SOPA internet blockade, January 18th, 2012

[Ayeun]

Good day to you all.

I am not sure if any of you are aware of the SOPA/PIPA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act) or the 'Stop Online Piracy Act', as outlined in full Here (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.3261:), or in summarized here (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HR03261:@@@L&summ2=m&).

Now, first off, you might be asking: "What does this mean for me?"

The answer to that is relatively simple. Our lovely website, and the forums, can, under the laws proposed by congress, be shut down by Nintendo at a whim. Also, the holdings of the website would cause prosecution of any and all holders; Jail time and rather hefty fines.

I'm not going to go in to the full details of the bill, the related acts, ect., but I am going to inquire about a few things. Firstly, many websites in the United States of America and abroad are holding a 'Internet Blockade' on January 18th, 2012 (A complete blocking of all traffic to all sites. Information can be found on Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/sopa).) I would ask that this website joins the blockade. One day without the forums and Main site isn't too much to ask for in protest of the bill.

Secondly, and this is directed to all those in the United States and its Territories. Contact your senator, and tell them that you oppose this bill, and that you want them to oppose it as-well. This is your constitutional right. (If you are unsure how to contact your Senator, Here is a very helpful tool to find out (http://americancensorship.org/modal/call-form-moz.html).

Third, equip and inform as many people that you can. The more you know, and the more people know, the better off we all are. More information can be found here. (http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/how-sopa-pipa-can-affect-you/)

Thank you all for your time. I apologize if this has already been covered somewhere. I looked, but couldn't find anything.

ALSO, anyone NOT in the United States of America, TELL EVERYONE you know who is. We can't fight this directly, but we can assist everyone ELSE in fighting it!

[Ayeun]

For anyone with an interest in United States Law, here (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr3261ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr3261ih.pdf) is the bill in its entirety.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I don't know a lot about this, but TPM doesn't distribute Pokemon anime illegally. TPM doesn't distribute Pokemon game ROMs illegally. We do use Pokemon trademarks in our logo, signatures, avatars, FanArt and FanFics, ASB battles and AC/CC, but is that harmful to Nintendo? Furthermore, who could join our site to the blockade? Wouldn't we need Kevin to do that?

I voted for a Finnish Pirate party in the last Parliamentary Election by the way. There's a lot of argument like whose responsibility is to pay when people upload and download Youtube videos and what kind of usage of different works of art is approved. When is a piece of art edited enough so it is a new, independent one? What about the products of a Japanese firm outside Japan?

It's not impossible for me to remove my Youtube videos if they break copyright but I won't do so gladly.

[Lady Vulpix]

Apparently the Admin CP allows admins to turn the forum off temporarily and leave a message to those who try to view it. It can be done.

Whether or not the people at Nintendo feel like shutting down our forum, I think they shouldn't be legally entitled to do so on a whim. And it's not just Nintendo, it's any company who has created any of the content that has ever been posted here. If this act passes, any company who suddenly decides they don't want fanfiction, fanart, roleplaying games or other games based on their copyrighted content would be allowed to shut TPM down, along with every single streaming, collaborative writing or art publishing website.

The question is, would most TPMers agree with joining the strike?

[Knight of Time]

I most certainly would agree with joining the strike! I don't like the sound of this SOPA thing one bit, and being totally against it, I just hope this doesn't have too strong of any negative effects on people inside and outside the United States.

The way it sounds this is going, these guys seem to think they are above the law...too bad Johnnie Cochran is dead, he could have won this case in a heartbeat (maybe).

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Well I'm not against joining the blockade, but it's also about picking a side and that's a thing to considerate. I admit we don't have much time, it'll take time next Wednesday!

[Magmar]

I don't think TPM itself striking would have much of an impact... since we're a very small community, like the smallest moon of Pluto at aphelion. But we're still a family and very endearing <3

On that note though..
Could I be sued o_O; I pay for the server after all...

[Lady Vulpix]

So is that a 'yes' or a 'no' for joining the strike?

[RedStarWarrior]

No, we lack traffic as is...

If other main sites shut down for the day, we might end up with new members. I say we keep it up.

[Bear]

lol @ anyone who thinks Nintendo or anyone else is going to waste their time shutting TPM down. That's like the IRS auditing a Wal Mart greeter. Sites like Smogon and Serebii would have much more to worry about =P

[Lady Vulpix]

We could also do something less drastic, like changing the banner for the day.

