This is my favorite website and wikipedia is a website that I use to reference much of the information that I need to learn about, apparently some business entities are making a great effort to prohibit the free passage of information on the internet. Frightening but not wholly unexpected. It was only a matter of time and it seems that time is upon us in February.
from wiki:
"SOPA and PIPA would put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn't being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines. SOPA and PIPA would build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.

In a world in which politicians regulate the Internet based on the influence of big money, Wikipedia — and sites like it — cannot survive.

Congress says it's trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the "cure" that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they would fatally damage the free and open Internet. "
I have called my representative to plead forgiveness from this coming censorship but then I'm an old romantic and room for my kind seems much diminished in this new millennium.

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I'm fully against SOPA. If it passes, we might as well get rid of our computers.

_________________
1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

A youngster that is thoughtful, how appropriate that he is a member of the Fender Lounge Forum.

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

It's just impractical. Why shut down whole sites because one person posted an image?

My whole thing with piracy is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gutCFMc5khY

_________________
1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Three times today I've forgotten about the blackout and tried to look something up on wikipedia, I can't live without it. I seriously think that for their contribution to society wikipedia's creators deserve a nobel peace prize. Its the only website I've ever donated money to too.

Google says "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!" right now as well.

_________________
Rated "M" for meaty.

I don't need wickywackypedia. I already know everything. Just ask my wife.

If they wanted to defeat SOPA all they have to do is blackout Facebook. Half the planet would lose it's freakin' mind.

_________________
Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

And for the less intelligent folk, blackout Twitter.

_________________
1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

As far as looking up definitions, you could have done an end run by going to Google, and clicking on the cached page of wikipedia, refreshing the page would also end-run the question of how old is that page....

What should be more disturbing to us all about the SOPA Bill is the fact that one of the Congressman responsible for the bill has publicly voiced that he has little understanding of the internet and can barely if at all navigate a computer....
However I am not surprised as Congress has repeatedly proven just how disconnected some... if not the majority of it's members are from the current 21st century reality. The fact that these people go on recess and vacations when the house is on fire pretty much spells it out as far as being offline or is it that they are still on MS-DOS and dial up.. ( which the secretary or pages handles ).....

_________________
"C'est parti mon Kiki "

The bottom line is that the lobbyists own the politicians and whoever is getting
the payoffs are gonna be the ones that get their way most likely.

FAQs - How would it affect you :

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329 ... t-you-faq/

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

This must stop now!!!
How wolud this affect the Forums?
If the forums were closed I would be very upset.

I think the entire world should coordinate one week where noone buys anything. For 7 days. See how the corporations like that.

On second thought.... that'll just give the corporations fodder for excuses to raise prices even higher.

Maybe we'll go back to no computers and internet. We did fine that way back in the '70's. Just more convenient now.

Just think of all the encyclopedia salesmen who could get their jobs back.

I hope that you are joking......A shopping boycott would not address the issue.....This is not an issue about products, but rather access to those products and the risk or probability of an entire conduit being shut down.....As far as going back in time to the 70's which did have computers, just not PC's...There is no returning to the past, but why stop at the 70's...
Let's just go back to the Edwardian period of 1910-1915...That should simplify everything..

Think of it this way.....Someone is reported to be in possession of a controlled substance and is traveling on I-95 between Boston and New York.....The Transit Authority shuts down the entire Freeway, both Southbound and Northbound, nothing moves or gets on and off.....99.9% of the people on that corridor are commuting to a destination unaware that they have just been thrown into a giant snare......

If the above scenario sounds ludicrous, then so should SOPA, Piracy has been around in one form or another ever-since commerce and distinctive products began...It's up to the industry to figure out how to nab a pirated product and it's provider without affecting the rest of the community who is operating legally.

I don't download copyrighted material and pass it around, I don't cherry pick someone's video and/or music and combine those snippets, repackage it and send it out on You-Tube ( which is one of the biggest offenses out there )..
I will take someone's song and perform it in my own interpretation and if I would record it and sell the recording, then I would need to get copyright approval....
The majority of people function within the rules, however the internet has fastforwarded us and allowed us to have more time on our hands to focus on other matters...

I see this as a problem of the Congress being unable to understand the world as it is today, let's face it, they are all mostly in the 70 plus year range...Being in my 50's it is a daily challenge to keep up with my I-Phone, the Mac and the capabilities it allows me for my business.....I would not want to return to pad and pencil, stamps and lots of driving to locate materials, meet up with various agencies etc...etc...
There is a serious disconnect and unfortunately we are all at risk of being affected in a most negative and regressive manner.....

_________________
"C'est parti mon Kiki "

The powers that be need to catch the people creating the viruses , phishing scams and trojan horses and hang them by their B---s.

_________________
08 Fender Highway One Tele-Sunburst
09 Squier Custom Tele II-Blonde
04 Squier Standard Strat Antiqueburst
07 Washburn D10SCE natural with Rosewood backing
Fender Mustang II amp


Experience is the best teacher

Just imagine if this bill passes...you're working on some research
project and all of a sudden you see this :

_________________
Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!