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Internet Freedom Day: How Massive ‘Blackout’ Protests Killed Two Anti-Piracy Bills


shamu726

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Five years ago today the Internet went on strike to fight SOPA and PIPA, two anti-piracy bills. As part of the historic protests tech giants such as Google and Wikipedia stood by many smaller players in a massive "Internet blackout," which helped to defeat the bills. Since then, January 18 has become known online as "Internet Freedom Day."

internetfreedomsopa

 

At the start of the decade several new bills were introduced in the United States, aiming to make it easier for copyright holders to enforce their rights online.

 

The proposals, including SOPA and PIPA, would’ve streamlined the shutting down of allegedly infringing domain names and threatened to increase liability for third party services, among other things.

 

Fearing broad Internet censorship, the proposals ignited a wave of protests led by various activist groups. But, what started as a small protest movement was swiftly elevated to mainstream news, when tech giants such as Google and Wikipedia joined in.

 

Exactly five years ago, following months of scattered protests, the opposition peaked into a massive Internet blackout campaign.

 

As a result, the balance of power tipped and Hollywood and the music industry were forced into retreat. Soon after the blackout, both bills were declared dead, a victory which is still frequently referenced today.

 

A year after the succesfull blackout campaign, January 18 was declared Internet Freedom Day. While the first celebration attracted international news headlines, it’s now become a relatively small event.

 

Still, many of the concerns that were brought up half a decade ago remain relevant today. Site blocking efforts and domain name seizures are still high on the agenda, and the same is true for search engine ‘censorship’ and liability for ISPs and other third party services.

 

What has changed is that, instead of tackling these issues through legislation, rightsholders are now focusing on individual lawsuits and voluntary agreements.

 

This means that for activists, Internet Freedom Day could still be relevant now, both as a remembrance and as a call to action. In any case, it’s worth noting that without the protests things could have been very different today.

 

Below are a few of the many ‘blackout’ pages that were up (or down) five years ago.

 

Wikipedia

Wikipedia was completely inaccessible for 24 hours, except the pages about censorship, PIPA and SOPA, of course.

 

wikipedia-strike.jpg
 
 

Google

Google blacked out its logo to protest PIPA/SOPA and added a link to a resource page where people could take action.

 

google strike
 
 

Reddit

Reddit directed its users to a resource site where they could take action.

 
 

Imgur

The image sharing site Imgur offered information on the protests as well as steps to take action.

 

imgurprotest
 
 

Demonoid

Demonoid, one of the largest BitTorrent communities at the time, went dark completely, with a nice spotlight effect.

 

demonid
 
 

Firefox

Firefox users were welcomed with a dark themed default homepage, alerting people about the looming PIPA/SOPA threats.

 

firefox-strike.jpg

 

 

Craigslist

The online classified advertisements portal Craigslist directed the public to a resource site where they could take action.

 

craigslist-blackout
 
 

WordPress

WordPress joined the protest too, and decided to censor itself for the day.

 

wordpress
 
 

Minecraft

Minecraft protested as well, but in red with the tagline “PIPA & SOPA, How About NOPA.”

 

pipa
 
 

TorrentFreak

Yes, we also took part, giving readers the option to save the Internet, or… Meh…

 

torrentfreak-blackout
 
 

Source: TorrentFreak

 
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Remind us of what?  that  USA owned Google  gave good results  for piracy back then and today the mppa and riaa owns them and they remove sites from there search results everyday. Google needs to remember why they became the #1 search engine starting in 2008 it was because Yahoo didn't give good results and now Google dont give good results.  Also isp's  sends out warnings  to p2p users and many countries  have blockades  what a joke there censoring the internet with even having to pass any  Anti-Piracy bill in the USA  because every other country has passed them almost and works for Hollywood !

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1 hour ago, 46&2 said:

:think:

I remember when it happened i dont need reminded  of  it and what good did it do.?  Google protested against it so they could keep getting paid for ads and posting what they want too and in 2017 they have removed most  piracy results from there search . Google are known prism actors and when ever they protest anything its to make them richer they never do it for the common user. People are naive too think that companies  that harvest you're data and sell it care about you're internet freedom they only care about making money off you. The 1st 6 years i was on the internet i didn't use Google or most of those sites above so i would live if  money hoarders didn't exist today.

 

Back when all these companies was protesting  Sopa most  people had no idea that these very sites were in bed with the Government this was before Snowden exposed them . people didn't know then what they know now . Some people still chose to ignore the truth and make like this had not been going on is all.

 

All public p2p is a big trap for governments and  Anti-Piracy trolls too monitor you  and  whats so free about having to hide behind a VPN  ?  i been hiding behind one every since they tired to pass these laws and the internet is less free than it ever was .It's too late and there's no use celebrating  something that dont exist . I talk too people all the time who refuse too use P2P at  all because of fear of losing freedom in real life  . All this crap the Government , Hollywood and tech giants have done too the internet has caused many  people to censor themselves  and caused self censorship  and most of it happened in the last 6 years how free is that ?

 

I  always made a living with my hands  and i have no sympathy for these keyboard pushing tech giants who never done a hard days work in there life and if they want too slow down Piracy in the USA  they need to bring the jobs back from overseas were people will have so much money to spend on entertainment. Now days people are lucky to have food and a warm place to sleep .

