

Impressive SOPA blackout - nicholasreed
http://www.littlehart.net/atthekeyboard/2007/08/07/stupid-cakephp-controller-tricks/

======
jeff18
Credit to Zachary Johnson: <https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa>

~~~
zachstronaut
I can't believe how far my template has spread. I'm just really happy to help
fight against SOPA.

~~~
im_dario
I used it in <http://qomun.com> (shameless plug). Also it has been used by
several high traffic spanish blogs and pirate parties (<http://pirata.cat> and
<http://www.partidopirata.es/>). Kudos!

------
jenius
There are a lot of people using this, I am at <http://jenius.me> as well.

This was posted 3 days ago and rose to the top of hacker news when the
original author released it, I don't understand why some other site is now
getting credit for it or why a duplicate link is on the popular page of HN
again...

Here's the link from 3 days ago, with over 170 upvotes:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3468386>

~~~
thomholwerda
We at <http://www.osnews.com> used it as well (we're back up after 24hrs in
UTC time). You can still view our version at <http://www.osnews.com/?sopa=1>
(for posterity).

Great work by Zachary Johnson.

------
JoshTriplett
It certainly looks nice, except that the text flows right off the bottom of
the page, and scrolling doesn't work. I had to shrink the text font to see the
whole thing, and in particular the link that appears at the end.

------
brok3nmachine
Here's an HTML5 blackout that I found pretty impressive as well:
<http://acko.net/>

Never saw the site before the blackout though, so I'm not sure if it is just a
slight modification to their original homepage.

~~~
chc
It is. All the elements are the same; they just changed the colors to black.

------
mirkules
Thank you for making sure the site is readable even though javascript is
disabled (I mean this sincerely).

Edit: I would also like to point out that disabling javascript on wikipedia's
page does not display the blackout and lets you continue to use the site
(apologies if this was mentioned before)

~~~
zachstronaut
I did that just for you in particular. I did it so you would call your
congress members and tell them you oppose SOPA. And you made those calls for
me, right? :p

~~~
mirkules
Not yet, been at work all day. But, I saved the numbers in my cell, and will
call as soon as I'm out. :)

On a side note: should I leave a voicemail after hours or is it more effective
to send a fax? Never had to do this, but since this law would affect our
collective lifebloods even for those outside of USA, it's time for action.

~~~
zachstronaut
Sometimes there is a voicemail box for after hours calls. Fax works. Phone
call works. Email works. Make sure to let them know you are a constituent. It
helps to tell them your address.

------
JohnTHaller
LibreOffice.org seems to be the one that started popularizing this script.

------
jschuur
Even responds properly to touch gestures in iOS. Now that's impressive.

------
shocks
I love that while most people would remark "Oh, that's cool", I (and I imagine
a majority of us here...) immediately hit Ctrl+Shift+I and tried to figure out
how it was working... Hah. :)

~~~
felipemnoa
Archived for future dissection.

~~~
zachstronaut
I created the spotlight with a CSS3 radial gradient. I used pointer-events:
none; on the element with the gradient so that mouse events would "go through"
that element to the content below (the links). The lighting shadow casting
effect is created via a box shadow and a text shadow. I'm adjusting the offset
of the shadows based on the mouse position, and I'm also adjusting the blur on
the shadows based on the distance of the "light source" for the content that
is "casting" a shadow.

~~~
felipemnoa
Thanks for the info.

------
shingen
Green Peace is also using this, not sure whether the German Pirate Party
ripped it off from them or vice versa.

<http://greenpeace.org>

~~~
NanoWar
Well that's probably why they're called Pirate Party :P

~~~
earthboundkid
Man, I wish there were a real Pirate Party, so I could get someone to issue me
a Letter of Marque to attack all those stupid Spanish Galleons sailing up and
down the coast.

------
joezydeco
So is this some kind of meta-pirate joke? The source is ripped directly from
the German Pirate Party website.

<http://www.piratenpartei.de>

~~~
jemka
>ripped directly

Author of the code: "I place this code in the public domain. I require no
attribution." : <https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa>

Your research-foo leaves much to be desired.

~~~
fossuser
Just a note about copyright law: You can't legally place something in the
public domain (even saying you want it public domain is meaningless). The best
you can do is license it permissively giving up your five rights to copyright
with a clear, perpetual and irrevocable license. The Apache license is a good
one to use.

This code as it stands is still fully copyrighted and copying it is
technically a felony.

~~~
eridius
I've heard that's true in other countries, but I'm pretty sure the US allows
you to place something in public domain.

~~~
fossuser
That's not the case, you can't opt to enter things in the public domain in the
US - the best you can do is license permissively.

------
FuzzyDunlop
I find it strange that a method of protest appears to be an opportunity to see
who can make the nicest looking one.

Given the title of the thread, are some considering the blackout less of a
political manoeuvre and more of a portfolio addition?

Obviously they need to be attention grabbing enough to highlight the cause,
but as a metric surely effectiveness is better than impressiveness?

~~~
a_a_r_o_n
"I find it strange that a method of protest appears to be an opportunity to
see who can make the nicest looking one."

Why not? Is a protest sign less credible if it's not made of cardboard and
Sharpie™?

You should make everything you touch beautiful.

~~~
eridius
The more effort it takes to produce a protest, the more meaningful the protest
is.

