Dear SN.TV Members,

Those living in the US, may or may not have heard of the recent Stop Online Pirating Act (or SOPA) bill presented to congress last month.

While well intentioned, this Bill leaves many areas of "copyright infringement" open to interpretation, and could ultimately funnel the responsibility "C.I." definition to one sole entity. Essentially one corporation controlling internet content.

So far AOL Tumbler, Mozilla and BoingBoing have made efforts to rally protests against this bill.

It's potential to affect this site, along with others such as; Youtube, Tumblr, Livejournal, fan fiction sites, Deviant Art, Photobucket, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Hulu, iTunes etc. is almost certain. And while it can be argued that C.I. infringement and Piracy are wrong, this bill goes beyond that to revoke our freedom of internet exposure, content and information.

It is with this encroachment of our freedoms in mind that the SN.tv staff would like to encourage all our US residents to write, call, sign petitions and speak out against this bill in any (peaceful) way they can!

Regards,

The SN.tv Staff

Latest on the SOPA Act--its still a danger to all on-line communities.

SOPA News - Internet Blackout

Google, Yahoo, Amazon and some other major internet companies are planning a black out day in January (there is talk about the 23rd) to protest this bill.

If you haven't already, sign up petitions and contact your senators and congressmen--in fact, I think if the internet does do down on that day--spend the time you would have spent on-line, calling and crashing your representatives phone lines in Washington DC

Okay gang,

here is a link that so far shows what looks like may be turned off on the 23rd of Jan.

Once again, we aren't absolutely sure they are going to do this, but just incase you might want to check out the list of companies.Oh No They Didn't.

They are going to update the list, but so far we have:

Amazon
AOL
eBay
Etsy
Facebook
Foursquare
Google
IAC
LinkedIn
Mozilla
OpenDNS
PayPal
Twitter
Wikipedia
Yahoo!
Zynga

Here to offer my support because it will affect us in the UK too.

Those on twitter can message Senate members, and even get the SOPA issue trending by using this link

Udated News,

Wikipedia is going to join in on the blackout...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57359763-...g=2547-1_3-0-20

Not confirmed are Facebook and Google from what I've been reading.

Also news that it's been SOPA has been shelved not confirmed on that either.

April

Seriously, dude, wth! NOT liking this bill at all, so I signed a petition and changed my Twitter picture to include a banner that says "STOP SOPA".

Well it looks like at least the White House is listening, but with the Motion Picture Association and the Music Association still pushing for some kind of bill, we still need to keep a wary eye (I know, I'm a little jaded when it comes to trusting our politicians).

White House Shuts Down SOPA

I still think the best answer is for the technology sector and the entertainment sector to work together to find a solution that benefits everyone

You and me both Raven, I don't trust them as far as I can throw them and well you know me I can't throw very far LOL

Politician's say one thing do the opposite, so color me shocked if this thing actually dies....

Is SNTV shutting down tomorrow in protest of SOPA?

April

Wikipedia's blackout has begun. If you navigate to a page in English Wikipedia, it will appear for a few seconds before you are redirected to a black page which has links to some information about SOPA.

Reddit is about is about six hours from doing so. As large as Wikipedia is, I don't think its blackout will be shocking enough to the general public - not in the way a Facebook, Google or Twitter blackout would be.

It certainly doesn't help that that the CEO of twitter has openly criticised Wikipedia's blackout. However he reaffirms that Twitter is against SOPA and PIPA. More details here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/tec...ta5P_story.html

ETA: Wikipedia has taken an interesting approach to its blackout. There are numerous and trivial ways to stop the redirection of the black page which some sites are already describing.

On the plus side, some news programs here in Australia seem to have taken notice. I watched two news reports about Wikipedia's protest and those interviewed conveyed that they believe SOPA and PIPA are 'draconian' and 'detrimental'. Hopefully the same is occurring in the US where it matters most.

This post has been edited by digital_bean on Jan 18 2012, 09:53 AM

No April, it is not (as you can see, we are here )

I think Twitter is responding this way because they believe the legislation is dead. However I applaud Wikipedia for taking a stand and following through with it. It might not have as big a splash as Google or Twitter, but it does get noticed.

I haven't seen anything on the news here yet, sadly. I don't expect we will as the very entities that want the legislation to go through, control the media here

But we'll see as the day progresses.

Google did join in

They are still up and running but did provide a little black outbar

https://www.google.com/

Live Journal also joined in as well adding in a place for discussion.

http://www.livejournal.com/

I just wished Facebook joined in and Twitter as well, but Google and Live journal doing their own quiet protest is awesome and sends a sounding message to Congress.

April

There was a news item on the BBC radio 4 news programme this afternoon about it.

The woman 'expert' was saying its not so much the wording of the act but the way it will be interpreted. That people are worried that if they have a blog or a website and someone puts a link up to pirated stuff that they will be closed down. eg a site like ours would come under that umbrella. How far would we be liable.

There is also a worry that there seems to be no way that 'little people' can appeal and get their website etc up and running again quickly if proved innocent. Where is the line drawn.

So if somone complained that one of the sites InvisionFree hosted had done something wrong, they could be shut down just like that, no questions asked right? Which would lead to this place being shut down, correct?

Yes, if SOPA or PIPA passes, this sight could have to close down or at a minimum, you would not be allowed to post or link to any outside materials because if the 'media' in charge of that picture, news article, video feed complains, there could be a fine for copyright infringement and the site could be closed down. This would be true of any 'fan' type site, including those who do fan fiction and fan videos.

Here is a video that someone sent to me that really explains in terms most people can understand, not just what the impact would be for US citizens, but also for international citizens as well.

Ted - SOPA

In the end it comes down to this, the media industry is trying to turn the legal system on its head and ask that it is assumed the average user is guilty of pirating without them having to go through and prove it.

The sad part is, it won't really stop the pirating, because those who know how to do it, know how to get around the DNS censors. It will be casual users who will be impacted the most.

For those in the US, notice how much media coverage this is getting? Now ask yourself, when you watch the news, who really censors what you see--interesting huh?