bunch of sights are blacking out to protest the SOPA, just wondering if Fizzer put an any thought in to it. Probably not worth it here though since its still a pretty small sight. What do you guys think?

I don't know all of the details, but from my understanding those have very little effect on WL. Sites like Wikipedia and Google are used by millions of people every single day and the scope of the effect on the sites themselves and the users of those sites is difficult to grasp, so it makes sense for them to bring awareness to it.

Actually it could be a very big deal for WarLight. The problem with SOPA/PIPA, as I understand it, is that any single entity can claim that a site is infringing on copyright and the US government can take the site down without any chance for the website to defend itself.

I highly doubt the government would just use this power to flip off google.com or wikipedia.org, as these are well-known sites and the government knows what they're doing. I believe that small sites are the ones most at risk to be shut down.

A blackout of WarLight is an interesting idea, but without writing a bunch of code to go in and extend boot times, many people would get booted. Right now I'm swamped with trying to get the Android version out.

You can also just blacken the logo, lots of other sites did the same. You can check this link:
And just scroll down to the *“Censor” Your Website In Protest* part. There's an easy piece of code that will censor the logo only, and give a link to the site.

Google just put a black mark over the Logo, while Wikipedia blacked the entire site..

I don't see any black mark on Google!

Me neither. Maybe that's just for the US?

It is just for the United States, as SOPA and PIPA only affect the US.

I agree that SOPA/PIPA passing is a major problem for Warlight. With so many user generated maps and ideas, it'd be easy for a troll or 2 to claim copyright over a few maps. Effectively shuting the site down.

This is why you should all email your congress-people, as I have already done =)

oh god bless america :)

@VaporX:
**NO**, the SOPA and PIPA proposals are specifically aimed at non-US sites. The only reason their opponents have any chance at all of preventing either of them from being signed into law is (irony oh irony) the fact they could harm US sites / companies as well.

As for WL, I think the only thing to do is a workaround; register an alternative domain, something NOT ending in .us, .com, .net or .org, since those are within reach of the US government (maybe warlight.eu?). Turn warlight.net into a redirect to the new domain and hope everyone updates their (browser and mental) bookmarks before you get nuked by the US. Sure, there's absolutely no sensible reason why you would, but well, it's not like "sensible" has any business being in the same sentence as any of the following: SOPA, PIPA, RIAA, MPAA, BSA or US law/government.

With the US rapidly moving towards "guilty until proven innocent" and the entertainment lobby becoming judge, jury and executioner (how efficient...), you might as well be prepared. The moment your site gets blocked, it's to late to start advertising your alternate domain. And Googling "Warlight" to find its new home won't work; since Google is subject to American law, they have to remove references to all your domains (even if "only" the "American" ones are actually seized) for fear of violating SOPA or PIPA themselves. (Of course, for your US visitors you'll completely disappear anyway, but this way at least the non-US visitors will still be able to reach the site.)

Note, feel free to replace "Warlight" with just about any other .com, .net or .org site out there; if either SOPA or PIPA are passed, they're all screwed.


Oh, and I would love to contact my representative, except (luckily) I'm not a US citizen or resident. (I recently watched the documentary "The death of Yugoslavia". Back then, the USA defended their non-interference by claiming they "could not and would not be the world's police". Of course, then it was human lives in the balance; now it's about online piracy (read: cold hard cash), and suddenly they *do* want to police the whole damn world...!)

Maybe a small pop-up message about the bills could be used like the special discount membership deals that occur every once in a while.

SOPA's already been defeated by the Republicans in the House, and at least four Republicans in the Senate who supported PIPA yesterday flipped to opposing it today. Even if PIPA is passed by the Democrats in the Senate, it won't get through the House, so it looks like the forces of good have won this fight, for now.

Good thing .ca's won't be affected, as I'm canadian

@RvW, maybe I'm not exactly up-to-date (as I'm not American), but as far as I know the "blocking" of pages would be done not via domain seizing (which is what FBI currently does to child porn sites etc.), but via DNS blocking.

