Stop The Internet Blacklist Legislation

It doesn’t take much imagination at all to see what a horrible effect this censorship could have on sites like Hackaday. Please do your part to stop internet censorship.

Imagine how many companies would rather us not share with you how our brilliant readers have hacked their hardware to do bigger and better things than they were sold to do. Sites like Hackaday would not survive this censorship.

 

 

210 thoughts on “Stop The Internet Blacklist Legislation

      1. That, and we’re Hack a Day.

        Seriously, this is important. If you’re in the US, call your senators and congressmen. Tell them you’re calling about H.R.3261 “Stop Online Piracy Act” (the house bill) or S.968 “PROTECT IP” (the senate bill). If you’re outside the US, donate to the EFF.

        You can bet if SOPA or PIPA are signed into law, Hack a Day would be one of the first casualties. The first time we put up a post on someone hacking a Kindle or an Android tablet, we’re done. Hack a Day would not exist.

        Despite rumors of its imminent demise, SOPA has not been shelved. Do your part, call it a democracy hack, and tell Congress that this would destroy the Internet.

      2. Social hack: someone get the names of all the Senators and Representatives who are supporting the bills(there’s a list of the Representatives on Wikipedia). Post them here. A third of those guys are up for re-election this year, another third in 2 years.

        Do the same once the bill is actually voted on.

        There are a good 40 Senators and 13 Representatives whose careers we can end RIGHT NOW.

      3. @Th3badwolf: Legally, the senators/representatives can receive campaign donations from corporations or lobbyists. This campaign money helps ensure the congress-critter is then re-elected.

        Illegally, lobbyists do sometimes give cash, goods or services as bribes. The common way is to undercharge for such things as home renovations.

        Altogether, since money is fungible and the congress-critter would be putting personal money into their campaign if they didn’t get donations from supporters it’s effectively legal bribery. This was one of the sticking points behind the Occupy movement.

      4. @Phillipe – big companies with often faked brands think SOPA / PIPA are good because it gives them a quick easy way to have whole websites shut down.

        There’s little (no?) judicial oversight, and plenty of room for abuse. Just as existing DMCA laws are abused (Fair Use has been eroded (is pretty much not possible on YouTube anymore) or people illegally issuing take down notices for things they have no copyrights to, etc etc).

    1. Most likely, for the same reason slashdot is not blacked out. Many of us ARE already aware of SOPA. It wouldn’t do much good in raising awareness. Which is what wikipedia is doing.

      Wikipedia is making this world wide news. Which is good. HAD cannot make world wide news, so an article is fine.

      1. If it gets passed – can’t you just simply move HaD servers to another country?
        And if it gets passed – won’t we find a way (like thor but faster) to just go on like before?

      2. Yes polsa, HaD could move to another country, and then the US ISP’s will be forced to block it and google to not show it in search results that’s part of SOPA.

        So you might think ‘well at least the rest of the world has HaD then, but unfortunately the US sets the standard in how far politicians can push fascist/dictatorial laws and if the US does things like that then the rest of the world follows, and it already started, several countries block sites in europe already and several ministers seem eager to sign ACTA and such.

        So then all HaD can do is start a site in china, and maybe russia for the chinese/russian people, which is bad news for us, but the good news is that there are plenty of chinese and russians :)

        P.S Maybe brazil and venezuela will allow HaD too!

      3. Whatnot: kinda, they can block the dns,but the bill doesnt allow them to filter traffic, only prevent DNS lookups, this means if hackaday has its servers off shore and for instance openDNS moves their servers off shore (as they said they would if this passed) then one could use openDNS to resolve hackaday.com to the new ip and its business as usual.

        also anyone can just add the ip to their /etc/hosts (or equivalent in windows) and boom dns resolution.
        hackaday would have articles of hacks for getting around the DNS filtering (which would also be illegal under SOPA, so that /etc/hosts thats a SOPA circumvention technology)

        there already exist firefox plugins to get around this (which may get pulled if this gets passed but i think mozilla will continue to fight it even if SOPA passes) and if they are pulled from mozilla’s market they could still be downloaded from second hand distributors and installed.

        its a poorly written bill made by people who dont understand technology to appease people who dont understand technology.

      1. Best answer yet, it’s meant to make those that aren’t aware aware and HaD is one site where upi can expect everybody to know.

        Talking of which, I checked instructables.. and not a mention as far as I can see, and they ARE a site where you can reach uninformed people (and I doubt they do like google and only show the action in the US).

        This day is also a nice moment to find out who’s a bad apple.

    1. Hey, look, it’s Occupy Comcast.

      Now here’s something that’s actually useful: a bookmarklet which removes the Wikipedia SOPA boycott nonsense and replaces it with the article content. Get it before the HaD moderators delete it!

      javascript:(function(){$(‘body%20>%20div’).show();$(‘#mw-sopaOverlay’).hide()})();

      1. Are you that much of an idiot? Wikipedia themselves said that its fine to circumvent the blackout.. See the link:

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

        see the section “Is it still possible to access Wikipedia in any way?”

