
Google's Anti-SOPA & PIPA Page - Jarred
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
======
elliottcarlson
While some people are voicing their disapproval, I think this is more than
enough on Google's side. It seems ridiculous to assume a for-profit company
that has to answer to shareholders would shut down completely for the day,
however the fact that both their homepage as well as the logo on all search
result pages link to a detailed explanation that your average user should
understand is more than enough. We should be applauding this action and hope
that it spreads the word even further.

Edit: Also for those concerned that the Google Doodle isn't enough; here were
stats from Wikipedia on a Google Doodle search query:
<http://stats.grok.se/en/201109/Albert_Szent-Gy%C3%B6rgyi> \- I believe 4.2
million views is significant.

Edit 2: And a HN discussion on click-thru rates for the Google Doodle topic
searches: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3004392>

~~~
tdfx
I'm totally happy with what Google did to their homepage. It will definitely
get attention. I'm disappointed about their call to action. It vaguely points
users to a message that "Congress" (who in Congress?) is doing something bad.
Sign another worthless petition. Why not give people a way to call them? Why
not list the bill's co-sponsors? The companies that are supporting it?

~~~
elliottcarlson
Because I don't think your average user will bother to call. They will be made
aware of the problem - perhaps it will come up in conversation at the water
cooler - but I doubt they will care enough to place that actual call. I wish
there was more call to action - and more importantly, an easier to read info
graphic.

~~~
tdfx
You're right. Most users won't. But if 1% of users actually do that's an
enormous impact. Right now, there's nothing to even push them in that
direction. Even users who get riled up will probably feel their work has been
done by signing that aimless petition and not bother looking up how to contact
their representatives.

~~~
aclements18
Since we're on the topic of messaging effectiveness, can we all agree that the
infographic Google selcted is nearly impossible to view?

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bravura
Wikipedia, please watch Google's messaging.

I'm happy to see that Google has gone with a clear, direct anti-SOPA message:
"Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor
the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S."

And their call-to-action message on the home screen: "Tell Congress: Please
don't censor the web!"

Simple and clear.

Wikipedia's message is much more vague and indirect: "Imagine a World Without
Free Knowledge ... Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation
that could fatally damage the free and open internet." [How?]

And then their detail page
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more))
spends the first three bullet points talking about details about the Wikipedia
action (how long they will be blacked out for, how they decided, etc.) before
getting to: "SOPA and PIPA are real threats to the free and open Internet."
Okay you've got my attention. Go on... "Although recent media reports have
suggested that the bills are losing support, they are not dead." Argh! If I
haven't been following this debate, why do I care about the current health of
the bill? _Tell me what's going on and why it's important!_

This reminds me of their recent banners soliciting donations, which other
commentators have pointed out were indirect and not as effective as they could
have been.

~~~
ColdAsIce
I was more impressed by wikipedias wording and action than googles.

Googles message is very technical.

Wikipedia strikes the heart, the black imagery, the background. Its perfect.
It really feels how bad it would be without a free internet. Google feels like
a minor political detail in Washington that is going down. A very tiny link on
the google.com page which few people will see, and I havent seen it anywhere
else, despite what HNs say that it should be in the logo and what not. Its
not.

Google fail, this is the least they could have done.

~~~
omarchowdhury
You seem to be unaware that Google is also blacking out their logo on the
homepage & search pages.

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bgentry
This PDF is horribly complex to render and is slowing my machine down
considerably just to zoom in and read it. And I'm on a 10-month old MacBook
Pro Quad i7!

If anybody out there can fix this, please do before millions of people give up
trying to read it.

~~~
karpathy
I wanted to read the tiny white text but the PDF froze my computer for almost
10 seconds while it loaded. An image with a larger font could have been more
effective.

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DevX101
If Google has another infographic, I hope they swap it in.

I'm looking at the full page version of takeaction.pdf and the font is way too
small. I can't read the text unless I zoom in to 200%.

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nohat
Is anyone else getting a 'Sorry, we are unable to retrieve the document for
viewing or you don't have permission to view the document. ' when you click on
the image?

