Sprite Stitch Board!

Some of you probably noticed the blog is down for the day. I hope you all realize (even users not in the US) the importance of the SOPA/PIPA bill. It appears that the bill will hold sites/site owners personally responsible for all content on their site... this could seriously effect all online communities, especially sprite stitch.

If this bill passes it is quite likely that this site will go down. I'm sure you could all understand why I would not want to be held personally responsible for everything that you post on this site. The implications go far beyond our little corner of the web...

Internet censorship by governments is not a direction we want to head, violators of copyright laws and piraters of movies/music will go on no matter what the US congress thinks. Holding the entire web hostage to catch a minority of pirates is not the solution.

If you are in the US please do take the time to call or email a congressman in your area, your voice needs to be heard.

johloh wrote:If you are in the US please do take the time to call or email a congressman in your area, your voice needs to be heard.

I am not someone who typically gets involved in political things, and I have never emailed my congressman - but I did on this one. I think this would be a terrible, terrible bill to pass, and I think we'd see a huge amount of cool blogs and forums go down if it did. Who could blame the owners of these for not wanting to be responsible for anything anyone posts on their site?

It seems to me that this is a fear response that lawmakers have decided is a good idea based on a few terrible things that have happened on the internet. They obviously haven't thought (or don't care) about the overarching implications.

Here's hoping that we can stop this before it happens. Like Johloh, I encourage everyone to contact your congressman, even if, like me, it's not something you typically care about or do. I'd hate to see this and a bunch of other cool sites go down because of it.

The google homepage has a nice little "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!" link under their search bar and a form for a petition to Congress. I signed this one - google is huge and this is the one likely to collect the best numbers today. Other than that, contact you representative!

FIND THEM / WRITE THEM
CALL THEM

johloh wrote:It appears that the bill will hold sites/site owners personally responsible for all content on their site...

Wow... Unfair and/or senseless laws are not only a french speciality, I see... (we have the "HADOPI" system for the matter of copyright a.s.o.) I hope it won't be applied for that context (blogs, forums...). Would it mean the end of Sprite Stitch forums ? That's impossible !!!

La Ptite Bete wrote: Wow... Unfair and/or senseless laws are not only a french speciality, I see... (we have the "HADOPI" system for the matter of copyright a.s.o.) I hope it won't be applied for that context (blogs, forums...).

yes, apparently acting without proper knowledge on a topic is a worldwide problem.

La Ptite Bete wrote: Would it mean the end of Sprite Stitch forums ? That's impossible !!!

potentially. we really do not know how the law would be applied, but it certainly has the potential to be applied this way. I would have to play it safe though, I'm not in a position to fight major corporations in court.

I totally understand johloh and am quite happy that you jumped on the bandwagon of the blackout.

Sprite Stitch would likely be more likely to be targeted due to the high number of copyrighted work that is produced by the fans. All it would take is a complaint from Nintendo or something else and johloh could end up in serious trouble, so I definitely think you should play it safe.

SOPA and PIPA could seriously change all our lives, not just by losing a fantastic place like this. I hope people get what an important thing this is and hope more people write to their congressmen to get them to pull their support from these absolutely shockingly bad bills.

being in England, i wasn't really sure what this American bill had in store for us all... but having had my man explain it all, i realise just how bad this could all be... i pray to the Goddess this wont go ahead and we can keep our community. This seriously could change all our lives, and not for the better...

I'm glad you took this action johloh. Here in the UK we would definitely feel the repercussions of such poor legislation (no doubt the US Govt would take advantage of the fast-track extradition treaty they have with us, too...but that's another story!) and so many of us are supporting today's blackout and the anti SOPA/PIPA campaigns planned in the immediate future. I have blacked out my blog completely in support (thanks to Wordpress) and will do what I can to help.

Please, you guys in the US, if you haven't already done as people above me have suggested - please email your Congressman and tell them why you don't want this bill to go through! The only real power is people power!

kuja.girl wrote:The google homepage has a nice little "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!" link under their search bar and a form for a petition to Congress. I signed this one - google is huge and this is the one likely to collect the best numbers today. Other than that, contact you representative!

FIND THEM / WRITE THEM
CALL THEM

Me and my hubby signed the petition! THis should NEVER go through!

I signed the petition and now I am working on contacting my congress person about this but I am so not good with words. Any one feel like helping me write something out as I want a nice letter so they pay attention. I posted the link to the petition on my face book and a couple people have already passed it along. I really hope this never passes.