        Why would hackaday remove the javascript that you posted? oh and btw.. there is a built in way, just add ?banner=none to the end of your page. i.e.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=none

      2. If you would have read the page that pops up when you click Learn More on the Wikipedia blackout page, you would have known that it’s easy to get around it and the folks at Wikipedia encourage you to do so.

      3. I think it’s pretty cheezy of Wikipedia to black out content, even if you can still get to it by disabling javascript or modifying the url. While we may understand SOPA and know how to get around javascript – no-tech people and school kids trying to do homework probably won’t. Grandma will wonder what javascript is, and would never click to read the ‘technical faq’.

        I know it’s for a good cause, but it’s stupid and takes away from the perception of it as a ‘go to’ source for info. They’d be better off just putting up a big banner – like they always have when asking for money.

        1. You’re wrong.
          This is good exactly *because* it will force the technically illiterate to consider what could happen to the internet if the legislation passes. Most of them can’t comprehend the consequences without an example like today.

          Also, if this problem were dealt with in the manner of their fund-raising campaign then we wouldn’t see anyone caring about the problem until sometime next year.

      4. Sure, turning off Javascript works. So does killing houseflies with a shotgun.

        Consider my response to the blackout merely an example of the hacker’s desire, so theoretically beloved around here, to circumvent artificial and senseless restrictions for one’s own benefit and that of others.

        Or, you know, give me shit because your politics don’t agree with mine. Whichever.

        1. No, you were right. You demonstrated a hack that goes against someones politics, which is exactly the point of protesting SOPA, right? So you should be able to protest the SOPA protest if you want.

          If we’re gonna call it free, lets be free.

      5. Its not that we disagree with your “hacker’s desire” its the way you put it saying hackaday would pull it down and this bs about this being like occupy comcast. SOPA is not the 1% bs that occupy is. This is a real threat to all websites out there.

    1. “I reject your online censorship reality and substitute my own.”

      That’s exactly the point. Well at least almost.
      SOPA can probably be used that way, though.

      I have a distaste for those who downloads GB’s of music, movies and software they really should have paid for, people have actually worked to produce those things, but I also have a distaste for going after them in a way that puts the “not guilty until proven” concept, not to mention insight, to the side, thereby opening doors for misuse and abuse.

      There are tools there now to get the pirates, albeit slower.

      I dislike the notion that the bigger part of the entertainment industry seems to see their potential customers as much as thieves as customers, even though they might be right these days. I surely hope they are wrong though.

  1. I’ve written letters to my so-called representatives in the past.

    Their replies? Most were along the line of “you didn’t vote for me, so go pound sand.” Despite that, I’ve written letters to the same corporate-lobbied ass-hats, regarding the oppression that SOPA & PIPA legislation would bring.

    I think this ‘blackout’ bandwagon is bullshit. The only thing it’s doing to ME is pissing me off and making me less likely to be more pro-active about my stance. I can fully understand the want and need to raise awareness, but please, for the love of bacon, come up with something a bit less sophomoric than “hurr durr, turn off the website.”

    1. Well if it’s going to inconvenience YOU, we shouldn’t do it.

      Seriously, a global protest action to raise awareness and get votes is sophomoric, but pouting because you have to see some black bars or miss the day’s IamA’s and deciding to be “less pro-active about your stance” is mature and intelligent? That’s some strong stance you take there.

      1. Blacking out the websites just shows a portion of what could happen if this policy gets voted in. Imagine this blackout times thousands. Many of your favorite websites could either be shutdown, seized or just too scared to run anymore for fear of lawsuits because they link to some random site that MAY or may not contain pirated content.

    2. If you think a short one day blackout is bad, just wait until SOPA passes and the government blacks the sites out permanently.

      Those of us against SOPA understand the need for a short one day blackout.
      Those who are not against SOPA are going to cause the same blackout, on more sites, for years

      Which sounds less inconvenient in the long run?

  2. i want to know why we let government do whatever they please whenever they please and then get upset when it happens. is it possible that we as a whole are so afraid of losing our complacency we that we stand idle while those in power walk all over us? something has to be done on a grand scale to reign in those money grubbing amendment violating chunks of flesh sitting on their fat behinds like voting every one of them out and starting fresh. next they will tell us we can only access the net at certain hours of the day for certain amounts of alloted time. this country is becoming a political nightmare based soley on the dollar and its value. scary but true. writing your congressman is like going to a hooker for a hug.

      1. Yeah, that’s pretty much the brunt of the problem with this whole country. No one wants to give up their pleasures for even a day, even if it will send a message that all but falcon punches the tech illiterate in the face

      2. There’s another reason why politicians get away with what they do:

        Most of those who are “aware” of looming bills like this one still play team politics, i.e., “those *&#$(@# republicans… George Bush did this, Dick Chaney did that blah blah blah,” or “those *&#$(@# democrats… Obama is a this-and-that and Bill Clinton did that blah blah blah.”