[DivineAll]

I've said on a different thread that I couldn't go without a week of Internet at this moment of time. One day without the Internet? To make an example of how utterly idiotic the mere idea of SOPA is? *pulls out Harry Potter book collection* Just call me a member of the Internet Civil Rights movement.

[Magmar]

I think our status as a not-for-profit website makes us more of a club that meets on the Internet... we are not making money off the site, nor are we charging users to be members. There's not much difference between TPM and, say, a stack of papers in someone's house full of statistics on pokemon that some people gather to discuss. We aren't selling information after all!

[ChobiChibi]

To be honest, we're more like free advertising to them anyway. We're not harming Nintendo's profits in any way, so I doubt they'd even bat an eyelid at us.

[Magmar]

To finally answer the question, yes I will join :)

[Lady Vulpix]

I think our status as a not-for-profit website makes us more of a club that meets on the Internet... we are not making money off the site, nor are we charging users to be members. There's not much difference between TPM and, say, a stack of papers in someone's house full of statistics on pokemon that some people gather to discuss. We aren't selling information after all!

And you know how much the people behind SOPA care about that? Not at all. They don't care whether you're making profit or not, it's about displaying any copyrighted material online. And not just Pokemon, anything. Think, for example, of Brian's renowned comic War of the Forums. It's full of images from different animes. Luckily, the companies that produced them are Japanese, but haven't many people here uploaded screenshots from My Little Pony? Hasbro could shut us down for that. And Hasbro has already been threatening to sue YouTube accounts, so if SOPA is passed, I wouldn't be surprised if YouTube were closed within a week.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Actually, those screenshots aren't uploaded by TPMers, I believe. People have just found them from a site where somebody else has uploaded them and then those TPMers have put them on their posts by using IMG tags.

I still don't know if we should join the blockade or not. RSW, Bear and others have good points as well. I'm also afraid joining the blockade could also function in the other way around, it might draw attention to minor sites that wouldn't have been noticed by SOPA otherwise.

Changing the banner is an option too.

But if Youtube is going to be shut down, we'd better download stuff from there like no tomorrow while we still can!

[Cynder]

Although I don't really know much about this, I''m going to guess that it won't be passed anyway. Why? Because it involves shutting down (or at least, limiting sites to such a small amount of content that they're not even worth running any more) most of the sites that most of us visit, heck, most of the world visits. It's beyond even questioning that Youtube would be shut down, as would places like Deviantart, even down to the places that actually advertise as series, like Serebii! Then there are the less used but still vital websites like livestream, since a lot of the stuff on there is streaming fanart of multiple different fandoms. It's just silly that they even came up with this stupid bill. I'd help out, but I'm british so can't do diddly-squat about it.

[shazza]

Could I be sued o_O; I pay for the server after all...

Huh?

[Blademaster]

I'm in too much trouble with the law to afford writing to them, but I can go cold-turkey for a day on Wednesday. Why not.

[Ayeun]

[color=pink]Hello again people. It is good to see much discussion on this issue.

I found a simplified display that may help people understand this better. Feel free to click on the image for further information:

http://americancensorship.org/infographic.png (http://americancensorship.org/)

[Gavin Luper]

These kinds of bills sicken me. We had a nutjob who tried to pass a similar one in Australia back in 2010, but it was thankfully criticised (though not as publicly or as heavily as it should have been!) and protested against (proud to say I took part) and eventually it was put on the backberner. The idea that the US is pushing for this is really worrying.

I know we're small, but I'd support us shutting down for one day out of solidarity to the other people who believe in this, and to stand up for the principle that we're completely harmless and ought to be able to exist freely.

[Roy Karrde]

Eric Cantor has killed the House bill, now it is up to the Dems in the Senate to decide if their bill stays alive or not.

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/135443/

[Heald]

Is it me or do the images in Ayeun's post look like they've been designed in the same style as TF2's artwork?

[Ayeun]

As much as I wish I could claim I am that awesome Heald, I am just bringing the 'official' material from other sites here. Yeah... That is the official stuff.

[Telume]

I actually may block out usage of my IRC network as a form of protest against this.

