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As more and more internet operations recognize the horrors of SOPA, they're stepping up to do stuff about it. The latest is that Wikipedia is considering a blackout on the site in protest -- a move that might actually catch Congress' attention because people in Congress actually use Wikipedia all the time. There's a discussion on the site
When the government claims the right to shut down websites by breaking the Domain Name System and forcing search engines to dump user requests to reach a site, there’s only one word for it: censorship. And when big media groups like the RIAA can essentially cut off the financial services to a website based on accusation alone, it’s censorship at the hands of corporations.We’re not talking about China or Iran. We’re talking about blacklist legislation being debated by the U.S. House of Representatives this week.EFF and a coalition of organizations, tech companies, innovators, and users are joining forces to fight back against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill that would give the government and big content unprecedented authority to censor the web in the name of so-called copyright enforcement. This week, we need to pull out all the stops because the House Judiciary Committee is slated to hold a critical hearing on Thursday. SOPA's supporters are desperate to rush this bill through quickly by convincing Congress there's no real opposition to it. We know better, but we need to make our voices heard. That’s why we’re calling on you to join us in a dedicated week of action against the SOPA blacklist bill.We’re kicking off our Week of Action Against Censorship with a toolkit for anti-SOPA activism, and urging you to call your Representatives in Congress. With the hearing imminent, there’s no time to waste. Pick up the phone and tell your Representative to oppose this bill today. Then tell your friends and follow up with a note to Congress. This legislation, if passed, will wreak havoc on our Internet community, jeopardizing the innovative and creative ecosystem that has created hundreds of thousands of jobs, helped countless people access information, and spurred a new generation of artists and creators. But big media groups are willing to sacrifice all of that in a ham-fisted attempt to control how you consume online content. And in the process, they'll undoing long-standing legal protections for websites and endangering the basic infrastructure of the Net.We can’t let that happen. So join us in standing up and speaking out. Show Congress that we’re willing to fight for an uncensored web, and deep-pocketed lobbyists will never drown out the voices of the Internet community.
As the House Judiciary Committee met to consider changes to the Stop Online Piracy Act, several members of the committee warned that rushing the bill through the legislative process would lead to costly mistakes. "I cannot fathom why we are moving so quickly on a bill that could cause us to save billions of dollars or lose billions of dollars," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX). "All of us are opposed to online piracy," she said, but she urged the committee to take more time to address critics' objections.Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) agreed. He pointed to the America Invents Act, an overhaul to the patent system that was six years in the making. "We haven't done our due diligence," he said.
If this bill passes I can see the use of hosts files (lol) and trading ip addresses lists skyrocketing if they do decide to abuse the entire dns system as this bill spells out they want to.
what would happen if google search results had an option to link to ip addresses rather than domain names?
Yesterday and today, the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has hunkered down in the Capitol for markup sessions of SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. The basic facts looked bleak: this Internet blacklist bill is a disaster that stands at odds with the Constitution, but the deep pockets of its legacy media backers managed to make it enough friends in committee that its quick passage seemed possible. Judiciary Committee Chairman, author of the bill, and “Hollywood’s Favorite Republican” Lamar Smith scheduled just a single hearing, stacked the deck in his bill’s favor, and rushed it through to markup now, at the end of the legislative session.But then a funny thing happened: the Internet fought back. It started in bits and pieces, from our coverage of the bill’s introduction to the citizens who took our action alert and told their Congressmembers that Internet censorship is unacceptable. Then more and more people began realizing the dangers of SOPA and finding their voice against it. One month ago today, American Censorship Day counted almost 6000 participating sites, tens of thousands of people called their Representatives, and more legislators started coming out against the bill.It was clear then that Congress wouldn’t be able to slip SOPA through under the public radar. But this week was the most important one yet, with the bill heading to markup and possibly even to the floor. That’s why EFF, with a broad coalition of organizations (of all political stripes), tech companies, innovators, and users, declared this week a Week of Action Against Censorship.It’s been quite a week. At the last minute, SOPA’s sponsors tried to pull a fast one by introducing a “new-and-improved” version just before the markup. But we – and you – weren’t fooled. As we’ve noted, SOPA still conflicts with the U.S. Constitution, despite the protestations of one misguided legal scholar SOPA would, undermine your freedom of speech, hurt students and educators, and harm the U.S. position in international negotiations for a free Internet. And you don’t have to take our word for it — ask Vint Cerf, Paul Vixie, and over 80 more Internet inventors and engineers who signed and open letter against online censorship, which was entered into the Congressional record by opponents of SOPA during the markup.But the most important thing to happen this week was that thousands of people took action to oppose the bill, calling their representatives and spreading the word via blogs, tweets, social media videos and word of mouth. And it looks like it made a difference. In a marathon markup session yesterday, which we covered on our live-Tweeting stream @EFFLive, a persistent group of Representatives attacked SOPA from all fronts. Although there wasn’t enough opposition to kill the bill outright, the messages we’ve been sending for weeks — that the bill would create blacklists for online censorship, harm cybersecurity efforts, set a bad international precedent and lead to a fractured Internet — couldn’t be ignored. During a markup session earlier today, Chairman Lamar Smith acknowledged that the Judiciary Committee didn’t yet have all the facts, especially on the cybersecurity questions. After an amendment vote he abruptly announced that markup would be suspended, and consideration of the bill would be resumed at the next practicable opportunity — which is tentatively scheduled for next week, but could be pushed to late January. Legislators’ considering facts when crafting new laws is a good thing, and we commend Chairman Smith for recognizing it. We also want to acknowledge Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Darrell Issa, Jared Polis, and Jason Chaffetz, who brought refreshing perspective and expertise to the markup session. Their input — and actual amendments — stand in clear contrast to SOPA proponents’ common refrain that the opposition doesn’t contribute any real suggestions. (Another fact belying that refrain: there is an alternative bill already on the table: the OPEN Act proposed by Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Darrel Issa. It’s not perfect, but it takes the conversation in a better direction, and we urge Internet users to go the http://www.keepthewebopen.com to contribute their views on it.)The markup suspension is an important victory, but the blacklist bills are not yet beat; it’s still important that we all continue to take action against them. If you haven’t yet taken our action alert to send a message to your legislators, now is the time!
Reddit user selfprodigy got the ball rolling on December 22nd by posting that he would be pulling 51 GoDaddy-registered domains from the company. He was quickly followed by Ben Huh of Cheezburger (I Can Has Cheeseburger, FAIL! Blog, Know Your Meme) who pledged to move 1000+ of the companies domains. Even Wikipedia is transferring their domains from GoDaddy. We want you to follow their lead. Can we get GoDaddy's attention?
Bieb, Youtube better get on the bandwagon as well. They have an enormous user base, and could loss everything if SOPA is passed.
