Tuesday, January 17, 2012

We're Sorry: The Blog You're Looking For Has Been Shut Down



Normally we don't get into politics here but this one affects ALL of us.

In solidarity and protest against SOPA and PIPA, Twitarded is joining the big wigs of the internets like Reddit, Wikipedia, Boing Boing and hundreds (if not thousands) of other sites and blogs by going on strike tomorrow, January 18th from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm.

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) could have a devastating effect on numerous websites, even little ones like ourselves. We are taking a stand against Censorship and urging everyone to educate themselves on this bill and contact your representatives if you agree that SOPA is a really bad fucking idea.

Why is it so bad? (Excerpt taken from here)
The broad definitions in the bill create tremendous uncertainty for nearly every site online. This sounds like hyperbole, but it is not. Defenders of the bill like to claim that it is "narrowly focused" on foreign rogue infringing sites. Nothing could be further from the truth. While PIPA targets only foreign sites, the mechanism by which it does so is to put tremendous compliance and liability on third party service providers in the US. SOPA goes even further in expanding the private right of action to domestic sites as well. We've already seen how such laws can be abused by looking at how frequently false takedown claims are made under the existing DMCA. Of course, under the DMCA, just the content is blocked. Under SOPA all money to a site can be cut off. Under PIPA sites will just end up in court. Or, with both laws, an Attorney General can take action leading US companies to have to effectively act as network nannies trying to keep infringement from being accessible. None of this is good for anyone building a startup company these days. The massive uncertainty around this, combined with the need for a huge legal department sitting in "the garage" as a startup begins, will certainly slow down the pace of innovation in the US, while likely driving it elsewhere.
While it's true that our President has said he will not allow the SOPA bill to pass (but PIPA is still alive and kicking), it's important that our government realizes that we will not tolerate their efforts to take away our freedom of speech. Copyright infringement is a shitty thing, without a doubt. But these two bills are the absolutely dead wrong way to handle this.

List of sites joining the strike - here

Joining in the blackout? Register here We encourage anyone who wishes to participate to join in the blackout.

Find more information about SOPA here, here and here. Oh, and even though this is Cracked.com and not meant to be taken seriously, here is a very funny and alarmingly true possibility with PIPA/SOPA.

Or check out this video from Stop American Censorship:



Thanks,
Twitarded

P.S. - if you are participating in the blackout, please let us know in the comments before 8 am tomorrow!!

16 comments:

  1. I am with you babe. I posted on my site as well - FandomFanatic.blogspot.com

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  2. The irony is that SOPA means crap/asshole/shit in Swedish. ;-)

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  3. www.agirlinthesouth.com won't be feeding anyone tomorrow - shut down for the day. ;D

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  4. We will be down tomorrow as well. Ourlifeonnolist.blogspot.com

    Xoxo
    Ms M

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  5. AWESOME. So glad you guys are joining.

    Question - how are you going offline? Making the blog private? Putting in one of those neat-o javascripts that are floating around the interwebs (if it's the latter, HELP!!)

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  6. Hey all, just discovered (okay Moijojo found it) a blackout widget that I hope works! http://torbit.com/blog/2012/01/15/stop-sopa-js/?stopsopa#stopsopa

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  7. Hi Jenny!

    Apparently I have been living under a rock because I had no clue about SOPA and PIPA. I have sent my representative and senators messages to vote no.

    Thanks for posting this information. It's a scary thing to censor the internet!!!

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  8. i just added the widget you posted to my blog, (thanks for the link) so i'm in, too. (it was easy to add, i only hope it works!)

    mostlyalurker.blogspot.com

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  9. Both my personal blog and ApplesNFeathers (although we're no longer actively posting there) will go black tomorrow.

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  10. I hope this works, but Fictionators will go black tomorrow! Thanks for this post!

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  11. i have added the blackout widget to the following blogs...

    acitygirlinalaska.blogspot.com
    soulcalledwanderer.blogspot.com
    supersecrettwilightblog.blogspot.com

    we won't be actively posting tomorrow either.

    thanks girls!
    -kg

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  12. Personally I am just frustrated that legislation from one country (albeit a very large and powerful one) can have such an effect on the entire world.

    Cheers, American politicians - I really appreciate you fucking with my freedom of speech. On the other side of the world.

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  13. All I know is that if those fuckers in Washington make it difficult for me to get my Twitarded fix, there WILL be piles of steaming, fresh MC shit on swanky desks in the District of Columbia.

    And I DON'T mean that figuratively.

    MC

    **Runs off to eat lots of fiber**

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  14. There is so much stuff blacked out today that I actually had to do work at work!!! For the love of all things holy, please don't let this be the future of the internet! Fight SOPA & PIPA for the Patts-porn and cute kitten/puppy photos!!!

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  15. Holy sh-tdogs THANK YOU for joining the SOPA strike. I put my own blog on strike, but I don't have nearly the readership that you do. Of the four Twi-blogs that I bother to visit regularly, y'all are the only ones who had the balls to strike (ironic both since you are chicks and since this is the only blog of the four that's not obsessed with Rob...you'd think the Rob fan blogs would be more freaked out than the other Twi-fans about the future that SOPA imagines).

    Thank you for fighting to keep Patts-porn alive and kickin' on the Web.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! It's so important that these two bills NOT be passed. It was really heartening to see so many sites offline yesterday (never thought I'd be saying that!). And not just the big sites, either.

      The last I read (and I don't know how true this is - I haven't had time to fact-check) is that last week there were 35 senators who supported the bill. After yesterday - there were five.

      It truly goes to show just how much power we do have, when we work together.

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