I agree. Taking a stand and putting up a banner, or a click-through page, etc is fine. But information services like Google and Wikipedia shouldn't actually be shut off in a way that makes the information inaccessible.
> But information services like Google and Wikipedia shouldn't actually be shut off in a way that makes the information inaccessible.
And that's exactly what SOPA would do. Permanently. Nobody is preventing you from accessing today's Wikipedia content on your own this Wednesday - go download a copy of their db right now if you're that scared and fearful of a day without it. The point is a strong demonstration of what the world would be like with SOPA/PIPA. It's necessary.
So shutting off information services is evil, and we're going to show it by committing the same evil? By that token we should teach everyone how bad genocide is by executing a random member of their family.
We should certainly get people's attention by doing something very overt like replacing every article with a big dark SOPA message, but there really should still be a way to click through to the information.
> We should certainly get people's attention by doing something very overt like replacing every article with a big dark SOPA message, but there really should still be a way to click through to the information.
That's fine for us mega-nerds, but what about everyone else?
There's a philosophical distinction between suicide and murder and martyrdom. Just like there is between being thrust into a furnace and setting yourself on fire.
I actually don't know what it's going to be like to work on Wednesday without Wikipedia. But I think it's in all our interests to find out and put a face on these bills.
I strongly think Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Amazon (not AWS) should all proceed with the nuclear option on the 18th, even though congress has temporarily shelved SOPA. The reality of the situation is that very few people outside of the tech community have any idea about SOPA and PIPA and how it jeopardizes the Internet.
