AF - Please join the SOPA Protest (Jan 18)

[bisbers]

Greetings AF Staff (Rob, Phases, Mods, etc...) -

As you may have heard, several large online communities, including XDA (SOPA | xda-developers) and Reddit (French parliament dumping Windows for Linux via reddit.com) are working to protest a pair of Internet censorship bills currently before Congress, SOPA and PIPA.

These bills contain sections that permit the shutdown of online sites based merely on accusations from IP holders, bypassing due-process currently required by law. While I agree with IP holders protecting their property, the manner suggested in these bills are extremely threatening to online communities such as ours.

I am suggesting that AndroidForums (and Phandroid) join these other communities in a website blackout on January 18 from 8 AM to 8 PM ET as an effort to raise awareness of this issue. While I understand this may be a small inconvenience to other members, it is a small price to pay given the potential outcome these bills.

Best Regards,

Brian Brz.

(PS - I would gladly help offset the economic costs faced during this outage by upgrading to a premium membership to encourage your participation).

 

[dautley]

Greetings AF Staff (Rob, Phases, Mods, etc...) -

I am suggesting that AndroidForums (and Phandroid) join these other communities in a website blackout on January 18 from 8 AM to 8 PM ET as an effort to raise awareness of this issue. While I understand this may be a small inconvenience to other members, it is a small price to pay given the potential outcome these bills.

I'm certainly against SOPA and as a premium member would support this if AF and Phandroid decided to support it. And who knows, it might give AF Admin some needed maintenance time!

 

[Frisco]

I'm wondering if the Site Owner would have to consult with his ad agencies about a 12 hour blackout of their ad exposure.

 

[dpacmittal]

I'm wondering if the Site Owner would have to consult with his ad agencies about a 12 hour blackout of their ad exposure.

As far as I can see, it's only using Google Adsense.

 

[Phases]

We certainly use more than Adsense but yeah that's a Rob call for sure.

 

[dautley]

I'm kind of disappointed there is no sign AF will be joining this tomorrow.

English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout - Wikimedia Foundation

 

[Yeahha]

Personally I would be glad if AF does not participate in the SOPA protest. I do not support SOPA or PIPA at all but I don't feel a site should hold it members hostage when they may not even be in a country where they could do anything against the proposed bills. But that is just my 2

 

[dautley]

Looks like the internet is going awfully dark tomorrow! Add Google to the list!
Maximum PC | Google Joins Tomorrow's SOPA Protest, Tells Admins How To Black Out The Right Way

 

[Martimus]

Looks like the internet is going awfully dark tomorrow! Add Google to the list!
Maximum PC | Google Joins Tomorrow's SOPA Protest, Tells Admins How To Black Out The Right Way

It looks like Google is participating by displaying a blacked out doodle image...

 

[dautley]

On Wednesday Mozilla joins with other sites in a virtual strike to protest Protect IP Act (PIPA) and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). These bills protect content at all costs, creating the opportunity for abuse and damaging the Web for all of us. Mozilla stands with this opposition and we hope the blackout of the default start page in Firefox and our US websites will educate people about this important issue. Learn more: Mozilla to Join Tomorrow’s Virtual Protests of PIPA/SOPA | The Mozilla Blog and PIPA/SOPA and Why You Should Care | Mitchell's Blog

 

[karandpr]

Probably AF should have a black theme as a symbol protest .Just saying ...

 

[SUroot]

Probably AF should have a black theme as a symbol protest .Just saying ...

It should have a black theme anyway. Been asking for it for ages. May have to look into making one for "UserStyles" firefox add on.

 

[Yeahha]

Probably AF should have a black theme as a symbol protest .Just saying ...

It should have a black theme anyway. Been asking for it for ages. May have to look into making one for "UserStyles" firefox add on.

I support both of these ideas. I would love a black theme...that may be a better topic for a different thread...

 

[Xyro]

Looks like we did get that SOPA blackout after all!

 

[agentc13]

Looks like we did get that SOPA blackout after all!

Well, my pages were white, does that make it a whiteout?