The Energon Pub

4chan.org took a unique approach by blacking out the text that people post.

http://boards.4chan.org/tv/res/20534923#20534923

i just went direct and black out my whole site and replaced it with a stop sopa image..clicdev has also taken the initiative and done the same to all their forums as well..

Seibertron wrote:4chan.org took a unique approach by blacking out the text that people post.

http://boards.4chan.org/tv/res/20534923#20534923

I think everything 4chan does can be classed as 'unique'

Seibertron wrote:Nice to see fellow Transformers fansites TFormers.com and Allspark.com join the battle as well. Allspark.com is redirecting everyone from their domain to sopastrike.com.

YouTube personality Optibotimus shut his YouTube account down for the day. http://www.youtube.com/optibotimus

Kudos to everyone who does their part to bring attention to this issue!

I said this via tweet...but i wanted to say it again. I really do appreciate all the support i'm getting in doing this. Especially from you and Seibertron. I decided to do this a couple days ago and felt i would be the only one "standing up" in protest. So many people talk about how SOPA and such are bad for everyone...yet don't seem to want to actually do anything about it. I know i'm a small person and nothing i do will probably amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things. But if i can "inconvenience" someone by turning off my content on youtube, maybe it'll help raise awareness. I really felt alone in this. Seeing other sites and other respected people doing this, especially in our community..really really made me feel good. Reading the tweet i got from Seibertron this morning, instantly made me feel proud of what i was doing. Thank you guys! Another friend of mine said i was being courageous for doing this...someone else strongly disagreed. But...isn't standing up for something you believe in, regardless if it makes a difference or not, something that takes courage?

optibotimus wrote:I said this via tweet...but i wanted to say it again. I really do appreciate all the support i'm getting in doing this. Especially from you and Seibertron. I decided to do this a couple days ago and felt i would be the only one "standing up" in protest.

We've been debating/discussing on how to handle this situation on Seibertron.com since November. I wanted to wait until I heard if there was going to be an organized protest. I knew the legislation would have too large of an impact for the big sites to not do anything.

Fellow Seibertronian staff members Dead_Metal and Psychout were both very influential into what I did with the site. I was very moved that two foreign staff members from the other side of the pond were so passionate about legislation in our country. That really said something to me about how serious this issue was ... and that I needed to do something.

optibotimus wrote:So many people talk about how SOPA and such are bad for everyone...yet don't seem to want to actually do anything about it. I know i'm a small person and nothing i do will probably amount to a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things. But if i can "inconvenience" someone by turning off my content on youtube, maybe it'll help raise awareness. I really felt alone in this. Seeing other sites and other respected people doing this, especially in our community..really really made me feel good. Reading the tweet i got from Seibertron this morning, instantly made me feel proud of what i was doing. Thank you guys! Another friend of mine said i was being courageous for doing this...someone else strongly disagreed. But...isn't standing up for something you believe in, regardless if it makes a difference or not, something that takes courage?

Just tell yourself this ... one Egyptian alone was unable to build the pyramids, but when they worked together they were able to build some of most beautiful structures in the entire world. Together, united, we can do greatness.

Seibertron wrote:Just tell yourself this ... one Egyptian alone was unable to build the pyramids, but when they worked together they were able to build some of most beautiful structures in the entire world. Together, united, we can do greatness.

No! Incorrect! We obviously need help from the Predators on this. They need to get into senate and then turn on their self-des-... you know what, nevermind.

http://lifeaftersopa.cheezburger.com/

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3261:

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/sh ... stcount=11


Archamedes
Junior Member



Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 149

Welcome to the World Wide Web of America... Where we control what you say, what you post, what you think, what you can download, what you are allowed to see online & what we think you can write on facebook.

Not an american Citizen you say? Don't worry, we have control of your rights too, even if your countries rights are controlled differently to ours. If you are online you ARE on American soil.

To Hans in Germany we had to delete your facebook post about calling your mother a ****** **** of ***** suck ***** because it is hurtful to other peoples feelings.

To mr Chan In Burhma we could not allow your email to arrive to your intended sender as you claimed you are living in a poor state of affairs with war happening in your country and saying America should come and liberate you is not your right to say online. America decides who it goes to war with and your comments breach the World Wide Web of Americas policy of censorship.
Last edited by Archamedes; Yesterday at 08:17 AM.



i like that post

This is just terrible....SOPA is the equivalent of curing a headache with a guillotine. It may stop piracy, but it would shut down our economy and unconstitutionally erode our most basic freedoms in the process.