        Has anyone noticed that in the end (our end, you might say,) we’re screwed by both parties? Go ahead an go to opencongress.org as someone suggested. You’ll see both “D”‘s and “R”‘s who got big cash to support it.

        I am of the opinion that our constitutional republic form of government, based upon our God-given (not government-given) rights, is one of the best systems ever devised on this planet.

        We need to stop corrupting it by letting democrats or republicans administer it. Time for a part-time congress, term limits, mandatory expiration periods for all laws, and a few more mainstream parties, just to keep things interesting.

    1. I fear the next step is activating the hardware DRM even more.
      Smartphones now all start to use radios that send unique ID’s via apps to companies, and then netflix and such can be used since they can ID the phone and control/hardware-encrypt the stream, and microsoft says they only want windows8 on devices with UEFI with a block at hardware level against installing any other OS on that hardware, and intel also added DRM and identifiers to their latest CPU’s, for ‘premium content’.

      What it all boils down to is that soon all users can be given individual permission to visit certain sites via hardware locks, first for paid content but once the politicians realize also to block whole groups of people, same as the technology to ID your country is abused already.

    2. That’s exactly what the want to do. Control the internet and turn it into a TV like experience, where one can only consumes information – (the info they want u to see) and does not create, share, or interact or discuss anything.

      1. Remember the noobs that only knew how to use the walled-garden content with their AOL/Compuserver/Prodigy connections? And how those of us that used Usenet and the WWW laughed at them?

        I’m thinking that I2P will be a standard protocol on most desktop OSes within the next 5 years. “Haha you’re using Amerinet? Chinanet? Britanet? Dude, get on the real thing with all the cool kids by installing I2P!”
        Sadly, I could actually see them do something stupid like turning the WWW and the rest of the Internet into a mixture of AOL’s dial-up days plus cable TV and then wondering why people bypassed it.

      1. There’s a difference between stupid and unwise. Although I get this image of Beavis & Butthead on their couch in congress when I see laws like this and the ‘constitution hack’ of the 2012 NDAA’s rider. (2012 because they sign the next year’s budget ahead of time)

        I see a lot of unwise but smart decisions that are blatantly cynical and self-serving from all walks of life. Congress just happens to have the power to really screw things up. “To err is human, but to really screw up, you need a computer!” should maybe be changed to “or a congressional house or 2”.

  3. Wouldn’t mentioning the parties responsible for this bill and/or recommending a boycott of their services/products be more productive than a brief interruption of services used almost exclusively by those who are already against said bill?

    I’m not recommending one over the other. I’m just saying you’re likely better served trying to prevent it from happening again.

      1. So statistically speaking, the ‘democratic’ classification of legislators are more likely lobbied by copyright dependent companies?

        Good to know I guess. Does it matter? Nope.

        I was talking about the companies themselves. All parties (Dem/Rep/Ind) are lobbied. Don’t be so bigot minded to think this bill was the sole creation of one ‘type’ of politician. Lobbyists buy legislators of all ‘types’ simultaneously and are constantly in conflict/partnership with one another to achieve their goals. Politicians are merely inept government workers who are trying to keep their job and depend ENTIRELY on the advice of others…. who might be in it for their own gain.

      2. poe:
        no, that’s not the lobbying record, that’s the “whip count.” It’s a user-created list of the most recent support/oppose statement from all of the senators.

        Now, even if your assumption was correct, it would mean 1 of 2 things.
        1: lobbyists have targeted the politicians they think are most likely to join their cause. I haven’t done a recalculation, but at the time I checked, that was 25 democrats and 10 republicans. Lobbyists think the democrats are more likely to support their unpopular attempt to give the government a massive power grab. They’re following the money, and are not representing you. They need to be voted out.
        2: lobbyists have targeted everyone(or no-one), and only the listed senators have been swayed. That would be 25 corrupt democrats and 10 corrupt republicans. They’re corrupt. They need to be voted out.

        Either way, democrat senators are easier to buy votes from, and are supporting a huge governmental power-grab.

        Take a look at YOUR senators. See which ones supported this bill. Vote them out.

        Of course, I already voted against the guy from Colorado who supported the bill once. I look forward to doing so again.

    1. The same kind of thinking that supported the NDAA rider, will most likely vote for laws like SOPA and PIPA in the future. The representatives you should vote out since their terms end before a recall would likely have any effect. The senators need to be recalled if they have less than a year or 2 before you can vote them out. Some states don’t allow congressional recalls and there’s talk of corrupt judges trying to preempt recalls by claiming that just because they work in DC, that they’re somehow not part of the _state_ governments. That would exempt them from having to follow laws and procedures in the very states that they represent. This is the kind of legal theory that destroys a nation.

    1. Do you _REALLY_ believe that? Or, are you just trolling?

      IMO, would a HaD observer/contributor be that ignorant, or just need a refresher, on the “camel’s nose in the tent” scenario?

