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Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

reuters.com

21–29 of 29 posts

Re: Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

#21
post #7

This "stunt" has been solely designed to raise awareness and mobilize support. It doesn't take Google or Facebook blacking out their site to accomplish this - simply running a text link or a banner on their sites would go a long way towards helping a huge audience understand the heinous demands of the IP Lobby. By that same stroke, the more dramatic blackouts will also raise a lot of awareness. Despite the differing…

Yet another example of awful reporting. All the press coverage I see on SOPA calls this a battle between anti-privacy advocates and Internet supporters.

Wrong. This is a battle about whether we will allow a few large companies to let their commercial interests regulate Internet access for the entire US (and rest of world as a result).

I hope the Wikipedia, reddit and google education efforts finally explain the problems with SOPA to the public

Re: Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

#22
post #17
post #6

Blacking out your own site to protest a law is as silly as cutting off your ear to woo a lover. I like Google's approach.

If that law threatens your ability to do business, then it could be seen as worthwhile. As Ohanian has said, if SOPA passes, it will likely be the end of Reddit. NOT being willing to lose a day's revenue to something along those lines illustrates, to me, a lack of forethought.

Google's daily revenue is more money than all congress members combined receive per year in donations.

Re: Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

#23
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that law threatens your ability to do business, then it could be seen as worthwhile. As Ohanian has said, if SOPA passes, it will likely be the end of Reddit. NOT being willing to lose a day's revenue to something along those lines illustrates, to me, a lack of forethought.

Google's daily revenue is more money than all congress members combined receive per year in donations.

All the more reason I'd think they'd want to protect it, going forward.

Re: Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

#24
Oh, yeah no big sites. Wikipedia is one of the top ten or so sites and probably bigger than Twitter. And Google, the biggest site period is also pitching in, if not so dramatically. Reddit is smaller but still very big. Really, the headline should be the opposite...

Re: Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

#25
Wikipedia now serves a tasteful dark page. The page has a link thats reads "Learn more" [1], but since it links to a page on Wikipedia, it's blacked out as well. I'm not so sure whether that is intentional.

Edit: they fixed it, so apparently it wasn't intentional.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn...

Re: Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

#26
As of right now I'm seeing a Google logo which has been entirely blacked out and links to their take action page. I think the Google logo changing for major events is pretty well-established even outside the "tech elite" community, so while they didn't black out the whole site, I'd definitely say Google is "enlisted".

Re: Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

#28

I thought Mozilla was blacking out?

Yes, but only for 12 hours, starting tomorrow at 8am ET:

"Reddit will not be offering its regular service between the hours of 8AM ET and 8PM ET, which is also when Mozilla will be redirecting the Mozilla.org and Mozilla.com English webpages to a similar "action page" inviting users of its software to voice their concern."

http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/18/2715300/sopa-blackout-wiki...

Re: Internet blackout against U.S. law fails to enlist big sites

#29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's daily revenue is more money than all congress members combined receive per year in donations.

All the more reason I'd think they'd want to protect it, going forward.

My point is that they should spend it in ways that create incentives for politicians, not confusion and annoyance for their customers.

If a stop SOPA/PIPA vote was held today, less than 10% of the people raising a stink about it on the internet would show up at the polling place.

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