I just hope that everyone realizes how important this is and does their part to save the internet & our economy! ...here is another good video that explains the consequences of SOPA pretty well:
http://www.peeje.com/peeje-goes-strike-stop-web-censorship-bills-congress-209/

1,000s of more websites have joined the force and went dark today, we need EVERYONES help!!!!

While I don't go actively looking for info on US Law-making I still find it hard to believe that the first place I heard of these proposed legislations was on a fan site for toys! My Thanks to Ryan and the Seibertron crew for the information on this and for the link to the Outside US Petition.

It's a pity Google seem to have limited their 'blackout' to Google.Com, the UK site is business as usual, they missed an opportunity to give more publicity to this outside the US I feel.

Keep up the good work!

Don't have to ask me twice.

Just tell yourself this ... one Egyptian alone was unable to build the pyramids, but when they worked together they were able to build some of most beautiful structures in the entire world. Together, united, we can do greatness.

wow someone doesnt have an education....

the pyramids were made by egyptians using SLAVES (mostly jewish slaves and poor people) and very VERY large whips with barbs on them. Dont go thinking the pyramids were built out of nice-ness. When you look at a pyramid remember ALOT of people died making those things and all those people who made it were mainly forced

Its even in the bible about how harsh egyptians were, theres a whole bit on it - parting of red sea? that lot who ran away? mostly ended up suffering in the deserts onces they actually managed to get away?

Well done, completely missed the point there...




Anyway, on a lighter note, it would appear http://www.eyebleach.com are also joining the SOPA protest

Swindle01 wrote:

Just tell yourself this ... one Egyptian alone was unable to build the pyramids, but when they worked together they were able to build some of most beautiful structures in the entire world. Together, united, we can do greatness.

wow someone doesnt have an education....

the pyramids were made by egyptians using SLAVES (mostly jewish slaves and poor people) and very VERY large whips with barbs on them. Dont go thinking the pyramids were built out of nice-ness. When you look at a pyramid remember ALOT of people died making those things and all those people who made it were mainly forced

Its even in the bible about how harsh egyptians were, theres a whole bit on it - parting of red sea? that lot who ran away? mostly ended up suffering in the deserts onces they actually managed to get away?

Dude, you don't have to be a smartass about it. It's just a figure of speech, which I thought made a good explanation of what our goal is.

And if you wanna get picky, the Egyptians actually didn't use slaves, but rather a labour force that were treated fairly well, given food and water, and were not forced barbarically to do the Egyptians bidding. It was just ancient employment. Also:
"Contrary to some popular depictions, the pyramid builders were not slaves or foreigners. Excavated skeletons show that they were Egyptians who lived in villages developed and overseen by the pharaoh's supervisors."
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html

Swindle01 wrote:

Just tell yourself this ... one Egyptian alone was unable to build the pyramids, but when they worked together they were able to build some of most beautiful structures in the entire world. Together, united, we can do greatness.

wow someone doesnt have an education....

the pyramids were made by egyptians using SLAVES (mostly jewish slaves and poor people) and very VERY large whips with barbs on them. Dont go thinking the pyramids were built out of nice-ness. When you look at a pyramid remember ALOT of people died making those things and all those people who made it were mainly forced

Its even in the bible about how harsh egyptians were, theres a whole bit on it - parting of red sea? that lot who ran away? mostly ended up suffering in the deserts onces they actually managed to get away?

You missed the point of what I was saying. Either way, please keep this topic on track about SOPA, PIPA, etc. Thanks.

Swindle01 wrote:

Just tell yourself this ... one Egyptian alone was unable to build the pyramids, but when they worked together they were able to build some of most beautiful structures in the entire world. Together, united, we can do greatness.

wow someone doesnt have an education...

the pyramids were made by egyptians using SLAVES (mostly jewish slaves and poor people) and very VERY large whips with barbs on them. Dont go thinking the pyramids were built out of nice-ness. When you look at a pyramid remember ALOT of people died making those things and all those people who made it were mainly forced

Its even in the bible about how harsh egyptians were, theres a whole bit on it - parting of red sea? that lot who ran away? mostly ended up suffering in the deserts onces they actually managed to get away?

I didn't realize that a quote which referenced one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world would become controversial on some level. Many sources, including National Geographic and other experts in the field, state that recent findings show the exact opposite.

