You Really Can't Turn Out The Lights | CISPA Is The New SOPA

You really can't turn out the lights, because if you do we won't be able to see what the enemy attempts to pass through legislation in the darkened room.

You really can't turn out the lights, because the sun still shines in many points and places we don't want to mention.

You really can't turn out the lights, while they pull the plug and take away your rights.

You really can't turn out the lights, if you know what's good for you says the authorities, whom ever they may be.

You really can't turn out the lights, when they flip the switch and change the rules while you're not looking.

Turning out the lights worked one time, don't bet on it working a second time.

Click Here To Join The Campaign | The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, would obliterate any semblance of online privacy in the United States. It's up for a vote later this month.

The original title of this article has been updated to include the New SOPA Called CISPA

Latest CNN Money News | SOPA PIPA Postponed After Protests

This proves that YOUR actions have power. Potentially, your representatives will listen to the needs of the people, if we all make a huge unified statement and take some form of action.

AP | Government shut down MegaUpload.com File Sharing Website immediately on January 19, 2012. The 150 million registered users website had the support of mega celebrities for services to upload and download large share files. However, the MPAA wants to stop piracy from the film industry and we shall learn what happens to Dotcom, MegaUpload's founder, former CEO and current chief innovation officer.

Blackouts

Do you remember when the teacher flicked the switch on the lights in the classroom? Everything went quiet and dark. The kids stopped their chattering and blaring noise. The teacher wanted everyone attention. She wanted to speak and be heard. She wanted to calm everyone down and make sure they got the message she was about to give.

On the other hand, the children may have been out of line and going over the edge of acceptable behavior and darkness would certainly get their attention. They knew she meant business.

This type of purposeful blackout has different effects on human behavior than the sudden accidental blackout that occurs from winter storms, circuitry overloads and electrical shortages.

A planned outage can be a message sent by a group of organized people. Many people will be affected, even those who did not get the initial warning will be surprised when their screen goes black, or has static.

Light implies energy, enlightenment, wisdom. We want the light to stay on for the duration. We want the internet to be free for all.

Our Major Form Of Communication, Research and Information Search Goes Black On Wednesday January 18, 2012

Taking a cue from "Turn The Lights Out For Earth Week" some major corporations and online businesses will pool their energy and go dark for a day. Be prepared for Wednesday, January 18, 2012, when the House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif) had originally planned a hearing about Stop Online Piracy (SOPA - House Bill 3261.) It appears they have put the meeting on hold.

• Blackout begins midnight Tuesday and ends midnight Wednesday EDT USA
• Only the English version of Wikipedia will participate
• The Wales wikipedia site had a blackout in October 2011
• Scribd protested by making a billion pages disappear
• Google Joins The Protest | Google Petition signatures reached 7 million
• Natural News Joins | Learn More About The BlackOut
• FaceBook Opposes Sopa | Mark Zuckerberg Speaks Out
• Seven thousand websites participated in this blackout
• Mashable's Lights Out List
• 87,204 people changed their Twitter profile picture in January 2012 to protest SOPA.
• Electronic Frontier Connection helped people send out 1 million emails
• NING Social Networks participate in StopSopa

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt) sponsored Protect IP Act (PIPA) the DNS-blocking provision in the Senate will entertain possible changes after realizing the strength of people's protest.

The news released that Wikipedia will join the effort. Waiting to hear whether Twitter and other online giants will join the protest to keep the internet free.

• Reddit will go dark
• Learn Why Twitter will not join the Blackout
• Boing Boing will be in the dark

Industry and Law Enforcement Agencies in favor of SOPA and PIPA

• Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
• Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)

Continuation of Spreading Fear Which in turn gives more authority and power to oversight bodies, police agencies, and government:

• "U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the launch of a public education campaign to increase Americans’ knowledge of the threat IP crimes pose to America’s economic prosperity and public safety. In addition, 15 leading public safety and law enforcement groups including the National Criminal Justice Association, the National Troopers Association, and the National District Attorneys Association, urged Congress to support and enact SOPA and the PROTECT IP Act."

What's it all about Alfie?

The internet and technological community feel the two Congressional anti-piracy bills entitled Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) will clamp down and restrict the freedom of information we have surfing the internet.

SIGN THE PETITION | Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.

It is not too late to sign. 3 million have signed already! By signing this petition you tell Congressional leaders not to censore the internet through a different type of legislation. By stopping the flow of income to piracy website owners, rather than blanket regulations attacking ordinary citizens and small business start-ups or minority groups with alternative views. This represents your First Amendment Rights of Freedom of Speech.

Thank You To General USA Citizen ~ 10 Million phone calls to Congress want out in just One Day! I applaud your activism

The iPhone has an Oppose Sopa Application

SOPA and PIPA would give the Department of Justice greater power to remove websites offering access to copyright materials like music, movies and TV shows. However, The tech community feel this form of power could lead to censorship and loss of freedom of information.

UPDATED NYT JAN 18 NEWS | ~>> Read This Article

• "Aides to Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, say he will press forward with a vote Tuesday to open debate on the Protect I.P. bill. Negotiators from both parties are scrambling for new language that could assuage the concerns of the Internet community, but expectations are that the bill will now fail to get the 60 votes to move forward — a significant setback."

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Senator Hagan's Response Letter

• In light of Senator Hagan's response, I would like to hear from readers whether they think our representatives can come to an agreeable resolution that does not harm the ethical internet community while prosecuting those that steal and benefit from the work of legitimate individuals? Although we all want to prevent piracy and copyright infringement in this author community. We all do want to protect our property. However, the way to accomplish this does not include giving overwhelming power and control to a few governing bodies.

