mark: Photo of Mark's face, taken in standard office fluorescent. (me)Mark Smith ([staff profile] mark) wrote in [site community profile] dw_news,
@ 2012-01-18 10:53 am UTC
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Hi all,

You're probably aware of the ongoing protests against SOPA/PIPA, two laws that are being considered in the United States legislature that, I believe, will fundamentally harm the Internet as we know it. Today, we have joined the ongoing protests against these laws:

http://www.dreamwidth.org/sopa

We have not completely blacked out the site. We debated it and while I believe it would provide a more accurate and stronger statement of protest, we decided not to because Dreamwidth is a platform that gives people a voice. We believe in our Guiding Principles and do not want to silence your voices, even if only temporarily.

While I won't say that we will never do that -- there certainly may come a time when it truly is the best way to protest -- we don't feel comfortable doing that right now. We'll see how the rest of the fight against SOPA/PIPA goes, though, and will keep everybody informed.

Thank you for using Dreamwidth. We truly wouldn't be anything without each of your contributions -- readers, writers, users, random passers-by, everything! I am truly honored to be working on a site like this.


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vampwillow: My little dream sheep (dreamsheep1)


[personal profile] vampwillow
2012-01-18 09:39 pm UTC (link)
Thank you for your protest page.

SOPA and PIPA are very dangerous because they avoid due process; if someone complains that you are linking to "bad content" they don't have to prove anything, just tell your domain host and/or registrar and you *will* be removed from the internet. The proposals don't even give you a right to compensation when you show this action to have been in error.

I'm in the UK, and SOPA/PIPA are explicitly targeted at "foreign websites" so please please PLEASE, if you are in the USA contact your Congress and Senate representatives today. Tell them this is not the way to do it.

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sharpiefan: Picure of a sunset (Sunset)


[personal profile] sharpiefan
2012-01-18 09:44 pm UTC (link)
There is a petition that allows non-US citizens to sign it, though whether we'll have as much weight as American citizens remains to be seen...

http://americancensorship.org/

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swordznsorcery: (xenon)


[personal profile] swordznsorcery
2012-01-18 10:57 pm UTC (link)
Thanks for that link. I can't see any way for non-US citizens to sign, though? I guess it must be there if you've signed it, so I must be missing something. It wants a zip code, though, and I don't want to risk invalidating it by filling it in falsely.

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sharpiefan: Fleet of tall ships, text 'England expects...' (England expects)


[personal profile] sharpiefan
2012-01-18 11:01 pm UTC (link)
There's two US ones but if you scroll down, there's an area with a box that says Not in the US?

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swordznsorcery: (methos)


[personal profile] swordznsorcery
2012-01-18 11:15 pm UTC (link)
Thank you for that. It's very strange, but that section wasn't there in Firefox. I couldn't find it until I tried Chrome instead! The site is experiencing issues though (hopefully due to lots of people signing), so that might be something to do with it.

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sharpiefan: Fleet of tall ships, text 'England expects...' (England expects)


[personal profile] sharpiefan
2012-01-18 11:17 pm UTC (link)
How strange - I'm using Firefox.

I hope it was because they're having a lot of people signing it, as you say.

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sara: American flag (flag)


[personal profile] sara
2012-01-19 04:20 am UTC (link)
My suspicion is that in a Republican-dominated Congress, international protest against something...is going to encourage them to do more of it.

I mean, I'd like to be wrong. But I think major corporations coming out against this one is a lot more likely to shut it down.

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pieces: audrey tautou as amelie poulain in 'film' ([amelie] pin)


[personal profile] pieces
2012-01-21 11:40 am UTC (link)
Thanks for sharing this link! I've signed this (non-US citizen) and informed others about this link too :)

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