From Wikipedia: "The Greeks believed that slave labour was used, but modern discoveries made at nearby worker's camps associated with construction at Giza suggest it was built instead by tens of thousands of skilled workers. Verner posited that the labor was organized into a hierarchy, consisting of two gangs of 100,000 men, divided into five zaa or phyle of 20,000 men each, which may have been further divided according to the skills of the workers"

From National Geographic: "Contrary to some popular depictions, the pyramid builders were not slaves or foreigners. Excavated skeletons show that they were Egyptians who lived in villages developed and overseen by the pharaoh's supervisors."

Skeptoid.com does a pretty good job of debunking this religious based Sunday school myth.

Back on topic, did you all know that SOPA was shelved by its sponsor, most likely due to these protests and opposition by the White House over the weekend?

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/16/1457237/house-kills-sopa

That just leaves PIPA. And SOPA in another form is quite likely. I did write my congresspeople, which I have not often done. I also spread the word through my FaceBook page, even though I use that primarily for educational purposes. (I am IT Faculty for a college.) Even though SOPA is dead, we should not relax until PIPA suffers the same fate. Too often the Govn't sacrifices liberties of law abiding citizens to get at the criminals who are not going to pay attention to the law anyway.

Unfortunately, results of the blackout notwithstanding, SOPA is still a possibility, as it is returning for discussion again in Feb

This was announced yesterday, but considering the number of senators tha have bailed on PIPA (13 by the last count on Reddit) and the sheer mountain of coverage this has got so far, it's difficult to see how either of them can continue, but it's not like Hollywood is good at picking up on subtleties...

I find it vulgar that certain senators and representatives are speaking out against the blackout by arguing that these sites are denying their services to their users. That it is an "abuse of power". That it's punishing users and turning them into corporate pawns, so says former Senator Chris Dodd... chairman of the MIAA, who is calling it "irresponsible".

Seriously, didn't you people all know that we should take our medicine and go lie down like good little sheep? They obviously know what's best for all of us.


I find it distasteful that I had to go to the BBC News site to read decent coverage of these events. I feel like our media is rolling over and playing dead in comparison. CNN is far more underwhelming in comparison to the BBC articles. Instead they make sure to announce that they are a Time Warner owned company, with TW supporting the bills.

This...is scary.

It's long winded, he's annoying, but he has proof to back up his accusations and it's a very interesting piece.

As the Internet slowly returns to normal and the dust settles, are there any sites that you guys think deserve a special mention for going over and beyond the call?

I'll collect a few links to images and sites in a bit, but if there are any that made you guys really think about what we are doing, please feel free to tell us about it!

Special thanks to Ryan for putting the protest page up here, and to the other fansites who took part. This was a day about spreading the word and thanks to that page, Seibertrons many many visitors hopefully now know exactly how bad for the internet these bills are.

Thank you all for doing your part, but we're not done yet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16642369

BBC brings up a very good note on the bottom of this, oddly enough this shut down could hurt SOPA/PIPA even more.

So Megaupload is gone.

The US government can just waltz into New Zealand and arrest the sites owners, shutting down a Hong Kong based company with a ludicrous amount of financial losses as the 'reason'.
The same thing happened to a UK student about a week ago, he's currently fighting extradition charges. Due to the 'roll over for your masters'-style extradition treaty we have with the US it's pretty likely that he'll be on a plane shortly too.

Makes you wonder what the point of the whole SOPA/PIPA debate when the US will just do whatever the **** it wants regardless. This is the just the tip of the iceberg, when the MPAA get to dictate who is arrested across 9 countries based on hypothetical losses then you know the end is nigh.

I'll be following the fallout from this, there will be a lot of very pissed off legal Megaupload customers wanting their files back, and an Internet full of people who will find this abhorrent and will want to act. Let's hope it's begun before 4chan becomes a casualty - the fallout from that will be catastrophic, and not just for the internet.

I was coming to post about the Megaupload thing as well. Did you see Anonymous' response? Shutting down the DOJ MPAA & RIAA websites? I do believe this is going to be the "call to arms" that most people have been waiting for. Considering the "ethics" of some of the hackers out there, I almost feel bad for what these people will probably end up going through. Almost.

Not surprised about Megaupload. Curious to hear more about it.

Just remember ... we weren't advocating stopping the US government from stopping known piracy websites. We were advocating against stopping SOPA and PIPA which could hurt all sites. If the government wants to legally go after sites that are havens for pirated music, movies, etc ... they can have at it and they should have at it.