Thread: Stop sopa/pipa

SOPA/PIPA Blackout By the Numbers
Protester at the NY Tech Meetup emergency demonstration on Wednesday, January 18.Protester at the NY Tech Meetup emergency demonstration on Wednesday, January 18.
Ads by Google

Don't Censor the WebStop SOPA and PIPA Tell Congress. Stop the Wall. Make the Call | Stop the Wall


In case you missed it, the Web on Wednesday, January 18 basically revolted en masse against two pieces of anti-piracy legislation being considered by the U.S. Congress, with tens of thousands of websites going dark or “censoring” parts of their U.S. homepages in protest of the two bills — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate.

Now that the so-called “Blackout Day,” has come and gone, it is abundantly clear that the political winds in Washington have shifted in favor of the opposition. Numerous Republican former co-sponsors of PIPA have shifted sides, and far more lawmakers on both sides who hadn’t yet taken a stance have finally come out against the bills.

Perhaps more importantly, so, too, the SOPA and PIPA critics also seem to have achieved a decisive victory in greater public relations war.

Press outlets around the world covered the protests (and how could they afford not to, with some of the Web’s most popular pages —- Google, Wikipedia, even the executives of Facebook and Twitter, participating to varying extent?), with many articles painting the protesters in a sympathetic light.

Editorial boards at right-leaning and left-leaning publications have also written testy columns calling for the legislation to be scrapped (though notably, the Wall Street Journal wrote an editorial applauding the bills, following in the footsteps of tweets made by Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of its parent company, News Corporation).

Now that the furor has died down, at least to a certain degree, various participants and observers have begun tallying the damage. Here’s “Blackout Day,” by the numbers so far:

7 Senators and former co-sponsors of PIPA defected and no longer support the bill, according to Ars Technica. Six were Republicans. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) was the only Democratic Senator and co-sponsor to defect so far.

19 total Senators came out against PIPA, according to Ars Technica. A whip count and call notes are also available at OpenCongress.

3 Representatives and former co-sponsors of SOPA have withdrawn their support, according to The Library of Congress. They included Reps. Lee Terry (R-NE), Ben Quayle (R-AZ), and Tim Holden (D-PA).

40,000 websites completely blacked out, according to Fight For the Future, an advocacy organization that coordinated some of the protests.

30,000 additional websites that participated by altering their homepages in some other way, according to Fight For the Future.

4 of the top 10 most popular websites on the Internet participated in some way, according to Fight For the Future. (Google, Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter).

5 protests in cities around the country, according to Las Vegas News. The cities were: New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C.

An estimated 2,000 people turned out for the NY Tech Meetup protest in New York, according to organizers.

An estimated 200 coders turned out in San Francisco to protest the bills, according to Tech President.

162 million people saw the Wikipedia blackout page, according to Wikipedia. Upwards of 8 million people used a Wikipedia tool (which wasn’t blacked out) to contact their representatives.

At least 5 million people signed various online petitions against the legislation, according to Fight For the Future.

4.5 million people “signed” Google’s online petition against SOPA and PIPA, the Los Angeles Times reported.

2.4 million tweets about SOPA from 12 a.m. ET Wednesday to 4 p.m., according to Twitter. “Top 5 terms: SOPA, Stop SOPA, PIPA, Tell Congress.”

486 websites of member organizations of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) participated in the blackout, according to the PCCC.

210,000 people who signed the PCCC’s petition, according to the organization.

103,785 people who signed two online petitions against the bills on the White House’s petition website, according to newly released figures from the White House on Wednesday. These petitions, which had been active for weeks, prompted a White House response on Saturday seemingly against SOPA and PIPA in their current forms.

1 new alternative anti-piracy bill, the OPEN ACT, introduced to the U.S. House by SOPA critic Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).
Congress, PROTECT IP, SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act
Ads by Google

SOPA/PIPA Blackout By the Numbers | TPM Idea Lab

Reid postpones vote on Internet piracy bill
By Brendan Sasso - 01/20/12 09:36 AM ET

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has indefinitely postponed next week's vote on the controversial Protect IP Act "in light of recent events," he announced on Friday.

The move is a resounding victory for online activists, who staged an unprecedented protest against the anti-piracy measure on Wednesday.

“There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved," Reid said in a statement. "Counterfeiting and piracy cost the American economy billions of dollars and thousands of jobs each year, with the movie industry alone supporting over 2.2 million jobs. We must take action to stop these illegal practices."