~~~
dangrossman
Yes. They messed up permissions on the viewer. Click the "Download Original"
button above the error to get the raw PDF in the meantime.

~~~
nohat
That worked, thanks. Now I wonder when they will change the color choice of
the text. The difficulty of reading off-white text on a light blue background
with random off-white motif is high.

~~~
astrodust
I can't even read it on a 24" screen because the type is way too small. Is
this supposed to be billboard sized to be able to read it?

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ff0066mote
For posterity: <http://imgur.com/sU5CO>

~~~
yassim
Thanks for that. At the moment I can't see it in AU. I still get the monkey
king.

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brokentone
Very nice work Google. Such a bold logo will generate valuable public
discussion. Although it's disappointing that we weren't able individually to
generate as much buzz as is certain to come of this, I appreciate that some of
the bigger companies are stepping up. (I say that based on the scientific
metric that every person I spoke to not in the tech field had no idea of
either bill).

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waterlesscloud
Considering that the MPAA openly claims Google profits from illegal
advertising, Google should be fighting harder.

[http://blog.mpaa.org/BlogOS/post/2012/01/10/How-Google-
profi...](http://blog.mpaa.org/BlogOS/post/2012/01/10/How-Google-profits-from-
illegal-advertising-and-keeps-the-money-even-after-getting-caugh.aspx)

"This is all just a reminder that many of the opponents of SOPA and PROTECT
IP, while they like to portray themselves as brave Internet freedom-fighters,
are in reality doing little more than protecting their own business interests.
They profit from illegal activities, and they will vigorously resist
legislation that seeks to put this practice to an end."

Direct quote from the MPAA, folks.

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trout
I'm not sure where Google's petition goes, and couldn't find a way to view it
after signing. Do petitions mean anything? Google truly has the power to 'melt
phones' so they may not be able to advocate that, but aren't there other
things that can be done?

How many supporters would these types of bills have if it was very clear to
readers who were the supporters and opposition to these bills? If congress
knew their name was potentially going to be plastered on google or wikipedia,
would they have a different stance?

If SOPA opposition was looking for a tagline, I think this comes as close as
anything - "The U.S. government could order the blocking of sites using
methods similar to those employed by China".

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sethbannon
This is a special moment in the history of the Internet and a critical test
for online activism. Proud to be a part of it.

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tonyx
I remember reading that Google said the protest wouldn't involve its logo from
somewhere, whoever reported that certainly didn't see this coming. Thumbs up
Google!

~~~
jmj42
no they said their logo would be in place as usual. I remember reading that
comment and thinking: hmm, that's vague enough to still allow for blacking out
their logo.

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pessimist
Thanks Google, small but symbolic.

Disappointed that Facebook/twitter appear to be relatively quiet. Facebook
especially is immensely influential now. Perhaps they feel anything that hurts
Google is good for them?

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andygcook
I doubt Washington would be able to properly function today if Google had
followed Wikipedia's lead and completely blocked service.

~~~
abecedarius
There's a notion: block access only from geo-IPs in D.C. and Hollywood. (I'm
not really suggesting this, but it amuses me, and we do need to take the
offensive in some way more practical than that, not just keep reacting.)

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nextparadigms
> _"Fighting online piracy is important. The most effective way to shut down
> pirate websites is through targeted legislation that cuts off their funding.
> There’s no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines
> censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web
> to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs."_

Here's how I read that: We're going to _support_ any anti-piracy legislation
that doesn't impact our business.

I think we need to give that option serious consideration before we support it
(OPEN Act proposes it, too), because I think it could be easily abused as
well. A site like Wikileaks could easily have its funds seized under an "anti-
piracy" law like that.

So I doubt I will support something like that personally, but on the other
hand, maybe something like that is needed to make alternative payment methods
like Bitcoin and Flattr really explode in popularity, just like DMCA led to
the explosion of BitTorrent's popularity.

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dangrossman
This mini-site they put together about these bills is really, really well
done... much moreso than most of the "stop SOPA script" landing pages.

I've linked banners across all of my websites to Google's
<https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/>

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atacrawl
Does anyone else wish that they had put up Facebook and Twitter buttons next
to the G+ button on this? I get that those companies are the competition, but
you would think if the point is to get the word out about this awful
legislation, they would let bygones be bygones.

