Thursday 01/19/2012 by pzerbo

SOPA + PIPA PROTESTS

As most of you are aware, yesterday, Wednesday, January 18, 2012, witnessed the largest protest in the relatively short history of the Internet. Phish.net joined the massive protests against SOPA (H.R. 3261) and PIPA (S.968) by going dark for 24 hours. Yesterday, many of you exercised your civil rights and responsibilities and made your views known by contacting your representatives. As we return to live service, we'd like to take this opportunity to remind all of our users that democracy is something that happens every day. To learn more about phish.net's participation in this protest, please visit Hidden Track's interview with the phish.net and Mockingbird Foundation director of technology, Adam Scheinberg.

Welcome back!

If you liked this blog post, one way you could "like" it is to make a donation to The Mockingbird Foundation, the sponsor of Phish.net. Support music education for children, and you just might change the world.


Comments

, comment by dyn0mite
dyn0mite I support phish.net supporting the blackout.

side rant....US laws should not govern the internet...a worldwide network
, comment by eeonbeeon
eeonbeeon I agree with dyn0mite.

I actually wrote a lengthy note to my appropriate congressmen.
I'm on this site every single day, and phish.net has my constant support.
To think that any government or overseer could ever have any say in how a place like this operates appalls me, and I will do what it takes to never let that happen.

Thanks for all you do!
, comment by fry1077
fry1077 If SOPA or PIPA become laws we all need to create our own internet... with black jack and hookers!
, comment by MostlyHarmless
MostlyHarmless How can anyone control such a huge network of pipes and tubes?
, comment by forbin1
forbin1 originally thought the site was hacked...glad .net is back...and +1 for a good cause
, comment by fry1077
fry1077 Also, I for one thought that the Phish.net black-out looked way better, and more flashier, than the wikipedia one. I did not really see any other sites with the black-out so I cannot comment on those. I just wish google had participated more in it. Of course that would just mean everyone would actually use Yahoo for a change.
, comment by switz
switz @dyn0mite said:
I support phish.net supporting the blackout.

side rant....US laws should not govern the internet...a worldwide network
There are already plenty of U.S. laws that govern the internet. Think about it. There are laws that do good for the internet. Unfortunately SOPA and PIPA would be very negative to the internet. They would stop very little piracy and put the badges of the internet in the large corporations.
, comment by TheEmu
TheEmu **applause**
Nice job, guys! @sethadam1 is the man!
, comment by Kurtzboy
Kurtzboy I support this cause, but I missed you guys. Nice to be back.
, comment by ColForbin
ColForbin I wasn't involved in the decision to black out Phish.net, but I wholeheartedly supported it.

I wrote to my reps in DC and 2 of the 3 I wrote to have come out against SOPA/PIPA when they hadn't been before. Oddly enough it was the 2 Republicans who did, I am very disappointed in my Democratic Senator right now and she will be hearing from me again if she doesn't announce something soon.

[Just so you guys know, @sethadam1 was very serious about this blackout - I tried to get to the admin tools to do some behind the scenes work yesterday and I was locked out there too!]
, comment by YorkvilleBeerLover
YorkvilleBeerLover i did my part but really missed .net
, comment by jackl
jackl Wrote my reps too. Was very disappointed that my Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who I had campaigned for and donated to as a congresswoman supported PIPA, as well as other Senators I generally respect, like Pat Leahy from VT, who generally seems like a good guy. Guess that's the power of money and lobbying (and also not having technically competent staff that doesn't really get into the techie details of some of these bills as much as they should and is surprised when there's an outcry). Hope the protest changed their minds!

One thing users of Phish.net know is that we are already vigilant about enforcing copyright laws and protecting rightsholders. Our site's Terms of Use prohibit posting copyrighted materials (like pirate links to LivePhish.com soundboards, as opposed to band allowed audience recordings). We request (and receive) permission to sometimes reproduce Phish’s copyrighted photos and videos. When we do, we properly display their ©.

Anyone who has tried to post links to copyrighted materials in the forum for instance knows that admins (and users!) enforce the ToU with thumbs down and calling out violators.

While we don’t think Phish would ride roughshod over ToU enforcement in a SOPA/PIPA world, the same cannot be said for many other corporations. We know the RIAA and MPAA have tried to sue individual users, sometimes children, over downloading pirate materials. In countries like China and Russia (as well as here with WikiLeaks), the copyright laws are sometimes used to quash political dissent, by forcing payment processors or advertisers not to use a site, or jailing dissidents who have unlicensed copies of software like Microsoft Word on their hard drives, as a pretext.

We already have tools to go after piracy, which is less of a problem anyway with subscription service models like iTunes, Spotify and Netflix. SOPA/PIPA is a sledgehammer approach to kill a fly, and anyone who thinks folks like the RIAA and MPAA should just be able to shut down entire websites on their say-so without notice and opportunity for the sites to respond is advocating for a world like George Orwell would have imagined in 1984.

, comment by HotPale
HotPale ColForbin wrote, "I wrote to my reps in DC and 2 of the 3 I wrote to have come out against SOPA/PIPA when they hadn't been before. Oddly enough it was the 2 Republicans who did, I am very disappointed in my Democratic Senator right now and she will be hearing from me again if she doesn't announce something soon."

Historically Republicans support less govt. regulation and a smaller govt. so it seems to make sense to me; however, I do agree with most of what you wrote. When I tried to write to my CO Senators the links to their emails were conveniently not working the last couple of days. Props to phish.net for doing the right thing!
, comment by Dundun
Dundun Big kudos to zachstronaut for the template and the phish.net guys for going through with the protest.

It's great that it got so many senators (10 - 13) to change their stance on the bill. At the same time, it's pathetic that so many senators put their support behind bills that they didn't understand.

You must be logged in to post a comment.
Support Phish.net & Mbird
Fun with Setlists
Check our Phish setlists and sideshow setlists!
Phish News
Subscribe to Phish-News for exclusive info while on tour!


Phish.net

Phish.net is a non-commercial project run by Phish fans and for Phish fans under the auspices of the all-volunteer, non-profit Mockingbird Foundation.

This project serves to compile, preserve, and protect encyclopedic information about Phish and their music.

Credits | Terms Of Use | Legal | DMCA

© 1990-2024  The Mockingbird Foundation, Inc. | Hosted by Linode