Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. consider nuclear option

Znath · **Posted:** January 9th, 2012, 10:45 pm

I get the feeling it's just a big show of force and chest beating.

All those companies stand to lose millions if they shut down for a day.

You know what I call a day without facebook, google, or whatever?..
Playing Civilization..

I'm rather unmoved and unimpressed by this kind of crap. If their response is to shut down for an hour or a day, I'll just find other things to do. As though we're not used to facebook outages?

It sounds more, like I said, like an idle threat to try to coax their userbase to complain about the SOPA thing. If they do go through with it... screw it I've got other things to do.

Snake1235 · **Posted:** January 10th, 2012, 2:10 am

Znath wrote:

I get the feeling it's just a big show of force and chest beating.

All those companies stand to lose millions if they shut down for a day.

You know what I call a day without facebook, google, or whatever?..
Playing Civilization..

I'm rather unmoved and unimpressed by this kind of crap. If their response is to shut down for an hour or a day, I'll just find other things to do. As though we're not used to facebook outages?

It sounds more, like I said, like an idle threat to try to coax their userbase to complain about the SOPA thing. If they do go through with it... screw it I've got other things to do.

The point is to demonstrate what will actually happen.

Steely Mallon · **Posted:** January 10th, 2012, 3:11 pm

Landerpurex wrote:

It's kind of funny that anyone and everyone are making paper reasons that this act is 'bad', when all they really want is piracy to continue (relatively unhindered). And why shouldn't they? 49.999999% of the internet is based on piracy, 49.9999999% is based on porn (also involved in piracy) and the other .0000002% is normal stuff.

Just saying, people seem outrageously paranoid about this and are blowing it waaaay out of proportion. How in the world would a piracy act threaten free speech? How is it censorship? I don't get it. All I see is people saying "this bill is too vague. It will hurt x." Which is the case with most things congress does. Though the punishments do seem far too harsh for the crimes. But there seems to be a fix for that...DON'T PIRATE THINGS!

I can't illegally download because I use my university's network, which is SCARY good at catching people who pirate things and act accordingly. Regardless of that, I try my best to support bands/authors/creators of media I like in a legal way. Though I often sample things on Youtube or whatever then buy accordingly, I could just as easily turn on the radio or go to a bookstore. :?:

I guess in the end I don't give a Fuzzy Bunny

either way. :-|

There are provisions in the bill that give copyright holders the ability to shut down sites and for those site owners to be given jail time for even linking to copyrighted material. For instance, say I posted this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv4wM-hRxVo. Runevillage is now in violation of SOPA. There is clearly no intent of piracy, but because that video contains a copyrighted song, the entirety of RV is subject to takedown and Henner is subject to arrest.

Say someone wants to post a video on Facebook of their first dance after getting married. If the music they're dancing to can be heard in the background, then it's illegal to post.

Now, Runevillage could fairly easily monitor content to keep things like that from being posted. However, look at a bigger scale: I could find that video on Google. Google.com, for linking to that video (and Youtube for hosting it) is subject to takedown and fines. Repeat that for every other instance of Google linking to improperly hosted copyright material. It is impossible for a search engine to function. Wikipedia would no longer be able to function - they'd need a massive, massive team to not only check every page already, but to monitor every new submission or update for intellectual property. Facebook? Done. And so on.

While the intent of the legislation was to stop things like tv-links, thepiratebay, etc... from providing links to copyrighted material hosted off-site, the current wording of the bill allows for massive abuse that is not at all in the spirit of the bill.

Oh, and there won't be free porn anymore.

Eadwulf · **Posted:** January 10th, 2012, 3:34 pm

Steely Mallon wrote:

Oh, and there won't be free porn anymore.

For

's sake, why didn't the activists against this proposal emphasise that to begin with? This crap would've been shelved last year.

Riptide · **Posted:** January 10th, 2012, 4:04 pm

It's a shame Congress and most of the government is full of idiots. Most of the examples I've heard (take Steely's for example) don't even count as piracy. Piracy is defined as the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc. Granted, playing a song in the background can be seen as "unauthorized reproduction" by some people, but in reality it's just having fun or trying to share a special moment with some people. SOPA will affect the entire internet more than it will piracy. And going down for a short while is a great way to demonstrate what will happen.

bartoron · **Posted:** January 10th, 2012, 5:00 pm

Steely Mallon wrote:

Oh, and there won't be free porn anymore.