[Magmar]

Ayeun, thank you so much for providing the graphical breakdown of the bills!

[Blademaster]

I really doubt this, but is there a way to see how many people have used the Internet worldwide on a certain day?

I ask because I wanna compare global Internet traffic from tomorrow, during the blackout, to the activity of a normal day or the average of such. I hope to see two VERY different numbers...

[kurai]

it is only possible to monitor the internet in that sort of fashion if you oversee and run the core infrastructure itself - here (http://www.akamai.com/html/technology/dataviz1.html) is a tool from akamai which can give you some idea (of course, they only have information about traffic routed through akamai services, which is significant but not totality). there are a bunch of different options (http://www.slac.stanford.edu/comp/net/wan-mon/netmon.html), but none of them are "the internet". in the case of overuse, you can also track core router latency and packet loss (http://www.internettrafficreport.com/). but usage patterns won't necessarily go down, instead shifting to what remains open. or increasing as a consequence of curiosity.

-


Eric Cantor has killed the House bill, now it is up to the Dems in the Senate to decide if their bill stays alive or not.

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/135443/

seems like that is just lip service:

"As for SOPA, it's hardly dead (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/sopa-livesand-mpaa-calls-protests-an-abuse-of-power.ars)—as some news outlets claimed this weekend. While House Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has expressed reservations about bringing the bill to a vote without "consensus," House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) is moving ahead with plans to mark up SOPA and move it out of committee. The most controversial bit, DNS blocking of "rogue" sites, will be removed from the bill."

"Chairman Smith (http://judiciary.house.gov/news/01172012.html): "To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America's intellectual property, we will continue to bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat online piracy.

“Due to the Republican and Democratic retreats taking place over the next two weeks, markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act is expected to resume in February.

“I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property.""

-

tpm is not under immediate threat from any of these proposals. the threat is open content generation itself. the major supporters of these proposals are the old-media conglomerates, (supposedly) unable to compete with the sort of entertainment now available on the internet at little cost. ensuring copyright compliance increases the cost of doing business for small, open social media outlets (and of course, also for the large ones - thus the dramatic reddit/wikipedia protests). the whole point is to generate a threat of non-compliance for 'offering a service that enables copyright violation (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c112:1:./temp/~c112KLHqKs:e23243:)' - this is being extrapolated to include anything that a user can interact with (they also helpfully included a clause to cover deliberately not overseeing your entire website). for tpm, the moderation team will have to do essentially the same thing it has always done.

as a "foreign thief who steals america's intellectual property", the idea that american copyright law should be universalized at the expense of your own economic and actual intellectual growth is pretty funny. i hope your representatives do not end up ruining the chaotic and free nature of the internet, but we have had a good 20 year run so far (the waves of commercialization we have experienced are pretty insignificant compared to a potential new trend of monopolization for which these proposed bills can provide).

[Telume]

By the way, is TPM going "dark" in protest of the bill?

In other words? Will we shut down to protest for 24 hours?

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

I say we vote.

But it's that Wednesday already here!

[shazza]

Ayeun, thank you so much for providing the graphical breakdown of the bills!

You didn't answer my huh. :(

[Telume]

I did it for my site:

www.bitsjoint.net

I also blacked out on all the web services.

It'll be that way for the next 24 hours.

Even if we do it for 12 hours, it's still showing support.

[DivineAll]

I sort of said earlier in this thread that I considered the "Internet going dark" event to be an act that mimics a similar one that the original Civil Rights movement did during the time of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and I was now a member of this new movement that protects Internet freedoms. In fact, I find it kind of ironic and appropriate that the event takes place shortly after the holiday celebrating said man. I guess it's true what people say: If you don't learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it. Guess members of Congress didn't study too much on American history, huh?

[Gavin Luper]

I also vote we go dark, if Gabi sees our posts in time. Even for 12 hours, to show solidarity to the cause.

[Lady Vulpix]

As you may have noticed, I did. The forum was offline for 12 hours, and even after that the redirection's been up for everyone who's still on the 18th.

[Ayeun]

Thank's all for your support!

For those not in the US, to have your voices heard, you need to Sign this petition (http://americancensorship.org/)

Please note, that the site is currently DOWN due to excessive traffic. How is THAT for suport?

Also, sorry for anyone who feels this 'protest' inconvenienced them...

