.

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.

A so-called “blackout” is yet another gimmick, albeit a dangerous one, designed to punish elected and administration officials who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals. It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this “blackout” to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on January 19, 2012 at 6:45am

As long as people keep buying Apple(tm) products this is going to be a worthless effort.

I hope SOPA passes.

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Permalink Reply by Derek on January 19, 2012 at 11:26am

Any broad sweeping cencorship by the gov't I'll oppose.  Since I live and work in the tech start-up world this scares the bejeezus out of me.  If this passes I'd be responsible for policing the actions of anyone that uses anything I put on the web.

Other than loosing massive collaborative sites like reddit, wikipedia, etc this legislation would stifle or kill personal blogs as well.  No more code snippets or pet projects being put up on the web.  Why?  The same reason the big sites wouldn't be able to exist. Someone posts a comment with a link to "infringing" content and if/when the drones of a media empire notice they can shut the site down.  Note, today they can request a site remove the questionable content and proceed with further legal actions if refused but what media empires want is to be able to shut down first and then make sites justify why they should be reconnected to the rest of the world.  

I know how we can reduce crime.  The only form of currency is digital, your unique biological features are the password and everyone has a tracking device in them.  This is then monitored and managed by a conglomeration of giant companies that own all the services and good you can consume.  If the algorithm that tracks your every move and transaction predicts a potential for you to disrupt the controller's maximum profit your digital currency is revoked.

A bit hyperbolic but that's about how it feels to me.

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