Jan 18- Sopa Strike

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

Correct. A number of rich corporations (basically Hollywood and the music business) petitioned Congress about their loss of money (a tiny percentage of sales that they claim they lost, which is up for debate). Most Congresspersons are supporters, and now major internet sites are going to protest it. For companies like Google (inclusive of Youtube), Facebook and Twitter, it's a matter of good business (at least), as it would negatively affect them if SOPA was passed, even with a good chance of them having to close down for good (Twitter, Facebook and Google's Youtube). For a non-profit like Wikipedia, it's also still good business. They'd have a mess on their already tied up hands with such limited staff and servers running the internet's 5th most visited website. But Wikipedia has no hidden agenda either, they stand for free information and its distribution. Anybody who works for them doesn't do it for the money.

The provisions of SOPA in its current state would allow, say, Itunes, to demand a video on Youtube to be taken down. Let's say the video would be a home one, with a couple people dancing to a song. If the song is copywrited, the video is redacted and removed from Youtube, for US citizens. Congress could require Google to take off countless websites from search results, on varying grounds. Not sure I want to discuss that one here, and I'll try and narrow down the technical details and be brief.
The idea is for Congress to come up with a 'Great Firewall' like China, North Korea and Iran has, and block American DNSes for viewing content. The technical details are complicated, but it can be left at compromising free speech, free information, and destroying the infrastructure of the internet itself, and also potentially crippling world democracy. And I don't mean four-year term election type of democracy, but the type demonstrated with the Arab Spring of 2010-____, where people rose up and got rid of tyrannical autocratic regimes. The internet's fate could end up as a splintered entity of many parts. America carries a lot of weight as the world's most powerful democracy. Many nations would likely follow with similar policies of their own.

[Melody]

so all it is is the government wants to control the internet?

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

It's the corporations that want to. The government looks like it will go for that and them both will get the net.

[Melody]

oh....................
So all it is is power hungry people wanting more control.

[Bragoon]

Power hungry people who already have a lot of power, more specifically.  The more power you already have, the easier it is to get more, unfortunately. 

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

Greed, more than power. Also, power isn't a bad thing. It's just abusing power that is.

[Melody]

like some of the bad guys in redwall, greed led to wanting more and more power until it desroyed them.

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

Operation Blackout is in effect. The battle of Silicon Valley vs. Hollywood is in harder swing than ever.

The Silicon Valley part is an allusion to the fact that many companies in that part of California are anti-SOPA. While of course, Hollywood is not.

[Tiria Wildlough]

I don't see what business they have censoring all that stuff. They're only in the U.S., and practically EVERYONE uses the internet.

[eualaia]

i hate greedy people


STRIKE AGAINST SOPA!

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

Rupert Murdoch calls the Internet going dark by websites' and communities' choice in protest of SOPA "An abuse of power". In related news, the Eye of Sauron accuses Hobbits of terrorism.

Oh, and check out the open Scottish Wikipedia.

[Bragoon]

From what I hear, it's working.  Several politicians have (or at least claimed to) withdrawn their support for the bill, and several corporations also have backed down also.

[Taggerung_of_Redwall]

4 co-sponsors on SOPA, 3 on PIPA. (good news)
Don't know about corporations.

[Melody]

So this SOPA strike is working?

[Bragoon]

It appears to be so, Melody, but it's not enough yet. 

That's right, ToR, I used the wrong term.