Reid said he is "optimistic" the Senate can reach a compromise on the anti-piracy legislation in the coming weeks.

Just minutes after Reid's announcement, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said he would shelve the House's version of the legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

The measures, which seemed set to sail through Congress just a few weeks ago, now appear dead.

“I understand and respect Majority Leader Reid’s decision," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the bill's sponsor, said in a statement. "But the day will come when the Senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem."

SOPA and Protect IP had broad bipartisan support until Wednesday's Web protests unleashed a wave of voter anger.

Google, the most visited site in the world, plastered a black censorship bar over its logo, and Wikipedia blacked out its English-version site.

More than 7 million people signed Google's petition opposing the legislation.

GOP Sens. Orrin Hatch (Utah), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), John Boozman (Ark.) and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) had signed on as co-sponsors of the Protect IP Act, but by Thursday, all of them had switched their position in the face of the public outcry.

On Thursday evening, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called on Reid to postpone next week's vote.

He said Reid made the "right decision" to delay the "flawed legislation."

McConnell's opposition made it unlikely that the bill would have been able to receive the 60 votes needed to cut off debate and proceed to a final vote.

All four GOP presidential candidates denounced the legislation in Thursday night's debate.

Mitt Romney called the measure "far too expansive," and warned it "would have a depressing impact on one of the fastest growing industries."

The White House released a statement on Saturday expressing concerns with the legislation, but administration officials said they believe law enforcement should have new tools to crackdown on online copyright infringement.

SOPA and Protect IP are designed to go after foreign websites that offer illegal copies of movies, music and TV shows. The bills would empower the Justice Department and copyright holders to demand that search engines delete links to foreign sites deemed to be “dedicated” to copyright infringement. Ad networks and payment processors would be prohibited from doing business with the sites.

Movie studios, record labels and business groups say the legislation would cut down on illegal file sharing, which is hurting companies and eliminating jobs.

But Web companies warn the bills would stifle innovation and censor free speech. They say the legislation would impose an unreasonable burden on websites to police user-generated content and could lead to legitimate websites being shut down.

—This post was last updated at 10:48 a.m.

Reid postpones vote on Internet piracy bill - The Hill's Hillicon Valley



For now





Reid postpones vote on Internet piracy bill - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

Anonymous downs government, music industry sites in largest attack ever




Published: 20 January, 2012, 01:48
Edited: 20 January, 2012, 08:44

Hacktivists with the collective Anonymous are waging an attack on the website for the White House after successfully breaking the sites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America.

In response to today’s federal raid on the file sharing service Megaupload, hackers with the online collective Anonymous have broken the websites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA, Motion Picture Association of America and Warner Music Group.

“It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org,” Anonymous operative Barrett Brown tells RT on Thursday afternoon.

Only hours before the DoJ and Universal sites went down, news broke that Megaupload, a massive file sharing site with a reported 50 million daily users, was taken down by federal agents. Four people linked to Megaupload were arrested in New Zealand and an international crackdown led agents to serving at least 20 search warrants across the globe.

The latest of sites to fall is FBI.gov, which finally broke at around 7:40 pm EST Thursday evening.

Less than an hour after the DoJ and Universal sites came down, the website for the RIAA, or Recording Industry Association of America, went offline as well. Shortly before 6 p.m EST, the government's Copyright.gov site went down as well. Thirty minutes later came the site for BMI, or Broadcast Music, Inc, the licensing organization that represents some of the biggest names in music.

Also on Thursday, MPAA.org returned an error as Anonymous hacktivists managed to bring down the website for the Motion Picture Association of America. The group, headed by former senator Chris Dodd, is an adamant supporter of both PIPA and SOPA legislation.

Universal Music Group, or UMG, is the largest record company in the United States and under its umbrella are the labels Interscope-Geffen-A&M, the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group and Mercury Records.

Brown adds that “more is coming” and Anonymous-aligned hacktivists are pursuing a joint effort with others to “damage campaign raising abilities of remaining Democrats who support SOPA.”

Although many members of Congress have just this week changed their stance on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, the raid on Megaupload Thursday proved that the feds don’t need SOPA or its sister legislation, PIPA, in order to pose a threat to the Web.

Brown adds that operatives involved in the project will use an “experimental campaign” and search engine optimization techniques “whereby to forever saddle some of these congressmen with their record on this issue.”


Anonymous downs government, music industry sites in largest attack ever — RT


also other stories at this link

http://rt.com/usa/news/