dagblog - Comments for "Websites going dark in protest of proposed legislation"

On Googlepower (& of course,

artappraiser — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:02:41 +0000

In reply to Websites going dark in protest of proposed legislation

On Googlepower (& of course, the question comes to mind, will it corrupt?)

Google Collected 4.5 Million Anti-SOPA Signatures Today

By Delvin Culdewey, Techcrunch, Jan 18

Google generally gets in hot water when it is thought to be abusing its pole position in the search industry. But it’s no use denying that while some moves skirt the edges of abusing monopoly, others are more than welcome. During natural disasters, for instance, Google has provided helpful links and resources for people who want to donate or volunteer. And their logo doodles pay homage to personages and events many people would otherwise have overlooked.

Today must rank among the best applications of their choice placement: a link on the Google homepage and thousands of shares have produced a mind-blowing 4.5 million signatures on their anti-SOPA petition.

When I wrote Kill Switch a few months ago, there were some petitions linked to that had tens of thousands at the time and now as many as 150,000 (the Whitehouse.gov one got just over 100,000). And the petition at Avaaz is almost to 1.5 million. The grassroots opposition to these bills has been immense, more so in fact than other rather terrifying bills like NDAA, perhaps on account of the fact that SOPA and PIPA are directly aimed at internet freedoms [.....]

ooh, great analogy, gets

artappraiser — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:52:43 +0000

In reply to I love the smell of running

ooh, great analogy, gets everything across in few words!

I love lamp.

Qnonymous — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:53:12 +0000

In reply to In Canada, Google has been

I love lamp.

I love the smell of running

jollyroger — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:30:36 +0000

In reply to P.S.. for those who don't

I love the smell of running dog fear in the morning...Seeing the sponsors scatter like roaches in a Brooklyn kitchen when the lights go on (tmi?) is a beautiful thing.

I have a new idea in

jollyroger — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:27:46 +0000

In reply to So what does a 24-hour black

I have a new idea in lobbying, and it's all down to Newt's brilliant plan to substitute nine year olds for janitors

I think fannie/freddie could have gotten way more bang for their lobbying buck using my new company Boy (and Girl) Rangers--who's gonna say no to a nine year old kid? spozed to start at 8:55 but can't make the sophisticated youtube editing dialog box work cuz too old or too high)

Wow! just rewatched the last four minutes montage--they've got firehoses on peaceful marchers, carloads of nine year olds brutally murdered--Capra did not play!

Yeah, the campaign seems to

acanuck — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:26:18 +0000

In reply to P.S.. for those who don't

Yeah, the campaign seems to have -- dare I say it? -- won. Its sponsors had already begun tweaking/diluting it. Now I don't think we'll see even a drastically retweaked version till after the election. If then. Yay!

In Canada, Google has been

acanuck — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:21:15 +0000

In reply to Websites going dark in protest of proposed legislation

In Canada, Google has been business-as-usual today (no blacked-out logo). Wikipedia is blacked out here, the same as in the States -- much more effective at raising awareness of the worldwide nature of the threat. I love Wikipedia.

P.S.. for those who don't

artappraiser — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:14:06 +0000

In reply to So what does a 24-hour black

P.S.. for those who don't have NYT access, the next two graphs are quite interesting on the "who":

A freshman senator, Marco Rubio of Florida, a rising Republican star, was first out of the starting gate Wednesday morning with his announcement that he would no longer back antipiracy legislation he had co-sponsored. Senator John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who heads the campaign operation for his party, quickly followed suit and urged Congress take more time to study the measure, which had been set for a test vote next week.

By Wednesday afternoon, Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah and one of the Senate bill’s original co-sponsors, called it “simply not ready for prime time” and withdrew his support.

So what does a 24-hour black

artappraiser — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:08:20 +0000

In reply to ... yawn .... So what does a

So what does a 24-hour black out serve?

Apparently some Congresscritters do pay attention when big entities like Google & Wikipedia express being upset in this manner about some of those mysterious innertubes issues that hardly anyone usually pays any attention to or understands And I would suspect that this might be a rare special case where what they did is much more effective than lobbyist dollars, because Congresscritters, their families, friends and their constituents use those sites themselves. Top of Google News home page now:

Web Protests Piracy Bills, and Senators Change Course

New York Times - ‎23 minutes ago‎

WASHINGTON - Online protests on Wednesday quickly cut into Congressional support for online antipiracy measures as lawmakers abandoned and rethought their backing for legislation that pitted new media interests against some of the most powerful ..

That doesn't mean it's going to work as well if it was done again or often. The novelty factor probably worked a lot to their benefit. (I would argue that it's part of what people pay lobbyists for, to come up with new novel ways to get attention from Congresscritters on an issue, to realize and listen to another side of a story when they've only been hearing one side)

So what does a 24-hour black

Verified Atheist — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:13:31 +0000

In reply to ... yawn .... So what does a

So what does a 24-hour black out serve?

It raises awareness. I know this might surprise you, but many people just don't know much, if anything, about SOPA. Having it on Google's front page (for example) should reach a lot of people who use the internet on a regular basis.