Moments of Permanence - rrrrrrr

From: silverai Date: January 19th, 2012 01:08 pm (UTC) (Link)

It is annoying that we can't do anything, other than perhaps spread it to any American friends if we have them.

Now I'm hazy on the details because my brain glazes over, so I won't bother trying to debate the points properly. However if I'm reading it right, according to this:
http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/#43905Wired
Non-US websites CAN potentially be affected by this bill. As far as I can tell, PayPal being cut off and search engines such as Google mandatorily removing a website can have a big impact on global websites. Also, US aren't the only people on the internet, by any means, but they still contribute to the internet in a lot of ways in large numbers.
If we believe what people are saying, it's also the thin end of the wedge that allows other governments to try stupid shit too. Didn't ours try to use China's filtering example to do it here even worse?

That's why I personally don't mind losing a day's access to some websites due to blackouts, even if it is annoying. Whatever they need to do to make their stupid stupid government listen.

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From: sami Date: January 21st, 2012 12:57 am (UTC) (Link)

Well, yes.

But I have a broken leg and it sucks and I reserve the right to be a pissy bitch about anything I want, in my own journal. ;)

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From: stranger Date: January 20th, 2012 03:26 am (UTC) (Link)

Sorry to jump in without much introduction.

As I understand it, the SOPA/PIPA proposed legislation has one objective of blocking non-U.S. websites from U.S. users, to prevent U.S. revenue from going to the websites. That's one reason a citizen of the sane world would want to know about it, and oppose it, before it can be enacted as law. There are a number of other good reasons: many websites, in and out of the U.S., could well believe they would have no choice but to shut down if the bills become law, making the internet a poorer place. That's why I oppose it.

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From: lady_ganesh Date: January 21st, 2012 12:43 am (UTC) (Link)

This is correct. In fact the bullshit line the bill's supporters were trying to sell (well, one of them anyway) is that the law would only apply to those nasty foreign websites anyway, so why would you worry?

You're still perfectly in your rights to be annoyed by losing websites for the day, sami; I was mostly annoyed it had to get to the point of Wikipedia, et al shutting down to get anyone to notice.

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From: sami Date: January 21st, 2012 12:56 am (UTC) (Link)

Whoa, that's *total* bullshit.

Anyway, yes. And thank you. I'm really glad the protests seem to have worked - I was just having a kind of grumpy/bad day and was irritated.

And also, yes, HOW THE HELL DOES IT HAVE TO GET THAT FAR FOR PEOPLE TO PAY ATTENTION ARGH etc.

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From: lady_ganesh Date: January 21st, 2012 06:16 pm (UTC) (Link)

Yeah, you've got a lot to deal with! YOU CAN BE AS GRUMPY AS YOU WANT.

Some of it was that there was simply no media coverage in the mainstream. Like, NONE. And then Wikipedia went dark and it was in the top of the hour news EVERY HOUR. I was amazed.

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From: stranger Date: January 21st, 2012 01:01 am (UTC) (Link)

Yes, that's it on both counts. The law is very badly written (for internet users of all nationalities) and needs to be publicized as such. At the same time, sites likely to be affected, that want to publicize it, in general have to show themselves to everyone the same, and inconvenience the sane world as well as the U.S.

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From: sami Date: January 21st, 2012 12:58 am (UTC) (Link)

No doubt, but a citizen of the sane world was aware of this problem without the need to shut down half the internet first.

It's just unfortunate that so few citizens of America hold dual citizenship in Sanity.

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