RuneStorm will be showing support and joining the anti-SOPA/PIPA blackout tomorrow by blacking out our main page and forums with the message.

If you don't already know:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Take_action

We may only be a small site, but if everyone small does something it makes a big difference.

Good luck everyone

Despite my beliefs that the probability of SOPA passing is very low, I still support the anti SOPA cause.


Down with SOPA!!!

In only two simple words:

Totally agree.

Indeed, so when were you planning to black it out? I have been able to access this website all day.

Its got a page that pops up every link... Is that not working for you? You might actually be clicking past it accidentally.

BTW not many sites actually are inaccessible today, as far as I can tell, Wikipedia being the only significant one I know of (and even at that its just the English pages I though).

Wikipedia is not technically "blacked out", it is only a piece of Javascript that locks it down. All you should have to do is disable Javascript for wikipedia and you have usual access. I am guessing DC used a similar method but it simply doesn't work right in my browser, either due to some extension's interference or due to the way the browser interprets certain markup or css syntax.

Ah, yeah, that's probably the problem then. I figured Wikipedia wasn't actually locked down since that could definitely be more problem than its worth for such a massive site (or maybe not, I don't know web code) but it is one of the few to essentially stop usage.

Every one should research SOPA/PIPA, the more I read the worse it gets.
The entertainment industry should not control the net, their all about making money, Things like paying to visit websites outside the US which will probly mean paying to visit sites coming in to the US and much much more. It will affect the world not just the US. And watch your backs, its not just the US thats trying to gain control over the Internet.
petition your government leaders.

http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/exclusi ... acy-stand/

An interesting read, at the very least.

@Bjossi I'm not sure what you saw, but yeah, it wasn't a complete block. It was just a piece of javascript that obscured the screen and showed a message and links.
We were in a hurry so we just used the javascript suggested by the Wikipedia article. It was a bit of a fight to get it (sorta) working with the CMS and forum systems.
I hope it helped raise some awareness in case someone who visits here doesn't already know the story.

I think it's pretty ridiculous that elected officials are sponsored (and so massively) by wealthy corporations and individuals. I mean, how can that possibly be construed as above-board? How is something so blatantly corrupt legal?

I've also been doing a fair amount of reading on these things recently.
It doesn't really look like it's an attempt to fight piracy so much as certain old fearful corporations trying to eliminate an industry that they don't like... and of course any opportunity to squash free speech or the freedom of the internet is worth a shot.

Some more interesting insight:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/how-copyright-industries-con-congress/

I must say, it's quite incredible to see how the internet works in response to these things. Organizations of power always operate by keeping you in the dark so it's no wonder they want to destroy anything that allows the free flow of information. Perhaps the internet is the one thing that could possibly make democracy actually work.

Politicians can really screw things up if I recall.

I really hate to talk about Politics but this just makes me furious.
SOPA needs to die, or at least heavily modified on grounds that we can agree upon, though I doubt that.

Obama has said himself, very recently, they he completely opposes SOPA, so its extremely unlikely to pass now rather than it just being fairly unlikely with the uproar its caused.

Ok, heres the letdown on the overall view of the SOPA and PIPA bills.

Right now as it stands, without the bills passing.... it is up to that copyright holder to make a claim to shut down a particular website or making a lawsuit on the offender. If those bills pass the government can pretty much shutdown whatever site they perceive as a 'violation' and do action on anyone! And that is not a good thing folks.

There are some negative perks that are associated to our basic civil liberties, such as profanity and obscene comments, gestures, and imagery...not to mention the vast amount of stuff that can happen on the net. But the overall cost of censorship on all bounds regardless of the good intention it wishes to accomplish is unacceptable as it comes at the expense of our basic Civil liberties that the US and many other Democratic Counties that are supposed to be founded upon.

UPDATE as of the 22nd of January: we have a victory, it is stalled... for now. We still need to prepare ourselves for the next attack.

I read that hes neutral but some of his cabinet members are opposed to it.
But all the movie moguls are cutting off funding to his re election fund, so we'll see how long that last.

Wouldn't he just seek support from the Tech And Internet People instead?

EDIT: actually, its quite possible.

Both the Technology Industry and Entertainment Industry are powerful players in this battle.
So its gonna be a long battle and a very big one at best.

If they had anything close to the amount of money the entertainment industry has, there would have been more attempts to establish bills that would prevent things like sopa from existing. As far as I know, this isn't the case.

Also, is it just me or does it seem rather sickening how obvious and completely legal this corruption is in our government? This is exactly how so many of these bills are passed; giving or denying huge amounts of money in support of political campaigns.

I dont think they throw around the same kind of funding. but I realy dont know.

Yep, classic clandestine(or not) attempts to control shit like they always have, stupid media as we knew it is as archaic as stone doors, and needs to upgrade or be consumed in favor of the new, better system..

Besides SOPA and PIPA there's now something called ACTA?


I don't know much about it but as far as I can tell it's at least just as bad.