{{Forumheader|Yew Grove|archive=|date=|user=|type=}}

Alright. I'm not sure how aware you guys are of SOPA (and PIPA), but there are a lot of protests against the bill in the US happening on the 18th of this month (when a committee hearing is planned in congress). I simply propose that we take part in this.

===Why===
If you already know what SOPA/PIPA is, feel free to skip this expanation.

SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is a bill being debated in congress at the moment. PIPA (PROTECT IP, or in full, Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act), is a similar act also in debate. These are designed to prevent online piracy. Sounds good? Its not.

The bills are far too wide ranging. They give companies the power to take down a website via DNS blocking if it has the 'potential to enable copyright infringement'. This makes sites with user-generated content liable for takedown due to actions by its users - places like youtube, facebook, twitter, imgur, megaupload, wikipedia and us.

Other (larger) sites are taking similar measures too, including but certainly not limited to:
*[http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/stopped-they-must-be-on-this-all.html Reddit]
*[http://www.geekwire.com/2012/cheezburger-celebrates-years-lols-plans-jan-18th-blackout-protest-sopa The Cheezburger network]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)#Coordinated_SOPA_reaction_in_early_2012_RfC Wikipedia]
*[http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/13/minecraft-developer-says-no-sane-person-can-be-for-sopa/ minecraft.net and mojang.com]
*[http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=470424&G=5&C=3&Page=0 Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon 'considering']

There are a lot of other wide-ranging consequences of the bill that aren't really needed here, but are explained elsewhere if you're not already convinced. My preferred video is [http://youtu.be/JhwuXNv8fJM Totalbiscuit's] (it does help that he's a law graduate), but feel free to provide links to others below. Also Wikipedia has some useful articles on them: [[wikipedia:Stop Online Piracy Act|SOPA]], [[wikipedia:PROTECT IP act|PIPA]].

===How===
My suggestion is that we use javascript to cover the wiki with a black box that covers the screen, giving information about SOPA and links to useful websites, with a dismiss button which hides it - and also a box that allows it to be re-summoned if someone wants to see it again. I'll get behind any better suggestions though. (Also, we would need someone to actually make the script...)

In addition I don't see harm in blacking out the logo like many other sites have done (example: [http://pastebin.com/]).

Discuss. ~~~~

==Discussion==