[Gavin Luper]

Thanks Gabi for doing it. It was a nice surprise to see that message when I went to log in last night.

How amazing was it to see Wikipedia go dark for 24 hours?

[homeofmew]

SOPA is very vague, meaning things Like AMVs and even fan art could be censored.

[Lady Vulpix]

Here's a video I've found online. I've seen lot, but this one seems to be the most informative so far.

JhwuXNv8fJM

[Magmar]

How amazing was it to see Wikipedia go dark for 24 hours?

It still worked on my phone :) but nonetheless the point was definitely made...

[Lady Vulpix]

Most of my Spanish-speaking Facebook friends are making soup-related puns and posting images from Mafalda.

Like this: https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s320x320/400526_3122107211767_1237176211_33434490_577060696 _n.jpg

[Telume]

I think we've won the battle for now, I've heard that SOPA is pretty much dead and I think PIPA is sure to follow.

[kellysmith]

Wikipedia, the sixth most visited site on the Internet, said that it will go dark on Wed to protest legislation being offered in Congress and in the Senate. That regulation, says Wikipedia and other Internet giants, would stifle free expression and unfairly destroy sites. Other sites such as Reddit, Boing Boing and the Cheezburger Network also joined in the solidarity Wednesday for the said SOPA Strike. Source of article: Wikipedia and others go dark to protest SOPA (http://www.newsytype.com/14439-wikipedia-goes-dark/). The opposing party says that the legislation is designed to protect the entertainment industry from copy right issuse, but it puts the burden of policing sites onto IPS. And that's when the opponents finally contend, that the legislation might lead to widespread stifling and censorship of free expression

[shazza]

How amazing was it to see Wikipedia go dark for 24 hours?

If you pressed ESC before the SOPA warning came up, it still worked!

[shazza]

It still worked on my phone :) but nonetheless the point was definitely made...

STOP IGNORING ME! :(

[Magmar]

Huh?

The sources said that people who are facilitated with the management and operation of "illegal" websites would see jail time. That's why I brought it up. Sorry to ignore you! :P

Sooooo how about Anonymous kicking ass and taking names last night.

[shazza]

I don't see how you are part of the management and operation of this website!

[Gavin Luper]

I think we've won the battle for now, I've heard that SOPA is pretty much dead and I think PIPA is sure to follow.

According to Australia's ABC (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-21/us-delays-bill-in-wake-of-piracy-protests/3785824), the vote on the bills in Congress has been delayed indefinitely. I'd agree with you. We've won the battle - for now. Let's see what happens in the next few months and years, though. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!


If you pressed ESC before the SOPA warning came up, it still worked!

Cheater!

[Lady Vulpix]

What do you think about this (http://keepthewebopen.com/)? They're trying to come up with a better alternative to combat piracy, and they're asking for people's input!

[Telume]

This is an absolutely disgusting development, btw:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/14472117492/mpaa-directly-publicly-threatens-politicians-who-arent-corrupt-enough-to-stay-bought.shtml

[Heald]

This is an absolutely disgusting development, btw:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/14472117492/mpaa-directly-publicly-threatens-politicians-who-arent-corrupt-enough-to-stay-bought.shtml
This is no surprise (although it's perhaps surprising how open the lobbyists are about how corrupt the system is), and, as I said in the other thread, SOPA and PIPA would just cut out the middle-man and just let the MPAA and RIAA demand that the US government block access to any website on demand without having to hand over huge campaign donations.

[Telume]

And the most they'd probably get is a slap on the wrist for doing it, too.

[Gavin Luper]

Dodd is a douche. That's disgusting, but as Heald said, it's surprising how open he is about it all. "We give you money. You make the laws we want you to make." Holy crap, how can this be allowed to happen? It's pure corruption.

Gabi, as for the OPEN act, I'm fresh out of ideas to add to it really, although I'm glad they're doing it.

[Fett One]

I can't believe that guy admitted to bribing politicians. Last time I checked bribery is illegal, so why hasn't he been arrested yet? The fact that he is still walking around free as a bird makes this even worst.

[kurai]

money is speech (Buckley v. Valeo)
corporations are people (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission)

a person's right to speech is constitutionally protected

mpaa is a person that just exercised its legal ability to redirect political speech away from support of candidates W through Z

(this is something which is going to get worse. it is all perfectly legal. consider revolution.)

