Online Freedom

I have once again temporarily changed the header of this site, this time not without reason.

Those of you who often visit Wikipedia will have noticed that in protest to legislation limiting online freedom for US citizens, the site has blacked out completely today, for the first time in its history. New laws by the US Senate would severely limit online freedom, would cause serious censorship on sites with user-generated content, and limit the access people have to online information. I don't personally live in the US, but apart from the fact that I don't want the American people to have to be cut off from free internet, this legislation, if passed succesfully, might lead to example for other countries, something that would surely make the future of the internet look a whole lot less bright. This may not be the first attempt in the world to limit online freedom (cough) BREIN (cough), but it is surely one of the more dangerous.

Voice your support! If you agree with me and billions of other people that online freedom should be one of our highest goals and not something to shove out the door for silly copyright reasons, apply one of the many choices of Twibbons to your profile picture on Facebook or Twitter, tweet your support using the #wikipediablackout hashtag, or 'Like' anti-SOPA protesters on Facebook, such as this one or one of these.

For a free internet!


peugeot407

I'm kind of unsure what side I want to be on with this legislation, since on the positive side it will help fight piracy (I am totally against the idea of ripping off the people who made something by getting an illegal version of it) but then I don't want online freedom to be severely limited. Maybe if they just focused on blocking the torrent sites that cause companies to lose plenty of money that they should rightfully have, it wouldn't be so bad. In my opinion, they should block the torrents and illegal downloading, but they shouldn't censor information. That's just my rather uninformed view on the matter.

This won't stop piracy in any way. If someone wants to go on a certain Swedish pirate website, they only need to type in the IP if the domain doesn't work. But do to the fact most US Lawmakers are like really old, they don't know that.

As the CEO of Valve said: "Piracy is a service, and therefore to stop Piracy we must create a better servce."

I don't know if this is the exact quote, but it is smiler.

I was actually tempted to block out this site for a day, but since most of are users aren't American citizens, it wouldn't matter.

It still matters, symbolically. Sure, we can sneak past these measures when they are in place, and laugh about them before, but the fact of the matter is that we need to stand up for our freedom and rights, even when they are not truly endangered. Our rights may not be at immediate risk, but we can't let governments get away with publicly questioning them.

As for piracy: Piracy is not born of people willing to break the law, but of the lack of sense that said laws make. The solution to all of this is to leave it alone, and give people back their responsibility.


peugeot407

SOPA does look pretty pointless. People will find other ways to pirate material, and the only people really suffering will be those who don't have piracy in mind, but just want to socialise and be able to access free information.

SOPA will affect how the internet works. Even though there are ways around it, there are those that don't know how or can't be bothered. The internet is worldwide and just because one country decides to act, that doesn't mean it will only affect that country. A lot of content on the internet is from America or has some American aspects to it. The SOPA act will change the internet and it will change our lives. A bit over the top, but on the whole true.

Yup it will cause quite a few problems. Yet the real problem - piracy such as torrents and illegal downloads, will not be solved. The innocent will suffer.

Ladies and gentlemen I'm proud to announce, that SOPA and PIPA have been dropped by the US Congress!

WHOLOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Hurrah!

Cheese steak jimmy's!!!

What, dear Pepp, is "Cheese steak jimmy's"? The triple exclamation marks give some clue as to it being another expression of joy alongside "Hurrah", but what is it?


peugeot407

Ehm, it is a cheat in AoK that gives you 1000 foods, I really need that cheat in AoC:H...

But it is great, that suck rules thrown away! For liberalism!

yay we done it!

The battle is won, but the war is not over
We may be triumphant in Americas, but I've recently been informed of similar bills in Europe...

Dude, it is "won", not "one"...

Spoiler:

And our world would be so much worse if you didn't point out my every typo... :lol:

There are limits as to what a literate can take before turning grammar nazi, that much is obvious...


peugeot407