Slickdeals is community-supported.  We may get paid by brands for deals, including promoted items.
Forum Thread

Please help if you can - the internet needs you!

26,675 2,340 December 16, 2011 at 05:15 AM in Internet & Websites (6)
http://americancensorship.org/
http://stopcensorship.org/

Yesterday I watched about three hours of this debate online [keepthewebopen.com] - the advocates for keeping the internet free (Reps. Lofgren, Issa, Chaffetz, and Polis, mainly) are fighting hard against a cadre of old technophobes who admit that they have no idea how the internet works or what it does.

The "good guys" managed to keep proposing amendments long enough that the debate was held over until today. They're starting again at 1000 EDT - roughly 90 minutes from now.

I don't know what else can be done but if you haven't already, PLEASE visit the first link and do as much as you can. If you have time & are willing to call, do that. If you can send email or sign petitions, do that. Educate yourself about the issue to be sure you agree - but I think any rational reasonable person will realize that this is a bad, bad bill and a horrible idea. The second link is another petition you can sign to have a Senator read your name during a filibuster of the Senate bill (right now the two bills are in committee).

I can't explain it any better than they do at stopcensorship.org so I won't try. Suffice to say that the internet as we know it could be drastically changed (IMO for the worse) should this bill pass.

I'll be watching as much as I can today - the third link has a live stream of the committee chambers.

Thanks. Smilie
Add a Comment
Reply

107 Comments

View Forum Thread

Your comment cannot be blank.

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Joined Nov 2005
L10: Grand Master
> bubble2 17,745 Posts
1,470 Reputation
SlickChik
12-17-2011 at 05:45 PM.
12-17-2011 at 05:45 PM.
Thanks for the info VQ!
Reply
Joined Jul 2005
Scarydevil Monastery
> bubble2 26,675 Posts
2,340 Reputation
Original Poster
veritablequandary
12-17-2011 at 06:28 PM.
12-17-2011 at 06:28 PM.
Thanks for bumping this guys. I'm going to a protest on the steps of the US Capitol [reddit.com] building on Wednesday the 21st at 0700 - hopefully I'll have time to swing over to the Rayburn building where the House Judiciary committee meets as well. Anybody who lives close enough or will be in DC that day should come by.
Reply
Joined Dec 2005
n00b extraordinaire 8^)~
> bubble2 6,651 Posts
3,525 Reputation
widgit
12-17-2011 at 08:55 PM.
12-17-2011 at 08:55 PM.
Maybe SD can put the censorship logo back up on the site, like they did a few weeks ago:

Quote from bryantq :
Suggestion noted, considered and implemented.
(hoping quoting bryantq will get his attention for this.)

bryantq, can SD step up again and use the censorship logo? If this thing passes, it won't be good for any of us.

(Maybe even put a sticky post in Hot Deals or something, to alert users to the possible 'danger' and make them aware of this bill, in case they may want to jump in, too, and contact their congressmen and women?)
Reply
Last edited by widgit December 17, 2011 at 09:04 PM.
Joined Oct 2009
L∞: Pro Bono
> bubble2 11,184 Posts
48,856 Reputation
calistyle
12-17-2011 at 09:02 PM.
12-17-2011 at 09:02 PM.
Quote from widgit :
Maybe SD can put the censorship logo back up on the site, like they did a few weeks ago:


(hoping quoting bryantq will get his attention for this.)

bryantq, can SD step up again and use the censorship logo? If this thing passes, it won't be good for any of us.

(Maybe even put a sticky post in Hot Deals or something, to alert users to the possible 'danger' and make them aware of this bill, in case they may want to jump in, too, and contact their congressmen and women?)
Cool idea!
Reply
Joined Jul 2005
Scarydevil Monastery
> bubble2 26,675 Posts
2,340 Reputation
Original Poster
veritablequandary
12-20-2011 at 02:09 PM.
12-20-2011 at 02:09 PM.
woot They've postponed debate to next year!

linly [dailykos.com]

Keep up the pressure! Keep calling & writing!
Reply
Joined Jan 2006
On the Nasty list
> bubble2 11,159 Posts
2,474 Reputation
redjen910
12-20-2011 at 02:14 PM.
12-20-2011 at 02:14 PM.
This title should say, "High quality interwebs needs you."
Reply
Joined Jul 2005
Scarydevil Monastery
> bubble2 26,675 Posts
2,340 Reputation
Original Poster
veritablequandary
12-20-2011 at 02:25 PM.
12-20-2011 at 02:25 PM.
Quote from redjen910 :
This title should say, "High quality interwebs needs you."
This bill would affect ALL the interwebs, not just my secret stash of ultra-high quality internets. nod
Reply