      Many laws “for the public good” have been interpreted[i.e. abused] by law enforcement and the courts far beyond the innocuous “this is all we ever intend to do with this law” presentation that garnered public support once they became law.

      1. xorpunk is a known troll, including kicking off the comments thread for one of the PS3 OtherOS threads by claiming, here on Hack-A-Day, that the only reason to install Linux on a PS3 is for piracy. He also claims he’s worked at multiple companies that experienced financial collapse due to piracy, so obviously he doesn’t know any effective measures to prevent it.

        He also will call you a troll if you start making convincing arguments against him, which I’ve noticed is a favored tactic of actual trolls.

      1. I said it’d enforce Darwinism on parasites with no knowledge, like you..basically

        The same idiots protesting all this are the same ones making money off the licensing that brought it into existence..

        In the words of Artie Langue: ‘Wahhhhhh’

  4. As a Canadian I find it a bitter irony that the U.S. Government, so insturmental in the creation of the internet is now doing so much to assist in its destruction, I can’t do anything to stop SOPA but I wish you guys the best of luck, and if it dosn’t work out get a non-US server.

    1. That would work except for the fact that the US Patriot Act allows the government to extend these laws to any any server, regardless of geographic location, so long as the user is in the US.

      1. The USAPATRIOT Act turned USA into a giant “1984”…

        We have it all it seems:
        Thought police, doublethink, perpetual war, war on our neighbors, etc.

        It’s tragic.
        Guess who said this:
        “that’s just one of the reasons why the establishment hopes to censor it with SOPA and PIPA”

  5. ugh, who deleted that handy javascript bookmarket to unblack wiki?

    I want to read wiki right now and its annoying to turn off/on javascript…

    what a fucking hypocritical load of shit. how can you censor that guys comment, Hack a Day?

  6. Aren’t ya’ll a little late to the game? (Better late then never, I guess.) SOPA and ProtectIP have been the on coming storm for quite a while! You would have missed the boat if these bills had been voted on in December as originally planned!!!

    And you can bet the MPAA will try to re pass this under another name, so STAY VIGILENT!

  7. Lets face it SOPA will pass in its original form or mutated one later on, corrupt bandits will resubmit this bill again and again until it finally slip. We must decentralize network more and create whole new way how data travel

    1. The hope is that if the naive mainstream becomes aware tha it then just becomes untenable to do so, because as you say it’s pretty hard to stop them with just a few.

      Perhaps another action would be to make it generally known who the MPAA are, call it ‘warnerbrothers/sony’s MPAA’ and such, because right now those big media companies pretend they are just standing on the sideline observing, when in fact the MPAA is just the thing they set up to attack in a unified group and not some 3rd entity.

  8. Why not telling the politicians how SOPA would make it rather easy to take _their_ web sites down? Just tell them what simple letter to their hoster would
    be enough. And heck, if SOPA gets somehow passed, just send the letter :) I think they will then understand.

      1. pretty typical for Therian. He’s marginally more sane than JoeBonassas, but his poor grasp of the English language leaves him somewhat harder to understand.

        Speaking of which Whatnot, I’ve gained a bit of respect for you here.

      2. Actually, it kind of makes sense in a perverse sort of way (no pun intended!). Maybe not TOR but Freenet since they seem even [i]more[/i] paranoid about security. Although as a motive, it’s unrealistic to assume that it’s the congress critter’s real reason.

        BTW: The law enforcement agencies are really upset by the trend to encourage people to start encrypting EVERYTHING on their connections. It’s making it much harder to do legal wiretaps.
        Irony=Illegal wiretaps encourage making legal wiretaps harder

        Even without encryption, most pedos are caught by behavior or their own stupidity. Funny story I read was about a guy that had his computer’s files recovered and… well you get the idea. LOL, DUH! Thank goodness they got caught before they hurt someone… And wow, I hope they never have kids.

  9. 1) you will never stop old-fasioned BBS systems unless you ban people from using the telephone if banned, see option #4
    2) the government attempting to censor the USA will be the downfall of ALL USA governmental institutions’s computer equipment
    3) … there is a “hacker’s internet” being devised, but rocket to space is a cost problem (millions of $$$)
    4) expect to see people acoustcly coupleing laptops to payphones again!!! FREE exchange of data from there to ANYWHERE (a BBS system with enough analoge tel. lines) for only 50c (payphone) no ISP,bill,credit,id,or direct 3rd party involvement required! BELL-102/103/202 ring a bell? lol no spying, no blocking, no DPI, no hackers, no bills, ANDNO NAMES! BUT PLENTY OF IDEAS AND SCHEMATICS AND UNIT REPAIRS AND SOURCEFILES AND INVENTIONS AND AND AND HARDWARE HACKING!!!!!!!!

    1. I can’t wait for those blazing fast 300 bps speeds. Anyone else remember being able to read the data as fast as it was displayed? Acoustically coupled modems are gone with the dinosaurs.

