

We're scheduling an anti-SOPA blackout for 1/18/12. Let Google & FB know. - nextparadigms
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/o7rdz/were_scheduling_an_antisopa_blackout_for_11812/

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Mithrandir
I could be dead wrong, but I seriously doubt that Google or any publicly
traded company will shut down for a day. I just can't see them taking that big
of a step in protest of the SOPA.

They'd probably to announce it first, if it was a complete blackout; but if
they didn't, someone going to the site would probably see just a blank page
with information on the SOPA etc. Call me cynincal, but I'll bet 9 times out
of 10 that the consequence would be the person either just clicking the
Tweet/Like/+1 button (unless those sites have also blacked-out) and/or going
to another site that provides the same service ("Google is down, so I'll use
Bing" "Facebook is down, I'll use Twitter/Google+") That's not all though;
other apps, companies, etc. that rely on Google or whoever would also have to
shutdown temporarily (except if the parent site kept the APIs open, but then
what's the point?) Is that fair to those companies, to those coders? You might
say it's a short term loss, long term gain, but other people might not see it
that way; e.g. "This site is down, so I'll use this other service until they
are back up." I'm not talking about why they shouldn't but why they _wouldn't
if they don't_.

More importantly though, how will this change anything? I'm not saying people
or companies shouldn't protest, but I think the only thing the company that
blacks-out their site will get will be a lot of angry customers and investors.
More people will be aware of the SOPA, and maybe mainstream media will at
least mention it, but talk doesn't change unless action follows. Perhaps I'm
over-thinking this, but to me it just doesn't seem to be the most effective
way of protesting.

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mbreese
I guess that I assumed that they were talking about putting up a permanent
black bar at the top of their pages with information about SOPA and their
reasons for opposing it. I hadn't seriously considered that anyone would take
down their entire site. If organizers are hoping that a large site will
completely go offline, I think they are nuts.

This is one of the problems with a very decentralized anti-SOPA movement -
there is no organization. I think that's why people are just hoping for a
Google to take the lead.

~~~
Natsu
Google, at least, could just do one of their doodles. That wouldn't be quite
like shutting down for a day, but it's something they've done before and those
doodles have gotten a lot of attention in the past.

I wonder what creative ways they could find to inform the public about SOPA in
the next week or so? What's the best anti-SOPA argument any of you have seen?

~~~
Joakal
There's some anti-SOPA jokes here: <http://www.reddit.com/r/sopafunny/>

~~~
dlss
He was asking for _good_ SOPA jokes.

Like "How many SOPAs does it take to screw in a light bulb? I would tell you,
but google doesn't work anymore" :(

~~~
Natsu
I didn't ask for jokes at all, actually. I was kinda hoping for something more
convincing....

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mbreese
It should be mentioned that this is just one person arbitrarily picking a day.

~~~
scoofy
Game theory would suggest that, since SOPA opposition is in part a
coordination problem, one person arbitrarily picking a day may be all it takes
to get multiple groups with similar interests to organize.

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felipemnoa
Why not just replace the website with a full page banner that the user can
close after reading? It will inform the user without pissing them off that
they cannot use the website.

~~~
gojomo
Sometimes when people say 'blackout', they mean exactly what you are
suggesting: a noticeable barrier/interstitial, rather than a true shutdown.

The reddit link as submitted doesn't have enough context to be sure what the
proposer (user 'sub_par') means.

~~~
Mithrandir
I don't know what the OP means by 'blackout', but apparently others on r/SOPA
have repeatedly used it to mean 'complete shutdown'.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/comments/o8aty/petition_to_goog...](http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/comments/o8aty/petition_to_googlefacebooktwitter_etc_for/)

[http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/search?q=blackout&restrict_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/SOPA/search?q=blackout&restrict_sr=on)

~~~
Joakal
"This domain has been seized to comply with SOPA act (1).

If this was in error, please follow these simple steps:

1) File a domain release request to your local Federal Court.

2) "

etc. By 'simple', make it look like it'll take a long time and a lot of
legalese.

A good touch is an official-looking logo.

~~~
Mithrandir
I can see some senator(s) coming along and crying about how companies have too
much power because these companies promote "intellectual property theft," then
a year later complaining that government needs to get out of business because
the companies are going bankrupt.

Oh the irony.

~~~
Joakal
The Internet giants could come out and cry about how congress is killing the
people's future as well the children's future.

Extended: They are willing to take a day's loss and a loss of a politically
neutral reputation for this brief event because such anti-Internet bills will
harm the people and children. They believe it's wrong that the biggest support
for the bills are from groups with a conflict of interest for death of sharing
instead of adapting to newer technology that empowers people.

~~~
Mithrandir
(This is just my opinion.) I would argue that a company that comes out against
the SOPA does it more out of interest in having control over its content, what
it does and not having a monopolistic third-party shut them down. They do it
for survival of themselves first.

I'm sure that most of them care about internet freedom (after all, companies
are composed of people who have their own freedom of expression); and if it
didn't affect them whatsoever, I'm sure that many companies would take a stand
against the SOPA and we'd be in the same position as we are now.

Of course, companies that have supported the bill have done so out of interest
in having control of their 'material.' So we have two different points of
view, one for and one against. However, both come from a need for control of
content (some would call it greed, but that has negative connotations which I
don't feel like addressing.)

My comment that you replied to has nothing to do with companies supporting or
not supporting the SOPA, for freedom or not, but rather that some politicians
(see the ones who support the SOPA) see things from an individual standpoint:
i.e., they support business freedom except when it interferes with either
their supporters (MPAA, RIAA, etc.) or what they 'believe' in. In other words,
they want their cake and they want to eat it too.

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Sniffnoy
I'm wondering whatever happened to Wikipedia's blackout. Since they're the
first ones to actually put forth a serious blackout suggestion (as opposed to
this one guy's just announcing a day), shouldn't people be coordinating with
them?

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RKearney
Soooo because one person on Reddit said I should blackout my sites on 1/18/12
means I should?

I'll be a little more involved once I hear
Google/Yahoo/Microsoft/Wikipedia/Facebook start mentioning dates.

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joy7joy
I am impressed with any decision being made on this. I think it's justified no
matter how they do it. And if they do something outrageous it would only match
what they are choosing to take a stand against. It's a NEED! And for a
day...who cares. It's statement that should be made.

Anyone worried about the outcome of one day with Google being down aren't
really thinking about what is at stake in the long run.

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GigabyteCoin
Not going to work. For the same reasons that collective price fixing never
works.

Somebody is going to see an opportunity to charge less than their competitors
(or in this case, to stay online when their competitors are not).

~~~
scoofy
This doesn't take into account the payoffs of some sort of moral sentiment
that may be valuable to the CEOs. Not all payoffs are monetary.

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samstave
Why not coincide with #OWS' Occupy Congress?

