Pull quote: "The disconnect between these two worlds—one in which physically distant actors can have a very substantial impact (good or bad) upon you or your property, and one in which it is difficult to bring law to bear upon those very actors—is at the heart of the problem that SOPA is trying to solve.

It’s a profoundly difficult problem.  Some of us saw it coming, twenty years ago or so.  An enormous amount of creative and innovative thinking is going to be required if we are to solve it in a sensible way.

SOPA does reflect some creative and innovative thinking; indeed, it embodies a radical new plan for the way that law enforcement will proceed on the Net.  But the new plan is deeply flawed, and would set us on precisely the wrong course for dealing with this difficult challenge."

Steal This Column [on #SOPA, #Wikipedia's response, and the alternative OPEN bill] | New York Times op-ed by Bill...

SOPA STRIKE in numbers and screenshots - Largest online protest in history - January 18, 2012

Pull quote: "If labor unions once amplified the legislative agenda of certain American industries, the antipiracy fight showed the potential power of a different force: young Americans who live and breathe the Internet.

A Pew Research Center poll this week found that the antipiracy legislation was the most closely followed news topic among Americans under the age of 30; even news of the presidential elections failed to get as much attention in this age group."

Pull quote: "But whenever Congress decides to re-engage the online piracy fight — and it could be a while, given just how acrimonious the debate over the bills became in the last week — it’s almost certain that SOPA and PIPA won’t be revived in any recognizable form.
...
Behind the scenes, Hill staffers from both sides of the aisle confirmed to TPM that the entire piracy debate had become so “toxic” that virtually no lawmakers were likely to be ready to re-engage it anytime soon."

Pull quote: "But that protest grew out of a much wider grass-roots movement — a collective flexing of Internet muscle that started in some of the less mainstream parts of the Web, like the social news site Reddit and the blogging service Tumblr, and in e-mail chains and countless message boards.

It is no coincidence that these social sites were among those that, according to critics of the legislation in question, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and the Protect Intellectual Property Act had the most to lose if it passed. And by design they were able to take the message about the threat and make it go viral."

Pull quote: "It began on November 16, when [co-founder of Fight for the Future Tiffiniy] Cheng and her team helped organize American Censorship Day. More than 5,000 sites, including Reddit, participated in having their front page taken over. The non-profit got over a million emails that day. And 80,000 calls were made to government officials."

Pull quote: "Writing in his blog on the New York Times yesterday, David Pogue, one of the Times’ tech columnists, advises toning down the alarmist rhetoric over SOPA, suggesting that opponents of the bill (and its Senate cousin PIPA) should Put Down the Pitchforks. He takes particular issue with people who have criticized SOPA without actually understanding the text of the bill. Then, after this preamble, Pogue proceeds to offer an explanation of SOPA that makes it clear that he does not understand the text of the bill."

Pull quote: "Proponents of these bills say these arguments are overblown, but I say any step towards an Internet in which one person's voice counts more than another is a step in the wrong direction. These are bills that should give us pause. These are bills that should be studied and debated. Congress should consult experts and consider alternatives and make 100% sure that any step it takes to police the Internet doesn't change the Internet as we know it. This is why I put a hold on the Protect IP Act and its predecessor over a year ago and introduced a bipartisan alternative last month."

New blog post: Thursday Threads: #SOPA, #PROTECT-IP/#PIPA, Research Works Act (#RWA), and Broad E-Textbook Pilot

New blog post: The Best of the "#SOPA #Blackout" (commentary, humor, and media)

Commentary, intentional and unintentional humor, and media from January 18, 2012
http://storify.com/datag/the-best-of-the-sopa-blackout-1

Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea) [brand new 13 minute @cshirky talk] | Video on TED

The Day The LOLcats Died [3 minute music video] | YouTube

Pull quote: "In one early sign that the blackouts and protests are having an effect, the MPAA today characterized them as "stunts." The group's chairman, Chris Dodd, took a thinly veiled swipe at Wikipedia by denouncing the protests as "an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on [the sites] for information and [who] use their services." News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter to offer similar thoughts."

Pull quote: "Today, several of our favorite websites are going dark or blacking out their homepages to raise awareness of two bills, in the US House and Senate, that threaten people’s ability to share on the web. In the past week, we’ve pondered what TED.com should be doing to help raise awareness of the PIPA and SOPA bills, and concluded that our best option was to do what we do best: share knowledge.

So we’ve lined up two TEDTalks today, to cover two important facets of this issue."

New blog post: Stop #SOPA and #PIPA

This blog will be present first-time users with a warning page on January 18, 2012 -- the day that many internet sites are using to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) -- and January 23rd, 2012 -- the day before the U.S. Senate may vote on the PROTEC

Stop Online Piracy Act Markup to Resume in February | House Judiciary Committee

RT @EFF: Even if DNS blocking is removed, many other #SOPA & #PIPA provisions would censor protected speech. Here's how: ...

12 Hours Dark: Internet Archive vs. Censorship [Internet Archive joins #SOPA #PIPA #blackout]

RT @glynmoody: Google will protest #SOPA using popular home page - let's hope it's hard hitting

RT @Wikipedia: English Wikipedia is going dark January 18 in opposition to #SOPA #PIPA. #wikipediablackout

Pull quote: "House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa today announced that ahearing scheduled for Wednesday, which was to examine the impact of Domain Name Service (DNS) and search engine blocking on the Internet, has been postponed following assurances that anti-piracy legislation will not move to the House floor this Congress without a consensus."

Pull quote: "Today, founder of the non-profit behind information archive Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, announced that the site will go dark for 24 hours on Wednesday in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)."

Pull quote: "The White House has responded to two petitions about legislative approaches to combat online piracy. In their response, Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget, Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and Howard Schmidt, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff stress that the important task of protecting intellectual property online must not threaten an open and innovative internet."

DNS provision pulled from #SOPA, victory for opponents | Media Maverick - CNET News

Concerned Librarian’s Guide to the 2012 ALA Midwinter Exhibit Hall [#SOPA, #RWA supporters at #alamw12] | Agnostic,...

#SOPA foes warn: Not much time left to act | Privacy Inc., CNET News

Receive DLTJ Thursday Threads:by E-mailby RSSDelivered by FeedBurner Welcome to the new year! Threads this week include a brief analysis of the legal problems in store if SOPA and PROTECT-IP become law, what an analysis of the problems with Best

New blog post: Thursday Threads: #SOPA Suspended, Lending #Chromebooks, #OCLC Introduces #WorldShare

I've been keeping an eye on the House Judiciary Committee markup session for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that have happened over the past two days along with the tweets that have been going out in reaction to the proceedings. One of the running thre

An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress [stop #SOPA] | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Standing w/ lawmakers planning to block internet #censorship bill @RonWyden, pls read my name on the Senate floor #SOPA