~~~
modeless
When you sign the petition you are given links to share on Facebook and
Twitter as well as Google+.

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aslewofmice
Does it bother anyone else that they've basically required a gmail just to
read the PDF infographic? Sure, you can right-click "save-as", but the kind of
people they need to be speaking to aren't going to 'know how'/'go through the
trouble' to view it...

On the other hand, I think Wikipedia nailed its execution with the teaser and
overlay. I know we can't expect a for-profit company like Google to completely
shut-down, but a subtle interference into everyone's use of the site would
have been nice to see. I guess I feel a little let down with this.

*EDIT: After reading some comments, it looks like this was just a permissions error. While it alleviates some of my disappointment, I'm still not completely sold that it will speak loudly to many Americans.

------
akashshah
After seeing Wikipedia and Google, I am convinced that this means the end of
SOPA and PIPA for now. Am I being really naive in thinking that Congress is
not going to try another attempt at any internet regulation till at least the
elections are over?

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resnamen
I'm taking the opportunity to spam my friends and family with this news.
"Check out the Google logo today! Wonder why it's a big black bar?" It's
jarring and it piques people's curiosity. I think it'll do good things for
educating the public.

------
walru
The call to action here seems rather weak to those who've been following it
for a while, but this is the best we can hope for when reaching out to the
broader base.

The more you try to educate, the more joe public will push back.

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gaving
Something hilarious about the infographic linking Wikipedia
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vint_Cerf>) when it'll be down today.

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da5e
There's sort of a force multiplier with Google protesting online. It's that
Google also has lobbyists who are pointing out and explaining the online
protests to legislators.

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Swizec
For those of us not from the US who can't see the google doodle ... anyone got
a screenshot?

All I can see is a plain link on the homepage: "Tell Congress: Please don't
censor the web!"

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resnamen
Is FB going to do something similar? If not, why not? I imagine the tag-team
of Google and FB would do wonders for educating the entire public on this
crucial issue.

~~~
Shenglong
FB should just black out everyone's profile pictures by default - that'd be
good enough.

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christkv
Maybe a more efficient way would be to register as a republican and vote for
Ron Paul. That's pretty much the middle finger to the whole establishment.

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wiradikusuma
Could anyone give screenshot or direct URL to the doodle? I'm always
redirected to .com.my every time I open Google.

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andex
for those outside of the United States
[https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150540286203754....](https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150540286203754.401600.513098753)

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jontonsoup
Getting a 500 error on the petition...

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mlinksva
Very well implemented.

But "End Piracy, Not Liberty" is silly, unless they meant to say elsewhere on
the page "Fighting ocean piracy is important."

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joering1
Tell Congress: Don’t censor the Web [...] Too much is at stake – please vote
NO on PIPA and SOPA.

First Name Last Name Email address * Zip code *

hmmm... where is this info going to?? another Goog mousetrap?

~~~
fpgeek
If you want to know, I'd suggest clicking the "How we use your information"
link.

~~~
joering1
yes I am sure they are worth trusting and whatever they say there its binding.

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tententen
That is seriously weak. The phones would be ringing off the hook if Google
stopped service instead for 24 hours. As it is, everyone will simply think
it's another cute Google doodle.

~~~
mbreese
Do you really expect a service as integral to the Internet as Google to
shutdown entirely? Would they want to give people an excuse to try Bing or
another search engine? What about their shareholders?

This is about as far as they can go, and tellingly this is the first time that
I can remember them using their homepage for such a call to action.

Expecting them to go dark for 24 hours is just naïve.

~~~
Ixiaus
Not sure why you got down voted, but your view IMHO is correct.