Since the US only has access to DNS servers in the US, this would not affect most non-US visitors (who use DNS servers located in other parts of the world), and could be circumvented by US visitors (who could configure their computer to do the same).

It would, however, affect both US and non-US sites visited by US visitors, for reasons outlined above.

Perhaps a good thing to come of this is America will lose many domains who choose to protect themselves by moving outside of the US who's government wants to rule the virtual world.

It isn't only about closing sites down, it is about free speech as well.

Imagine your neighbour is selling counterfeit goods and you inform me of the fact. Under these proposals the US government could imprison you, seize your house, fine you etc. just for the act of communicating a fact.

Rather than going after the neighbour they go after anyone who communicates about your neighbour with the neighbour as an after thought. That is one of the outcomes google and other search engines will be subject should the proposals get through.

Matma,

You're right, "seizing" was the wrong word, my bad. However, the way DNS works (with authoritative servers and caching servers), and with VeriSign being an American company, the US government can kill any domain within a TLD operated by VeriSign *worldwide*.

Another nasty detail is that transit traffic (let's say a European visiting a Japanese site, or the other way around of course) will *also* be affected. Even though routing protocols are designed to be able to cope with links going down, I really doubt they'd gracefully handle a "black hole" (US jurisdiction) which selectively blocks traffic.

@ RvW
Your right of course, I probably should of phrased it better. What I mean't to say is that SOPA and PIPA are only being proposed in the United States. Citizens in other countries can do what they can to help, such as getting the word out, however only US citizens can contact their government reps and tell them not to support the bill.

Wikipedia could of easily blacked their site out for everyone, but it wouldn't of had as big as an impact. What were they going to say in other countries? In the US they had a link that led to you to EMAIL your senators. I don't really think that would work so well in Europe.

No, probably not.
It'd be like one of those online enquiries in which, after half an hour of answering silly questions, I'm asked from which state I am.
Basically, we the Europeans are to blame as well. Through the twentieth century, we've been begging America to help us, help us fight the Germans, help us rebuild our countries, help us solve what we can't fix!
Now we're all screwed because America's seen how good it feels to rule seven billion people through a democratic election that can be won with only 75 million votes (little over 20% of the votes can win you US presidency).

Americans who vote for their all-powerful leader. They're the 1%!

But, yeah, as for SOPA and PIPA, hope they fail miserably, otherwise emigrate to Mars...

And how are you planning to get to Mars, Domenico, without help from NASA...?

Love your "They're the 1%!" though. :)

Of course, I doubt senators actually (pay someone to) read all the email they get; I'm guessing they only count them. As long as you send them from a generic-enough email address (GMail and Hotmail come to mind), you're probably okay. Also, don't just spam the people you actually voted for, just for good measure, spam the Republicans too.

Don't worry, the USA is doing their best to make themselves as unpopular as possible, as quickly as possible. When the rest of the world figures out it's okay (and hey, maybe even smart) to disagree with the USA every once in a while, things will start looking really different, really soon. As soon as "we" (the rest of the world) push through a big patent reform (declaring all current trivial patents invalid and making new trivial patents ineligible for patent protection) all the current huge American corporations suddenly need to become competitive, *on their own, **actual** merits*, again. I don't see that happening... Sure, they can't enter the US market (which still loves trivial patents and nine out of every ten inhabitants are lawyers), but why would they want to?

The movie *Idiocracy* was not so much a comedy as it was a warning. Too bad nobody listened. ("So long and thanks for all the fish" anyone?)

Problem is that it has to be a joint decision, not like our government who suddenly decided we weren't the US's pet dog and we changed from friends to allies.
That's also why our PM was invited to the White House so suspiciously late. It was a little embarrassing...
You're dreaming if you think we're going to be independent from America anytime soon.
Especially our country, a trading nation, needs the connection right now. Also, look at what our governments are doing with the Middle East Unrest: waiting if America takes the lead...
Also, for entertainment... American singers, American formats, and where'd this site come from again?

It took us fifty years to involve America with European affairs and it'll take even more years to get the States' nose out of them.