[Heald]

There's virtually no difference between bribery and lobbying, except the manner in it is done. And lobbying is not only legal, but politicians encourage it. Do you think all those fancy adverts about how Obama hates Jesus pay for themselves?

[Blademaster]

It's times like this that make me wonder how much longer it'll be until this country does something akin to what the Russians did 100 or so years ago...

[Roy Karrde]

Dodd is a douche. That's disgusting, but as Heald said, it's surprising how open he is about it all. "We give you money. You make the laws we want you to make." Holy crap, how can this be allowed to happen? It's pure corruption.

Gabi, as for the OPEN act, I'm fresh out of ideas to add to it really, although I'm glad they're doing it.

Dodd was one of the most if not the most corrupt member of Congress during the last few years. Just take what ever he says with a grain of salt, not everyone has his ethics or lack there of.

[kurai]

uh he did it because it is legal not because he is some exceptionally terrible guy

[Lady Vulpix]

I just got this in my e-mail.

The Pokemasters Forums

Now that Congress has had time to process last week's internet blackout, a consensus has emerged: SOPA and PIPA are toxic for politicians, and going anywhere near them could cost them their re-election.

Freedom is winning.

Together, we've done something amazing-- never have so many people stood up to defend a free and open internet. Here's a San Francisco Chronicle article about how it all came together: The Largest Online Protest in History Started Here (http://act.fightforthefuture.org/page/m/2e1f208d/1d074dd7/71be788f/f863f34/3117475401/VEsH/).

And here's Carl Franzen at Talking Points Memo:

"Behind the scenes, Hill staffers from both sides of the aisle confirmed to TPM that the entire piracy debate had become so 'toxic' that virtually no lawmakers were likely to be ready to re-engage it anytime soon."

Experienced Congress-watchers are telling us they've never seen anything like this.

Internet users, tech companies, and non-profits joined together to defend fundamental rights on the internet. To a lot of elites in Congress and the corporate world, the internet is just something that lazy teenagers use to spam people with pictures of photoshopped unicorns. The blackout showed that the peer-to-peer internet is about empowerment, and that when we work together we can defeat the corrupt politics of Washington D.C.

The New York Times (http://act.fightforthefuture.org/page/m/2e1f208d/1d074dd7/71be788f/f863f35/3117475401/VEsE/) and Talking Points Memo (http://act.fightforthefuture.org/page/m/2e1f208d/1d074dd7/71be788f/f863f32/3117475401/VEsF/) have both published good articles on how the web blackout was organized.

For months, four senators were the only force blocking passage of PIPA/SOPA. They even promised to filibuster the bill back when most politicians were against them. We need to make sure we support and vote for leaders like them who are willing to going to go out on a limb and oppose SOPA before it was popular to do so. It's great that we pressured all those other shlubs into opposing web censorship, but these guys deserve the real cred and our support: Click here to donate (http://act.fightforthefuture.org/page/m/2e1f208d/1d074dd7/71be788f/f863f33/3117475401/VEsC/) (scroll down).

What's next? The Fight is not over, already new threats to web freedom are starting to emerge (particularly in Europe) and we're getting ready. Stay tuned, and for more updates, follow us on Twitter (http://act.fightforthefuture.org/page/m/2e1f208d/1d074dd7/71be788f/f863f30/3117475401/VEsD/) and Facebook (http://act.fightforthefuture.org/page/m/2e1f208d/1d074dd7/71be788f/f863f31/3117475401/VEsA/).

Thank you again for standing up for a free and open internet!

- Donny and Fight for the Future

[Gavin Luper]

Good stuff, Gabi - thanks for sharing.

[Lady Vulpix]

Apparently they don't give up. O_o Quoting mr_pikachu... CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

If you live in the US, please sign here (http://a.fightforthefuture.org/go/20?akid=69.1147629.tNvKOf&t=3).

And regardless of where you live, please sign here (http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_cispa/?tta).

[Blademaster]

Fucking Christ Almighty is this shit ever gonna stop?

[Asilynne]

Signed both!

[Magmar]

Dun!
Thanks for the updates Gabi! I found out about this here before I found out on my news blogs or even facebook (then again I check TPM more than I check facebook)