Jan 18- Sopa Strike

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

Just so everyone knows, there's going to be a major blackout Anti-Sopa (Stop Online Piracy Act) strike on the internet on Jan 18. Sopa Strike.
Basically, the United States, in both houses of Congress, have been arguing over two bills, PIPA and SOPA, for months. International and national people in the millions have protested, petitioning, e-mailing, calling and peacefully gathering in this time, and it's done a ton of effect.
It's likely Wikipedia will be one of the blackout sites, as well.

[eualaia]

thiz zite goin down? if zo how long?

[rakkety tam]

is it just for some sites

[DanielofRedwall]

is it just for some sites

If you click on the link, it gives a list of the websites participating.

[Matthias720]

Thanks for posting that, ToR. I'll have to check that out when I get the chance.

[Lutra]

I think this issue is plenty dead as far as getting things passed is concerned.

[Mad Maudie]

can't get to the page is this site going down??

[Lily]

This site isn't going down, as far as I know. Taggerung was just pointing out that a few of the more major sites on the internet are "going dark" to protest the internet censorship bill.

[eualaia]

oh, ok   

woot thiz zite isnt goin down

[Tiria Wildlough]

What does 'going dark' mean?

[Lily]

It means that participating sites will be taken down for 12 to 24 hours. Basically, no one will be able to access the content of the sites, it'll be like they've disappeared. They'll likely be replaced with something like this or this. Wikipedia has joined in, you can find out more about it here.

[DanielofRedwall]

There at some major sites going down or possibly going down. Wikipedia has been confirmed, as has Minecraft, Cheezburger and related sites and TwitPic. Even more major sites are possibly going down but haven't confirmed yet. These are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yahoo!, 4chan, Amazon, eBay and... Wait for it... Google. This will be huge. I don't know if it will effect Australia, though.

Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit) had this to say about SOPA: "It's the equivalent of being angry and trying to take action against Ford just because a Mustang was used in a bank robbery."
Someone on the internet (no-one famous) said "If people steal cars do you ban cars or prosecute offendors who do so?"
Those two quotes explain my position perfectly.

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

The sites are going down completely, thus the internet will be affected globally.
Google has gone in somewhat, see here for their movements. Going down entirely...that'd be quite a 'wow'. And an even bigger day for the internet.
Twitter will not. See here.
Facebook is similar. I wouldn't expect any of those sites to go down.
But Wikipedia's 25 million views on their English pages a day will certainyl get the word out.
But as Jimmy Wales has said, the whole thing is pointless if people don't do something about it, mainly call their Representatives and Senators.


*edit:
The last blackout in internet, 1997: http://old.cdt.org/speech/cda/960203_48hrs_alert.html

[Melody]

I don't get it..................
Why are they shutting down?

[Bragoon]

Melody, they're protesting a bill that's going through Congress in the U.S. right now.  My understanding is that it would restrict what can be posted and communicated on and through the internet.