      1. VERY easy to make with AVR or PIC,,, and the meat of the program (the main loop) is only 7 lines of arduino code! at 4mhz its good, at 16mhz its flawless :D even with backround noise from being coupled to a cordless telephone handset with a mic and headphone. a bit of a rubber seal goes a long way. cheers and have fun with it. wait… let me get it

        *** CODE START ***
        invaluebyte = digitalRead(inputpin);
        if (invaluebyte == 1) {OCR1A = 3;}
        if (invaluebyte == 0) {OCR1A = 2;}
        Saa = pulseIn(readpin, HIGH);
        SDC = map(Saa, 0, 1023, 0, 7);
        //changed bit depth; close but no cigar, good enough
        if (SDC == 2) { digitalWrite(outpin, 1); }
        if (SDC == 1) { digitalWrite(outpin, 0); }
        *** CODE END ***

    2. RickRolls are technically still copyrighted, right? never gonna let you down, never gonna say goodbye, desert you! oops i forgot my proper quotes (“) ! there goes H.A.D. gone forever, and ever.

      if it is STILL copyrighted, then the obama administration is already a-fowl with their new “law”. they posted a rickroll on thier .gov website one day i forgot why but maybe it was april 1st? its is probably gone now but …..

      obama is technically a pirate and his whole site (all gov webpages) should be immeditaly shut down with no warning or judge or court order and no way to get them back…

      BECAUSE HE POSTED A RICKROLL ONE DAY AND THAT IS THE NEW RULES! ONE INFRINGEMENT (clip) AND THE WHOLE WHITEHOUSE/GOOGLE/YOUTUBE/FACEBOOK!!!!!

      ITS ALL GOING BYE BYE TOMORROW UNLESS THEY EACH PAY UP HUGE TO GET “GOVERNMENT PIRACY APPRUVAL” or some stupid shit that would be illegal if i (joe shmoe) did it!

      flood them with calls, AND email, AND regular mail
      and tomorrow do it all again, and the day after again, and on saturday again, and sunday eventhough no body works AGAIN!

      if everyone sends two letters a day in ALL THREE formats, thats how many letters and emails? maybe emailserver/postoffice/telephoneexchange overload?

      thats how many trees? screw the papermills; use direct tree logs save energy!

      fukehet, just BUY then spraypaint a giant message on a truck of TREE LOGS and send 1000 of those trucks down there, block every single road with logs and logs and logs, all spraypainted with the message. the paper is too small and pussy. but do that too. but send those trucks in with almost no gas and idle them til empty, then the cops cant “just move them” to the sidewalk XD ha!

      oh and the truck thing? paint a copyrighted POSTOFFICE logo on the trucks to enhance the message.

      1. I don’t know if India ever got around to doing it, but I once read an article about using busses (the wheeled people carrying kind) to deliver UUCP type packets to remote villages that do not have phone lines (e.g. internet capabilities) using an on bus computer. At each town it would upload and download packets and carry them on to the next village and eventually to a “hub” for sortation/processing.

        Now think of the Interstate highway system and thousands of trucks that travel those roads each day. A government attempt to “shut down The Internet” could be bypassed in a similar way.
        Truckstops could set up servers for processing,
        and the data could be transferred using thumbdrives to avoid RF detection en route.

        A quote from years ago (Larry Stohl?) said something to the effect that The Internet treats censorship like a defect and develops a route around the problem.

      2. Meh, wireless in it’s many forms will slowly make alternatives to the Internet seem feasible. Making the WWW useless by butchering DNS (and eventually even IP/TCP and then plain old IP) will make a lot of people who wouldn’t normally bother, to setup mesh networks. Of course, there’ll then be harassment of node operators probably in the name of national security or some such nonsense. It’s like those so-called “free-speech zones” that the city council of Colorado Springs refused on the grounds that they already exist thanks to the 1st amendment and aren’t just some area 5 miles from the nearest office building or radio/TV station.

  10. Is there anything in the bill regarding newsgroups?

    Look at the great firewall of China, and how that did nothing for people willing to work and defeat it. It’s not the most difficult thing to use a different DNS server. You can even tunnel your connection to have it overseas. There are companies that even provide that service. If this passes, server farms will go overseas, and a huge chunk of this economy will be gone. So much for the job creation!!

    1. YO ANNOYMOUS COULD DO THAT!

      -> without needing “political permission”!

      -> without affecting the speeds of regular users
      -> still affect the politicos while at home!

      … i bet cash they would be smart and wait til the very last minute LITERALLY so that people SEE it for what it is. unfair? censor the censors. haha

    2. acomputerdog says:
      January 18, 2012 at 2:48 pm

      now what would REALLY get people attention, albeit at a big price, would be for an ISP or 2 to SERIOUSLY drop internet speeds, specifically around the Washington area…
      Reply Report comment

      NewCommentor1283,IWILLNOTBUYONLINE says:
      January 18, 2012 at 3:00 pm

      YO ANNOYMOUS COULD DO THAT!

