Help Protect the Internet - Take a quick look here, Secundi peeps!

[Ryuukokoro]

Ryuu is not someone who usually jumps into the political arguments that constantly spring up in our country, but for this particular topic, I'm trying to spread the word and get some help.

You may or may not have heard of SOPA - it's a bill that some people with a lot of money are trying to push through congress. It is a very unfair bill, and a lot of websites are speaking out against it. From what I understand of it, it gives big business the right to claim any website (even Facebook pages, youtube pages, etc.) is infringing on their copyright, and the website they are accusing can be taken down very easily with very little proof.

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. Now, I agree that online piracy is a problem. (Heck I know a few websites I can go to right now and download movies for free that are currently in the movie theaters. o.0 ) But this particular bill is not the answer to online piracy. It's just a way for big businesses to wave a magic wand and get whatever they want. (Most of the biggest offending websites are hosted on oversees servers anyway.)

Wikipedia and Google are speaking out against this bill. If you go to Wikipedia today, you will see that they have shut down their site for 24 hours. They're doing a voluntary blackout to show us what could happen if this bill gets passed. Just think what it would be like if Wikipedia was shut down every time a company claims that it is infringing on their copyrights?

If you go to Google you will see the logo has been blacked out (though the search engine will still work). If you click on the black bar it will let you sign an online petition against SOPA and has some more information on the bill.

A lot of the personal sites I go to every day, like the webcomics I enjoy, are also participating in this blackout. For example Dominic Deegan has blacked out his comic today. There's some links below the image, in his news feed, that you can click to learn more about the SOPA bill. Questionable Content and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, other webcomics I read, are also talking about it.
http://dominic-deegan.com/
http://questionablecontent.net/
http://www.smbc-comics.com/

I urge Secundi people to read up on the bill, get offended, and spread the word. Post a link on your Facebook or Twitter if you have it. The more people who talk about this, the more information will spread.

A lot of sites are urging you to call your local congress and senate representative and tell them you don't want them to support the bill. If that doesn't sound like something you're comfortable doing, you can at least talk about it. Tell your friends and family, post about it on your blog, etc.

I know not everyone here on Secundi is from the US, so I hope you don't mind me talking about this bill here. If this bill does get passed, many of the sites we all enjoy are going to be in jeopardy.

[Ryuukokoro]

Every day I do more research and find more bits of info about this movement. Here's a link I just found of a letter signed from the companies of AOL, Ebay, Facebook, Google, Firefox, Twitter, etc. who all wrote to Washington DC opposing the bills.

http://www.protectinnovation.com/downloads/letter.pdf

[Goddesss]

From what I understand this bill also makes site owners liable for what users post on the site.  All forums are going to be affected.  Just an example if you were to post something on secundi and someone CLAIMS yes only claims it infringes their copywrite the owners of Sucundi would be liable.

[Ryuukokoro]

That's an excellent point, Goddesss! Of course we delete all those spam ads as quick as we can, but still that means some big business could see one of those spammers post on our forum before it gets deleted, and go after Garney and/or Silvanon for being the owner/programer of the forum!

[YourLoveOnly]

I've been told in the past that all of Secundi is actually solely on Garney's name. I dunno if they were able to change that the last time Garney briefly popped back up here, but before her last appearance the site was all hers. From what I understand they can shut down secundi completely if this law passes, for example we have tons of bots selling illegal copies of things.. Like those bags and shoes that look just like designer ones but are fake, those designs have copyrights on them so if some stupid bot posts an ad for it the entire site could get shut down >_<

[Ryuukokoro]

Yeah, those spammers are definitely posting illegal things on our forums, and we don't want Garney to get her site taken down, nor do we want Secundi to disappear! >.<

I'm really hoping this movement gets enough attention of congress. I'm glad to hear you guys all seem to know about it. It means the word is getting out there! We have to let our voices be heard and inform as many people as we can. :3

[YourLoveOnly]

Yeah I saw plenty of Dutch people mention it on facebook so it's defenitely spreading around.

[Ryuukokoro]

An update for those who haven't heard, the bills SOPA and PIPA are being shelved at this time. Huzzah!

[YourLoveOnly]

Too bad there's still ACTA which is even worse..

[Ryuukokoro]

Yeah it's a never ending battle, but online corporations and individuals have a lot of voices and are willing to keep speaking up.