Let's talk about the Media Blackout

[Cain]

Yeah, exactly.

[MMMW]

Seriously though. That wouldn't be that crazy...would it?

[Thurnez Isa]

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout

It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.

        ...Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

        On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations....

        ...We depend on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. And we depend on a legal infrastructure that also allows other sites to host user-contributed material, both information and expression. For the most part, Wikimedia projects are organizing and summarizing and collecting the world's knowledge. We're putting it in context, and showing people how to make to sense of it.

        But that knowledge has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikimedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to....

Sue Gardner,
Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation 

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

Sorry, Navkat, it just chaps my ass when people equate something bad foisted on us by the government to OMG ANOTHER HOLOCAUST.

It's like a more hysterical version of Godwin's Law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came%E2%80%A6

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Sorry, Navkat, it just chaps my ass when people equate something bad foisted on us by the government to OMG ANOTHER HOLOCAUST.

It's like a more hysterical version of Godwin's Law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came%E2%80%A6

So, they've started hauling off Jews and trade unionists, have they?

Jesus H Christ.

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

The point is if you give a government an inch they'll take a mile.

[Cain]

First they came for the people who made trite Holocaust comparisons, and no-one really gave a fuck.

[maphdet]

:::edited due to posting in wrong thread:::

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Sorry, Navkat, it just chaps my ass when people equate something bad foisted on us by the government to OMG ANOTHER HOLOCAUST.

It's like a more hysterical version of Godwin's Law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came%E2%80%A6

So, they've started hauling off Jews and trade unionists, have they?

Jesus H Christ.

Well, if you look at the history of unions in America since 1981, yes.