      -> without needing “political permission”!

      -> without affecting the speeds of regular users
      -> still affect the politicos while at home!

      … i bet cash they would be smart and wait til the very last minute LITERALLY
      so that people SEE it for what it is. unfair? censor the censors. haha

    1. I try to get people to understand this point, but they look @ me like I have 2 heads.. I don’t own or buy any of the things you mentioned, and promise you after all this shit will never purchase their warez including trying to avoid all the companies who support thees bills. (the list is on EFF I think)

    2. My phone is HTC running Android, neither company supports SOPA. My clothing is generally no-name stuff, if someone wants to advertise on my shirt they can pay me. And the music I’ve bought in the last ten years has all been smaller label and indie stuff, which I make a habit of contacting them after I buy the albums to tell them how I first came across the band’s music; youtube, torrents, whatever. And I get my movies via Netflix of whom, while I see some complaints saying they support SOPA, I can find nothing directly stating their support.

      So, no, not everyone is a consumer whore. Some people actually follow their beliefs when confronted with a choice.

      1. Cool. Unfortunately the lobbyists behind this bill are sponsored by organizations comprised of thousands of companies. Pretty much ANY company who has a notable interest in copyright law.

        For example: Just because your T-shirt doesn’t have anything printed on it doesn’t mean the manufacturer isn’t a member of these organizations. It’s very likely they have been forced to be a member because they wanted to sell copyrighted shirts as well.

        If you want to listen to music without supporting this bill, go see a live band. If you want to watch video without supporting this bill, download it illegally or watch home videos.

        Pretty much your only options at this point.

        If you want your choices to improve, push your legislators into a more transparent system.

    3. I don’t buy a lot of that stuff anyways… Marketers hate people like me who look at an iPhone and actually consider it inferior due to price for functionality. It’s just plain a bad deal when I already have 2 laptops with decently-sized screens.

      There was a $30 Net10 phone (LG320 with a full keyboard) that came bundled with a 4GB microSD card and we got 3. No contract, no $1500 phone paid over 2 years, no complicated long distance plans,… But they have a horribly stupid website. We let 1 of the 3 phones expire because we ended up not needing all of them. We can still play free Java games on it, though! Oh, did I mention that’s a radio and MP3 player and has a microSD slot? :D

    1. from now on, if you tell someone how to PROPERLY repair/redesign/upgrade/bypass/kludge a television powersupply YOU ARE NOW A CRIMINAL and the police are on thier way to STERILIZE YOUR JOHNSON AND YOUR BRAIN!

      why? how could this be piracy? well if i told u the tv thing you would be stealing the profits right out of the manu.’s pocket and using a tv for free for an extra 10 years when you only paid for a 3 year license to use the program/data/chips/eeprom/uCcode/wholeunit

      unless your prepared to get em where they got us aka digitally and of speech,,, but wait til the VERY LAST MINUTE LITTERALLY, or ull all be in jail with all the other ADD/ADHD coders who cant wait…

      ports on all computers should all be open to addresses in the same country ON THE DAY IT TAKES EFFECT …

      1. Did/does England have a television tax, and TV police that travel[ed] neighborhoods with RF sniffers to find out if a house is emitting TV frequencies and NOT on the TV Tax Paid list?

  11. acomputerdog says:
    January 18, 2012 at 2:48 pm

    now what would REALLY get people attention, albeit at a big price, would be for an ISP or 2 to SERIOUSLY drop internet speeds, specifically around the Washington area…
    Reply Report comment

    NewCommentor1283,IWILLNOTBUYONLINE says:
    January 18, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    YO ANNOYMOUS COULD DO THAT!

    -> without needing “political permission”!

    -> without affecting the speeds of regular users
    -> still affect the politicos while at home!

    … i bet cash they would be smart and wait til the very last minute LITERALLY
    so that people SEE it for what it is. unfair? censor the censors. haha

    PPS: @staff reply issue still is a bother, wish i could delete my own posts or edit them or just…

  12. Am not American Am not from Any Large Continent OR Well Known Country, But I See the Danger In This Their Are Other Countries Censored World Wide Ask Dem How It Feels , Lets ignore the mindless babbling of others and focus on the big picture here its These Big Companies Earning The Right To Say Who Gets To Be A Competitor Stuff Wont Even Need To Be Breaking A Copyright And Even So Soon It Wont Matter It Will All Just Only Be What The Government Wants You To Be Able To See Hear Or Read Say Good Bye To The Freedoms Of The Internet, The Good News Porn Would Probably Still Be Around Because Its One Of Those Big Profit Earners Why Do You Think They Got AVN And Shit Oh Yea!!