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knowledge-Spammer

soon facebook will block what it say is fake news  but who says whats fake nowdays ? facebook will remove and block videos soon   good job i not use facebook

 

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9 hours ago, knowledge said:

soon facebook will block what it say is fake news  but who says whats fake nowdays ? facebook will remove and block videos soon   good job i not use facebook

You can thank Obama  for that one  this is one the last laws he made  were if the news is not from the USA  there going say it's fake if they dont agree with it  ..they say its too stop the flood of fake propaganda  in the USA  it could even happen too YouTube  if the Govt  says its fake  by law they will have take it down or block usa  viewers from seeing it ..

 

Using Holidays as a Distraction, Obama Just Signed NDAA ‘Propaganda’ Provision to Destroy Free Press

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/distraction-obama-propaganda-provision-law/

 

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knowledge-Spammer
57 minutes ago, steven36 said:

You can thank Obama  for that one  this is one the last laws he made  were if the news is not from the USA  there going say it's fake if they dont agree with it  ..they say its too stop the flood of fake propaganda  in the USA  it could even happen too YouTube  if the Govt  says its fake  by law they will have take it down or block usa  viewers from seeing it ..

 

Using Holidays as a Distraction, Obama Just Signed NDAA ‘Propaganda’ Provision to Destroy Free Press


http://thefreethoughtproject.com/distraction-obama-propaganda-provision-law/

 

but RT is not fake and is going to be banned or blocked from facebook ?

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16 minutes ago, knowledge said:

but RT is not fake and is going to be banned or blocked from facebook ?

I'm not the USA Government  go tell that too them . RT news showed  up in that report that was sent too Obama and Trump,

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knowledge-Spammer
2 minutes ago, steven36 said:

I'm not the USA Government  go tell that too them . RT news showed  up in that report that was sent too Obama and Trump,

ill have putin talk with Trump  

little joke:D

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2 hours ago, knowledge said:

ill have putin talk with Trump  

little joke:D

Facebook hired  a guy from CNN to be over the news ..CNN are the liberal press  
 

The UK  are going to go after these platforms as well.

Quote

 

Social media platforms could face “fake news” questions from MPs

Should social media be doing more to tackle the issue?

Bosses of some of the major social media platforms could face questions from MPs as to whether they are doing enough to tackle against “fake news”.

Executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter are being targeted by the Commons Culture Committee over a possible inquiry into the spread of untrue news stories.

 

The Sunday Telegraph reported that the committee could be starting a formal inquiry and could begin to hold sessions by the start of the Summer.

Damian Collins, chairman of the cross-party committee of MPs, told the paper: “Some fake news is presented to look like real news coming from real news websites,”

“It can be difficult to distinguish between them.”

“The concern is a fake story can get out and be distributed on the internet and become the received wisdom before the truth can get out.”

“The truth is always trying to catch up with a fake news story.”'

 

http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/tech/social-media-platforms-could-face-fake-news-questions-from-mps/13626.article

It's not just the USA  that say Russian News is fake  ...Now  Sweden  says Russian news is fake as well.

This from the Sweden News

Russia spreading fake news and forged docs in Sweden: report

http://www.thelocal.se/20170107/swedish-think-tank-details-russian-disinformation-in-new-study

All the Presidents  since Putin has been  in office  have wanted to be his friend  when they frist get in it would be a great   achievement for them,  starting with Bill Clinton then  Bush , and Obama all wanted to befriend him and they had disagreements and falling outs soon after they got in office  and it would be a shock if Trump's relationship don't sour soon with  Putin soon. I want believe it is real tell i see real progress .The proof is in the pudding ..So i would not get my hopes up. My source on this info is a member of Trump's transition team.  What makes you think Trump will be different?   Putin seems to not make friends  easy.

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Check this out  if you're using  Google with a  EU IP  some results are now removed  this is using Encrypted  Google English only,  So Google is censoring what you can see in the EU. if you use a non EU IP Google gives different results.

 

SBsP33s.png

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knowledge-Spammer
12 hours ago, steven36 said:

Facebook hired  a guy from CNN to be over the news ..CNN are the liberal press  
 

The UK  are going to go after these platforms as well.


http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/business-news/tech/social-media-platforms-could-face-fake-news-questions-from-mps/13626.article

It's not just the USA  that say Russian News is fake  ...Now  Sweden  says Russian news is fake as well.

This from the Sweden News

Russia spreading fake news and forged docs in Sweden: report


http://www.thelocal.se/20170107/swedish-think-tank-details-russian-disinformation-in-new-study

All the Presidents  since Putin has been  in office  have wanted to be his friend  when they frist get in it would be a great   achievement for them,  starting with Bill Clinton then  Bush , and Obama all wanted to befriend him and they had disagreements and falling outs soon after they got in office  and it would be a shock if Trump's relationship don't sour soon with  Putin soon. I want believe it is real tell i see real progress .The proof is in the pudding ..So i would not get my hopes up. My source on this info is a member of Trump's transition team.  What makes you think Trump will be different?   Putin seems to not make friends  easy.

Putin seems to not make friends  easy.

whats easy nowdays  much hate  make things hard  but i can say putin the best  he been President more then 15years now  and look at usa Presidents   3 or 4 in the time putin been Presidents  

putin can make freinds but the people like to  dis him all the time  so its hard to be friends with people if they think is he like what the usa gov say its all lies

but i like to say  RT  have been about for long time i think 10years  and now they say its fake news ?

 

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