JFerio Wrote:

robkelk Wrote:Surprisingly, one of the largest collections of derivative works out there - fanfiction.net - is not dark. They've got quite a lot to lose if SOPA/PIPA passes; one would think they'd care...

It could also be that they're trying to avoid raising their profile in case SOPA does actually pass and get signed. Or they're trying to avoid the fallout in forums about taking a stand either way.
Either that, or they really haven't actually noticed.

JFerio Wrote:As for fallout in forums, one thing that I've been doing over at DAZ3D is taking note of the Published Artists there in the forum that have actually come down in full favor of SOPA passing. Only one so far, but that one has basically ensured I won't buy his products anytime soon...

Quote:Support The Daily WTF in Supporting the Support SOPA Movement

It’s January 18, 2012 and, while most of the internet has decided to blackout their sites in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), we’re taking an opposite stance and are whiting-out The Daily WTF in support of SOPA supporters.

If there’s one thing that SOPA proponents like myself and SOPA opponents can agree on, it’s that PROTECT-IP and the Stop Online Piracy Act have little to do with protecting intellectual property and stopping online piracy.

After all, those who choose to steal creative works like the “I Have a Dream” speech from artists like Martin Luther King Jr. can already be sued and prosecuted under existing United States copyright laws. IP thieves living overseas can already be extradited to face justice in our federal courts. And the Department of Homeland Security can already arbitrarily seize domain names that fit its arbitrary standard of violating national something-or-other.

While these laws will make such acts more illegal (and therefore reduce infringement), they’re doing something much, much more important: helping dismantle DNS and the internet as we know it. And that’s something that we firmly support and can stand by.

You see, back in the day, if you wanted to get online and access electronically-stored information like digitized photographs, electronic bulletin boards, and informational databanks, there was only one thing you needed: a telephone number. You’d simply fire up your favorite telecommunications program (mine was Telix), have it dial that phone number, and after a refreshing symphony of beeps and hisses, you were online.

Each phone number transported you to a quaint, peaceful community that was almost entirely self-sufficient. There was no “hyperlinking” between systems: you simply wrote down the phone number, signed-off of the current system, and then dialed into the new system. And let me tell you, there are few experiences in life that can parallel the utter bliss of discovering a new phone number and a new electronic resource.

And then the Information Superhighway – and its tightly integrated Domain Name System – came along, decimating these peaceful, independent communities. The bulletin boards of old were ground up and churned in the giant “dot com” machine, leaving an interconnected web of domain names. There’s no more “going online” – you’re already online – and if you want to access an electronic resource, you can use a “domain name” like TheDailyWTF.com.

Domain names are highly confusing in that they not only describe what the electronic resource is, but where it is as well. Nothing else in the world works like this for obvious reasons. Could you imagine the complete confusion in day-to-day things like getting a phone number? Is that “jenny eighty-six dot com” or “jenny eighty-six dot net”? We would be in complete chaos.

SOPA and PROTECT-IP offer hope in returning to the golden age of telecommunications, and to the days before the Information Superhighway polluted the online culture with this domain name nonsense. Let the Domain Name System a natural death and prepare yourself for the Internet Protocol Number (IPN) renaissance. All you need to do is start a notebook that lists electronic resource names and their corresponding IPN. And let the first entry in your notebook be

The Daily WTF 74.50.110.120

We can only hope that our legislators introduce common sense guidelines to ban HTTP (and HTML/JavaScript) as well so we can all return to the more sensible GOPHER standard.

robkelk Wrote:"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

Different context, I know... but the principle still applies.

Quote:robkelk wrote:Which one? Perhaps we could organize a boycott...

(Email me if you'd prefer not to post the name: robkelk -atsign- gmail -period- com)

• %[link=http://www.daz3d.com/i/shop/artistlist/-/?artist=484446]XP Pointblank]
  
• %[link=http://vanishingpoint.biz/]VanishingPoint]
  
• %[link=http://d9s.co/]LizzieP_D9S]
  
• %[link=http://www.poserdirect.com/mrsparky.html]Mr Sparky]
  

Quote:In darkness, there is apparently much sunlight.  As a number of Internet sites either went dark or protested the proposed anti-piracy bills circulating in Congress, a number of sponsors ran for cover, reports The Hill:

Quote:GOP Sens. Roy Blunt (Mo.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), John Boozman (Ark.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.) dropped their support for the Senate version of the anti-piracy legislation, and Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), who leads the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, said the legislation should be put on hold.
Hatch, Rubio, Blunt and Boozman all pulled their sponsorship of the Senate bill.
“Rushing something with such potential for far-reaching consequences is something I cannot support,” Hatch said in a statement.

And a few climbed off the fence:

Quote:Other lawmakers staked out their opposition for the first time. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Tea Party favorite Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) came out against SOPA and PIPA, with DeMint labeling the anti-piracy measures “misguided bills that will cause more harm than good.”
“When protecting intellectual property rights, we must not undermine free speech, threaten economic growth or impose burdensome regulations,” DeMint tweeted.
Rand Paul, who had already opposed PIPA (the Senate version of the bill), pledged to filibuster the bill in order to defeat it.  He’ll get his chance next Tuesday, because Harry Reid still hasn’t given up on the entertainment industry’s big wish-list item.  He has a cloture vote scheduled at that time, and a defeat will mean the end of both bills, probably for the rest of this session.

That doesn’t mean a complete end to the issue.  Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) insists that his bill will move forward, and that opponents don’t have a coherent argument against its current form.  Smith says that the government would have to get a court order to shut down websites and that their power won’t be abused.  However, that is still a prior restraint without a proper form of due process for the accused, whose property should not be seized (which is essentially what this is) without a solid finding of guilt, and not just a court injunction, which is what SOPA allows.  It’s essentially the same process as we saw in Sackett v EPA, only with a smidge more of judicial review.
John Boehner says he will put the brakes on SOPA consideration in the House as well:

Quote:Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) expressed a reluctance to move forward with SOPA on Wednesday, with both sides still divided over the bill and its potential consequences.
“Listen, this bill is in committee. It’s had a number of hearings. It went through a markup, and it’s pretty clear to many of us that there’s a lack of consensus at this point,” Boehner said. “And I would expect the committee to continue its work to try to build a consensus before this bill moves.”

Clearly, the opponents have the momentum.

JFerio Wrote:My friend Murdock wrote this comic. Yes, technically it's a day late, but it's relevant.

http://www.zingcomic.com/2012/01/19/plan-b/

JFerio Wrote:We still need to keep up the pressure. I'm planning on voting for the opponents of whoever supported either bill... and the ones who changed from Support to Oppose will only get voted for if their opponent is worse on other pet issues I might have.

Bob Schroeck Wrote:Late word on the radio news: both bills are dead in the water.

Morganni Wrote:I suppose there's a list of those somewhere? I haven't heard anything about how the ones local to me were on it.