    I Think The Blackout Was A great Idea But Its not Just Good Bye To Sites Like Hack A Day Its Good Bye To Torrents And For Those Who Are Not Sure Torrent Sites Aint All About Copyrighted Cracked Software Incase You Did Not Know Even Open Source Software Uses Torrents To Allow Persons To Download Their Software……Its Better That Way Especially If You Are On The Move Alot And Have To Cancel And Then Restart Downloads But You Know Think About It And If I Were You I Would Become The Bird Shit On My Senators Black Shoe Quite The Annoyance They Would Have No Choice But To Listen….

    We Had A Similar Bill Being Passed In My Country
    But We As A People Stood Up Against It And Voted Against It Today I Am Proud To Say It Never Saw The Light Of Day…….As Many Become One Voice They Become One Of Power.

    1. i’d +1 you but unfortunately my comment never made it because it goes against the government and is thus forbidden.

      im not allowed to “like” an unsavory article lest your and mine whole blog get permemantly deleted … and new legislation forcing all blogs to be submitted to blog.gov for approuval so they can do the upload to where you tell them, if they approuve though, dont even try to troll me, it wont work, you have no voice until your voice is approuved and advertised with a majour advertising company first. and dont forget the administration fees!

      but its not all bad right? at least they provide free anal condoms during your government “visit” cough anal-visit.

      dont be anal please? hahahahahaha that **** is funny, uhh i mean 404-error

    2. “We As A People Stood Up Against It And Voted Against It”
      That great! Direct democracy! Unfortunately here in the US we only vote for lawmakers who are supposed to be smart enough not to introduce and vote for such crap legislation. We don’t directly vote on laws or legislation usually, which is the way it should be. And since out lawmaker’s have Big Media $$$ in their pockets, who do you think their going to listen to? Legal bribery and corruption at its finest. The peoples voice is a fantasy they want you to believe. They want you to believe they are acting in the best interest of the people right up until the time they win the election..

  13. I buy lotsa stuff on ebay, I buy from canada first as it is home, US second as you are my neighbor (even though you continually screw me with large “international fees”, hmmph!!).
    I buy from china last, but that order could switch as a form of protest, perhaps permanently if you country’s politicians screw up the web for the world.
    Apparently they speak on your behalf, so time to roll up your sleeve and shove your arm good and hard up “puppet’s ass” and make SURE he get’s the message when he’s speaking, he’s speaking for you, so he’d better say it right!!!
    (I like that)

    1. your comment will be removed shortly.

      you have shown people how to circumvent the auto-expiration on their television’s fimware thus prolonging the use of the television past the warranty/softwarelicense/selfsedetion/hardware’s-software-suicide.

      you are being sued for the cost of 2 televisions at a cost of 389$ each multiplied (like with stolen music andor DRM/DVD ripping software) by the number of page visits you have accumilated

      389$ * 2 * 83420 = $64,900,760.00 plus tax

      your ticket for $64,900,760.00 plus tax is in the mail and you are expected at court this monday morning sharp, skipping court results in a warrant for your arrest.

  14. Don’t they understand that if they block the tubes, they’ll get backed up! If the tubes get backed up then the lines will explode, and the internet will leak out of them! You don’t want the internet to get on you, it’s all sorts of bad for human skin.

  15. Someone should setup an online petition – those always produce the desired results.

    In seriousness, if it hasn’t been started/created already then it’s probably time some sort of distributed DNS system is setup so there’s no single location(s) that hold all the records which the government/corporations can control.

  16. US Hackers! Get your ham license, and help build up the AMPRNet with high speed links. This will be completely decentralized (except for the coordinators in each state for IP addresses)

    1. can they censor books about wireless network topologies and station frequency tables ??? looks like in about a year or two anyone wanting to get onto a AMPRNet ARPNet ARPANet DARPANet ect will have to go to a place called a library, no seriously they will be hunting articles like that down so quick (on the inet) … you might want to think about getting a usb stick, notepad.exe, a fax machine, and the telephone/fax number for a publishing company,,, or just bus tickets, paper, pencil, and a phonebook!

      MAKE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR SYSTEM WE CAN ALL CHECK OUT! Call it the FREEDOM2012 network or some sh** so we all know its the network people WANT to read about … after it takes effect,,, if it does… otherwise people will never know about how to build the stuff to log on!

      PS: theres not a single book about any network other then ethernet/adsl/cable at the biggest and centralest library in my large city… not even a book describing how bell-101/102/202/ect works!
      let alone a book on wireless highspeed customcustomcustom (cough: build from scratch)

      librarys just may make a comeback! ha

      1. shit are they going to show up at places where computer geeks hang out and start picking them off one by one just cuz they were talking about a way to make something to talk together about how to (re)wire something without someone else’s approuval first?

        pretty soon people will be ratting everyone out who has half baked electronics lying around thier garage, for fear of an evil menace to societey working behind closed (non approuved) (sattellite) internetworking? and then after that it will be illegal to have a voice conversation inside your own home unless you have a permit and your listening/monotoring/IBigBrother device is paid for, otherwise talk outside the front door where public can here you or go to jail if caught!

  17. “‘With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.’ Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie, as wisdom and warning. The first time any man’s freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged.”~jean-luc picard.

