What you guys will see if you head to the blog today. It’ll only show up once and will go away quickly. Promise.
Not to trivialize an incredibly important issue, but I foresee an off-the-charts spike in office productivity tomorrow. Sadly, the websites that track that kind of thing will have gone dark, so no-one will ever know.
A lot of major websites are “going dark” on January 18 in protest over the internet bill SOPA, and this timeline shows you how the campaign has ramped up in the last week. Google is even planning a special doodle about SOPA tomorrow. (via TPM)
We’re on the fence about going dark. We’d rather cover the phenomenon and inform people about it than disappear entirely. I asked inothernews about this, and his thought was this: “I think that if it affects us directly in our ability to deliver information to our audiences, then we have no choice but to participate.” However, to us, it seems like it breaks the line between information source and activism; we’d rather tell people about the activists than play that role ourselves. What do you all think? — Ernie @ SFB
Due to the Republican and Democratic retreats taking place over the next two weeks, markup of the Stop Online Piracy Act is expected to resume in February. I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property.Rep. Lamar Smith • Noting that he will continue pushing SOPA hearings next month despite widespread frustration against the bill. “To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America’s intellectual property,” he writes, “we will continue to bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat online piracy.” So yeah, SOPA not dead, just dormant.
It’s nice to see Wikipedia getting in on the action with regard to protesting SOPA (which might not be around much longer) and PIPA, a couple of bad laws relating to internet usage.
That said, students: It might be better still if you didn’t make Wikipedia your go-to source for research … and not just this Wednesday.
Hah! Jimmy seriously thinks that kids desperate enough to use Wikipedia to research will get as far as his Twitter page? Sometimes the blink tag is way more suitable for the job.
(Source: brooklynmutt)
While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House.Rep. Darrell Issa • Speaking about the proposed shelving of SOPA in the House, which is a big victory for opponents of the legislation. However, the Senate will continue to vote on the similar PROTECT-IP legislation on January 24, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked for a vote on. Even as the bill has been shelved in the House, don’t view this as an endgame for the legislation: ”You can’t view this bill in isolation; it’s part of a continuum,” Public Knowledge’s director, Art Brodsky, warns. “They will try to muddle through with something.” (By the way, if you haven’t already seen it, Chris Hayes’ lengthy roundtable discussion on SOPA, which included NBC Universal’s Richard Cotton and Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian, is a must-watch for its fairly objective handling of the issue.)
In case you missed it: Chris Hayes’ roundtable on SOPA is a must-watch, as it directly tackles the major issues around the legislation and explains them in a very effective way, including honestly dealing with the issues his employer, NBC Universal, has with the legislation. (Richard Cotton, one of the major figures representing NBC Universal in the SOPA fight, is part of the debate.) This 18-minute clip is totally worth a watch.
So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.Rupert Murdoch • Posting on Twitter yesterday afternoon about the Obama administration’s stance on SOPA, which discouraged the bill in its current form. CNET’s Greg Sandoval says that Murdoch’s reaction is a strong sign that the entertainment industry is starting to lose the battle, with a key provision of PIPA and SOPA — which involved the DNS system — getting removed from both acts. Murdoch, meanwhile, was quick to rip Google for what he perceived as their strong influence on the White House statement: “Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying,” he said on Twitter. On the plus side, at least Rupe isn’t making gambling jokes that could be misinterpreted. source (via • follow)
While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.The White House • In an official response to the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT-IP, written by three officials with key views on the law: Intellectual property czar Victoria Espinel, US Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and Special Assistant to the President Howard Schmidt. Another key line: “We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet.” It sounds like Obama wouldn’t sign either law in its current form, though he’d be open to changes. The official response was written in reaction to an online petition in the White House’s “We the People” section. Read the whole thing over this-a-way.
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Regarding the last post, good, smart coverage of SOPA can be done by large news outlets. Example: Here’s Bloomberg interviewing Alexis Ohanian, one of the co-founders of Reddit, on the topic. Alexis even wore a suit!
You don’t say.
Personal feeling: It’s probably not even for corporate reasons. It’s probably a matter of it being a difficult topic to describe properly in three minutes. And as the story’s never crept up to the top of the news cycle, they’ve likely had no reason to describe it at any major depth. Not that it’s an excuse, just a reason for it to get ignored. However, one thing to keep in mind is that it’s entirely possibile that the stories got played during the day — Media Matters used Lexis-Nexis reports, which don’t cover daytime cable.
EDIT: In case you want to see an example of a media outlet doing it right, see this Bloomberg interview with a Reddit co-founder.
We have observed a spike in domain name transfers, which are running above normal rates and which we attribute to GoDaddy’s prior support for SOPA, which was reversed. GoDaddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities. Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time.GoDaddy CEO Warren Adelman • In a statement sent to the press on Domain Transfer Day, an anti-SOPA protest organized after it became clear that GoDaddy was a major supporter of the legislation. Note the phrasing — they don’t just not support SOPA, but oppose it. Think they’ve apologized enough?
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