[youtube]WWaLxFIVX1s[/youtube]

:-s

bartoron

Animal · **Posted:** January 10th, 2012, 6:50 pm

I was going to write a long post, but it appears Steely beat me to the punch, and posted exactly what I would have.

Also, reddit has decided it will shutdown from 8am to 8pm EST on January 18th in protest of PIPA/SOPA.

Eadwulf · **Posted:** January 17th, 2012, 11:34 pm

Well, the English wikipedia is currently blacked out. Fortunately I can use the Norwegian version.

Spirographed · **Posted:** January 18th, 2012, 10:48 am

Yeah...I noticed and wondered if it was related.

Alpr · **Posted:** January 18th, 2012, 11:33 am

Landerpurex wrote:

It's kind of funny that anyone and everyone are making paper reasons that this act is 'bad', when all they really want is piracy to continue (relatively unhindered). And why shouldn't they? 49.999999% of the internet is based on piracy, 49.9999999% is based on porn (also involved in piracy) and the other .0000002% is normal stuff.

Just saying, people seem outrageously paranoid about this and are blowing it waaaay out of proportion. How in the world would a piracy act threaten free speech? How is it censorship? I don't get it. All I see is people saying "this bill is too vague. It will hurt x." Which is the case with most things congress does. Though the punishments do seem far too harsh for the crimes. But there seems to be a fix for that...DON'T PIRATE THINGS!

I can't illegally download because I use my university's network, which is SCARY good at catching people who pirate things and act accordingly. Regardless of that, I try my best to support bands/authors/creators of media I like in a legal way. Though I often sample things on Youtube or whatever then buy accordingly, I could just as easily turn on the radio or go to a bookstore. :?:

I guess in the end I don't give a Fuzzy Bunny

either way. :-|

[youtube]5hfYJsQAhl0[/youtube]

It's threatening because it is very LOOSE. It's not very specific, so it could technically be used to shut down entire websites that post just one link to "copyrighted material" and be used for a number of things because it is way too broad of a concept of what they are trying to do.

Minecraft, Wikipedia, and Cynanide & Happiness are blacked out today but I know there are many I don't know of, like Reddit.

Kikori · **Posted:** January 18th, 2012, 12:01 pm

TwoKinds has utterly shut itself down today.
Google has a black stamp in front of its name but is still running.

Jdude73 · **Posted:** January 18th, 2012, 2:19 pm

Steely Mallon wrote:

Oh, and there won't be free porn anymore.

[youtube]YKss2uYpih8[/youtube]

Riptide · **Posted:** January 18th, 2012, 3:06 pm

It appears Newgrounds is down as well.

J@nr0k · **Posted:** January 18th, 2012, 3:10 pm

http://www.newgrounds.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.humblebundle.com/
http://www.minecraft.net/
http://www.razerzone.com
http://www.reddit.com/
http://www.xkcd.com
http://www.wimp.com/

Are just a few sites shut down temporarily.

Znath · **Posted:** January 19th, 2012, 12:03 am

So instead of all out nuclear internet war, it becomes some back-country skirmish with AK's.

I knew it from the start.
-just a bunch of saber rattling by companies to scare their fans into complaining
-it had no effect anyway it was doomed to fail anyway.

It's being opposed by plenty of congress AND the white house (shockingly).

The blackout today consisted of one moment where I kind of wondered
"... wait how many M22 tanks were made?, oh wikipedia's down" *goes to next page*

Snake1235 · **Posted:** January 21st, 2012, 12:52 am

You don't think the mass of constituents writing in had anything to do with several Congressman backing down, Znath? God damn. :lol:

Eadwulf · **Posted:** January 21st, 2012, 2:47 am

Snake1235 wrote:

You don't think the mass of constituents writing in had anything to do with several Congressman backing down, Znath? God damn. :lol:

If something exists, certain people will assume it's inferior to themselves and complain about it.

Still, I can see his point. I mean, using multimedia to get the attention of a key demographic? Please, that isn't how you raise awareness for issues... You're supposed to make flippant offhand comments amongst half a dozen people and hope they mistake your smug air of superiority for logic and reasoning. Now THAT is getting things done!

Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. consider nuclear option

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