  18. oooohhhh im so happy! dont get lazy and stop doing what wer doing but we just got good news for all who havent been on down to yahoonews yet!

    the link to the story is wayyy too long so ill try and cite properly aka inproperly but still credit given:

    Yahoo News
    Lawmakers flip on piracy bills protested on Web
    Reuters By Sarah McBride and Diane Bartz | Reuters – 1 hr 11 mins ago

    retrieved 10:57pm jan 18 2012 from http://news.yahoo.com

    …”Some members of the Congress switched sides to oppose antipiracy legislation as protests blanketed the Internet”…

    …”Several sponsors of the legislation, including Senators Roy Blunt, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch and John Boozman and Marco Rubio, said they were withdrawing their support. Some blamed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for rushing the Senate version of the bill.”…

    …”In switching their positions, Blunt called the legislation “deeply flawed” while Rubio and Boozman cited “unintended consequences” that could stem from the proposed law.”…

    …”blackout affected thousands of sites”…

    …”A lunchtime protest in San Francisco drew about 100 protesters, including Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and rapper M.C. Hammer, who called the proposed legislation “barbaric.””…

    and thats the important parts u need to read if u dont wanna go there :D

  19. I support this bill in its current form. Really.

    What would REALLY HAPPEN if it was enacted…. Seriously. Think it through from beginning to end….and be realistic at every step.

    Logical conclusion isn’t so worrisome is it?

  20. I thought there was an alternate DNS if we aimed our puters at it???
    maybe we should start being more aware of what IP address we goto and keep a “phone book”, like instead of “HAD.com” I can type in: http://74.125.67.xx (which didn’t work).
    How do I find HAD’s IP address?

    1. nslookup hackaday.com

      That will print a few addresses. But these belong to the hosting company (wordpress.com). The direct numeric address won’t work. The browser must add a HTTP 1.1 Host: header so that the server knows which site is requested. VirtualHost at its worst :/ Therefore the only way is to save the addresses in the hosts file.

      1. Try this at command prompt: (Start -> run ->cmd)
        %SystemDrive%
        CD %SystemRoot%\System\drivers\etc
        attrib -h -r -s HOSTS
        notepad HOSTS

        Add a line with “205.71.2.65 hackaday.com” just to try it out. This is the address that nslookup found so just change for whatever you get from this command: “nslookup hackaday.com”
        Save it and then it will work until the IP address changes. On some sites, this is a horrible idea since they change so often and you are effectively making phishing slightly easier.

      2. Easiest to find the IP address of a website by pinging it. Start, run(in XP), type in “cmd” and hit enter, then at command prompt, type “ping hackaday.com”. Browsing directly to the site by IP address may not work, though, depending on how they have their host headers set up…

    1. Exists, get on it. For packets routed over the Internet but uncensored, you can try I2P or TOR for an almost transparent experience. Freenet is more of a file storage system with expiration. It is not transparent but does have some chat programs and websites. Wikipedia has a huge list of those types of programs.

      For packets routed over a private network, there’s the Wide Area Networks like WIFI meshes and optical links on the amateur end and microwave links for the most expensive end.

  21. While there are problems that should be addressed, but PIPA/SOPA is the wrong legislation to do that. Why is so hard for the legislators to write common sense legislation that directly targets the problem to be solved

      1. Reading the “BOFH” stories would show a great example of that sort of thinking. Imagine a plumber that uses weak glues so that he has to come back in a few months. They want to create problems so that they then have something to ‘fix’ come around election time.

    1. You can’t solve a problem that you don’t understand, and they don’t understand it. They rely on advisors to brief them what should be done, because no Congressman has the time to take a Security+/Network+/basic networking fundamentals course. And when they take advice from a person who is on the payroll of a major corporation, this kind of thing happens.

  22. I’m so happy HAD supports the anti-sopa/anti-pipa movement,but why wasnt their any Hack-y stuff today? atleast some more device compatability work on the website would be nice. I have to hold the tiny FN and Shift keys to type anything on my dinky android phone! (and no im not going to wire up a switch to fix the problem as this is the only place this is a problem at)

      1. P.S. sorry if HaD slows down! im Backing up the ENTIRE website AND everything that it links to AND everything those things link to AND everything THOSE things link to and even everything those things that are linked to are linked to. Happy Browsing!

      2. P.P.S. a blackout only affects the users. it doesn’t affect the companies. My predictions have already hit their marks (albeit 10 years ahead of time) and this bill will go through no matter what. the only thing to worry about is “Dealing” with what the people will do afterwards. Civil war anyone? I suggest you make/buy your weapons now or get caught in the crossfire. Happy Killing! ~Luca-Chan

    1. P.P.P.S. wow Wordpres’s Server system is a catastrophe of organization! no wonder they kneed so much space to store Webpages! it took 2Gb just to store HaD’s first 10 pages because of the mess it is! so many duplicates its crazy! o_o’

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