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Joined Jan 2006
On the Nasty list
> bubble2 11,159 Posts
2,474 Reputation
redjen910
12-20-2011 at 02:31 PM.
12-20-2011 at 02:31 PM.
Quote from veritableqndry :
This bill would affect ALL the interwebs, not just my secret stash of ultra-high quality internets. nod
Wait just a minute. There are ultra-high quality interwebs? You only gave me high quality interwebs. :sadwalk;
Reply
Joined Jul 2005
Scarydevil Monastery
> bubble2 26,675 Posts
2,340 Reputation
Original Poster
veritablequandary
12-20-2011 at 02:40 PM.
12-20-2011 at 02:40 PM.
Quote from redjen910 :
Wait just a minute. There are ultra-high quality interwebs? You only gave me high quality interwebs. :sadwalk;
I find new supplier, much better product! For you, I give special price. nod Tell no one. Nono Our secret. You try before you buy, you will be very happy, this I know! woot

But you have to prove you signed a petition and sent at least 2 emails to stop SOPA first. Sorry, I don't make the rules but I do have to follow them.
Reply
Joined Oct 2007
Get over it
> bubble2 5,807 Posts
2,347 Reputation
AngryPirate
12-20-2011 at 03:16 PM.
12-20-2011 at 03:16 PM.
The optimist in me thinks that this is one battle that can be easily won by the people if enough people are aware of it.


The pessimist in me says fark it...the sooner it all comes crashing down (which we ARE well underway...don't kid yourself), the sooner we can rebuild i.e. start from scratch. (or maybe this is the optimist in me Dontknow )
Reply
Joined Dec 2004
Never gonna give you up
> bubble2 15,546 Posts
607 Reputation
burninator
12-21-2011 at 10:45 AM.
12-21-2011 at 10:45 AM.
Dear Congress, it's no longer ok to not know how the internet works. [vice.com]

Quote :
We get it. You think you can be cute and old-fashioned by openly admitting that you don't know what a DNS server is. You relish the opportunity to put on a half-cocked smile and ask to skip over the techno-jargon, conveniently masking your ignorance by making yourselves seem better aligned with the average American joe or jane — the "non-nerds" among us. But to anyone of moderate intelligence that tuned in to yesterday's Congressional mark-up of SOPA, the legislation that seeks to fundamentally change how the internet works, you kind of just looked like a bunch of jack-asses.
Reply
Joined Jul 2005
Scarydevil Monastery
> bubble2 26,675 Posts
2,340 Reputation
Original Poster
veritablequandary
12-22-2011 at 08:23 PM.
12-22-2011 at 08:23 PM.
Here's a list of companies that support SOPA [digitaltrends.com] should you find yourself with extra letter-writing time over a long weekend... Whistling

If you happen to have domain names hosted with GoDaddy, now's a good time to consider switching [godaddy.com] to someone like NameCheap or Gandi or Dreamhost. There are coupons out there (thanks calistyle) to ease the sting a bit.

The biggest danger here is that people will think the storm's passed and we can relax. I'll do my best to keep this thread updated but there are PLENTY of places to get news about SOPA. The holidays are a GREAT time to educate family & friends about this as well. My parents aren't the most tech-savvy but my father understood and he has both the time & the willingness to call his representatives and bug his co-workers & friends. Get the word out, please!
Reply
Joined May 2011
Serial Entrepreneur
> bubble2 251 Posts
76 Reputation
steventruong
12-23-2011 at 04:09 AM.
12-23-2011 at 04:09 AM.
I skimmed this thread briefly and didn't see a list of places where people can act on SOPA and PIPA. Hope the following links helps at least some here:

Find your local rep and contact them by phone or email about your stance here: https://writerep.house.gov/writer...come.shtml
You can mention specifically SOPA House Bill H.R. 3261 and Protect IP Act S.968 so they have specific references.

Also:

http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa and,
http://americancensorship.org/pos...or#general and,
https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o...n_KEY=8173

Finally, join here: http://iworkfortheinternet.org/

If nothing else, please help spread the word.
Reply
Joined Jul 2005
Scarydevil Monastery
> bubble2 26,675 Posts
2,340 Reputation
Original Poster
veritablequandary
12-23-2011 at 05:56 PM.
12-23-2011 at 05:56 PM.
GoDaddy may not have caved on SOPA [gizmodo.com] (even though they sent out email messages saying they no longer support the bill)... this after Wikipedia and lots of other sites moved their domain registrations away from GoDaddy...

woot ANY publicity is GOOD publicity, remember that, you WANT people going Scratchchin "what's SOPA" and then finding out for themselves that it's awful.

KEEP UP THE PRESSURE. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell everybody!
Reply

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Joined Jul 2005
Scarydevil Monastery
> bubble2 26,675 Posts
2,340 Reputation
Original Poster
veritablequandary
12-24-2011 at 08:03 AM.
12-24-2011 at 08:03 AM.
FARK YEAH! woot

GoDaddy: "Please stop punching us in the quarterly financial report!" [google.com]

Roll

Keep it up - the official "migrate away from GoDaddy hosting" day is Dec. 29th if you haven't moved already. Tell the other companies on the list why you're not doing business with them anymore. It's working and starting to look like we have a real chance at killing SOPA in-committee or at least taking its teeth out.

Tell everyone!
Reply
Page 3 of 8
Start the Conversation
 
Link Copied

The link has been copied to the clipboard.