Despite the SOPA vote being delayed, today, Wikipedia, Reddit and others went ahead and blacked out in protest, giving Internet users a taste of SOPA.
We did a lot of thinking about whether or not ChurchMag should black out, too.
It was a mixed bag.
We installed the WordPress’ SOPA Blackout plugin and were ready to go with it, but then I thought:
Who is our audience?
Our readers are Church Technologists that are very aware of SOPA and PIPA. We’ve read your blog posts and seen your Twitter and Facebook avatars.
Being a part of a black out is to spread awareness.
Can you image all of those who are not fully aware of SOPA, today, heading over to Wikipedia, Reddit and WordPress.com, only to find it blacked out!
There’s no need for us to preach to the choir.
I wish Facebook wouldn’t have bailed on the blackout. Can you imagine how powerful that would have been? So many Facebook users would have quickly became aware of what SOPA is all about.
What WE Can Do!
Knowledge is power and we need to spread the word.
As Church Technologists, it is our duty, our obligation, to spread light on this issue. To make sure the Church is informed and empowered to ensure the Internet stays free.
If SOPA and PIPA make there way through and become law, what’s next?
The Gospel?
Spread the word with this simple video post, explaining SOPA in less than five minutes.
It’s the least we can do.
Stuart says
To be fair to Wikipedia – they have an explanatory page and can be circumvented anyway by turning off javascript or using the mobile site…. not much of a blackout.
As to wordpress, well that’s just silly what they’ve done and reddit’s blackout doesn’t appear to work from or for the UK. The thing is, I’ve heard plenty about how it would affect all of us worldwide if enacted but the reality is that it would be Americans affected.
Personally I don’t think facebook would have made a gnats bit of difference other than to enrage an awful lot of its members. Also personally, all this discussion about it is good for the affected but it’s like football (or soccer to my US friends) which is ubiquitous – I don’t like it but ultimately I can’t do anything about it and I can’t affect it either.
So like CM’s non-blackout, I won’t be promoting the message either.
Eric Dye says
Please don’t confuse our “non-blackout” with not promoting an anti-SOPA message. We are very against it and want to enable our community to educate those around them.
As for an International view, I think we would be naive to think this kind of law would stay within the US boarders. It would effectively be a green light for other countries.
James Cooper says
This would affect people all round the world. If a small to medium site, based in the USA, is taken down (for USA viewers), are the site owners likely to keep it going for the rest of the world – I think not…
So the WHOLE web would be affected as potentially thousands of sites would die and not come back (to Americans or anyone else…). And if other countries (or God forbid) the European Union see SOPA and decide it’s a good idea; bang, the internet as we know it is dead.
Eric Dye says
EXACTLY!
Agile Scout says
+1 – respect your audience.
glad you didn’t black out. no need to.
Chris Ames says
Yes, this was a tough one for us. But I like where we landed.
Eric Dye says
🙂
John (TentBlogger) says
leadership is doing what is best for the community that you lead, not just what every other leader is doing around you.
Eric Dye says
Thank you, John, that means a lot.
Raoul Snyman says
We were thinking and debating about blacking out OpenLP’s site[0] for SOPA as well, and eventually decided against it too. There was a lot of too-ing and fro-ing, but we eventually decided to let it lie.
[0] http://openlp.org/