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Listen to CNET Round Table Discussion

• January 18, 2012 the day when Google censored its own logo, when Wikipedia and Craig's List went black may be an historic day in internet history! Who were the organizers of this joint protest?

I'm asking the Hubpages Community to participate in this protest along with wikipedia and potentially many other major internet information and communication websites.

Think of it as a day when the lights went out to protect our freedom of speech. Think of it as a day that could be the future of the internet if the powers in Congress had their way.

What you can do:

• Call your representatives on the telephone and leave a message: I am calling to protest the SOPA and bill that would limit the people's freedom of information on the internet.

• Write them a letter

• Email your House Representatives

• Email your State Senator

• In place of the blackout you can utilize Twitter media service to create awareness around the globe on this important issue. Check the Twitter tweets going by with SOPA in the hashtags and retweet important news.

• The Washington Post

1. Wikipedia Will Blackout In 24 Hours posted by GoldenBird asks SOPA and PIPA are two proposed laws that will enable copyright holders to accuse websites which hosts pirated content. Wikipedia, in protest, will blackout English Wikipedia for 24 hours. Should Internet be free and open worldwide?
2. Obama Just Killed SOPA But IP Goes Before Congress on Jan 24 2012 started by Michele Travis. Learn what happens when the president vetoes a bill before Congress.
3. Anti Sopa Petitions begun by Wesman Todd Shaw Just because the one day blackout event has ended does not mean the problem is solved or over.

Here are a sampling of tweets from January 17, 2012

jimmy_wales Jimmy Wales Student warning! Do your homework early. Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday! #sopa 16 Jan Retweeted 100+ times

LanceUlanoff Lance Ulanoff Google to Use Homepage to Protest SOPA on Wednesday on.mash.to/ylcpAU RT @mashable

JohnLusher John Lusher  Google to Use Homepage to Protest SOPA on Wednesday: You won’t see a blank page at Google.com on Wed... bit.ly/wxt9AA

tweetmeme TweetMeme Google will protest SOPA using popular home page | Media Maverick - CNET News bit.ly/yHMPRW (via @iDoxtor)

KevinMinott Kevin Minott Hollywood: SOPA’s DNS Blocking ‘Off The Table’: The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Hollywood’s... bit.ly/w8Twc9

GRGimage GRGimage Hollywood: SOPA’s DNS Blocking ‘Off The Table’ bit.ly/ADRGH0 #socialmedia

DebbieMahler debbiemahler SOPA Stalling As Opposition Grows: Two controversial anti-piracy bills, SOPA in the House and PIPA in the Senate... bit.ly/yRGQ7L

LoriMoreno LoriMoreno Have you become a STOP SOPA lemming? twrt.me/lq80z9 via @markwschaefer

Hubpages has an important role as a major author website that has received over a billion views and over a million hubpages. Facts and Figures

The more you publish on Hubpages the more views you will get, but we want the freedom to find, research and search background information on the internet in order to write quality hubpages.

With over 15,000 active members, we can have an impact. Of course, if friends tell friends this impact can exponentially increase. That's why I will share this on Twitter and FaceBook and even send it out in an email.

• "Wikipedia has demonstrated the force that article-based web sites can have. It has also demonstrated the power of crowdsourcing as an important source of content creation." ibid Facts and Figures

• Hubpages can demonstrate the force of a few active and vocal people to change the course of how we use the internet.
  
  
• If SOPA and PIPA pass we may not be able to link to outside sources and references of information, taking away our First Amendment rights.
  
  
• BBC NEWS COVERAGE
  

• BetaNews Blog On Going Dark | Either SOPA or PIA ". . . would give the government broad powers to take down websites, seize domains and compel search engines from indexing these properties. Little more than a request from copyright holders is necessary. It's essentially guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation that would punish the many for the sins of the few, while disrupting the fundamental attributes that made the Internet so successful and empowered so many individuals or businesses to accomplish so much."

About the Author

This blog asks Hubpages members to get involved in the internet environment as a community activist. Each person who learns about the USA House Bills up for vote in Congress can send a message and voice their opinion. If you would like an open and free internet then speak now or forever hold your piece.

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JOIN ME AND CHANGE YOUR TWITTER AVATAR WITH THE SOPA BADGE #StopSopa Trending Twitter Art

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Debby Bruck, CHOM loves to write about various topics on Hubpages. She advocates for freedom of choice in health care and in the political environment. Debby is the founder of Homeopathy World Community a social network of professional homeopaths enlightening the world to the healing powers of energy medicines. She hosts numerous radio shows each week on a variety of health topics. Debby believes that homeopathy is the wave of the future that provides hope and healing to those who have tried every other approach. Follow Debby on Twitter. Check out "Inane Dumb Decisions"

If You Enjoy Hubpages You may want to Join Now.

If you do visit the Wikipedia Donation page to give $5 or more you will read a message from the founder:

From Wikipedia founder Jimmy WalesGoogle might have close to a million servers. Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff. We have 679 servers and 95 staff. Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web and serves 470 million different people every month – with billions of page views.

Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia. Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others.

When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners, but I decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others.

If everyone reading this donated $5, we would only have to fundraise for one day a year. But not everyone can or will donate. And that's fine. Each year just enough people decide to give. This year, please consider making a donation of $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wikipedia.

~ Thanks,

~ Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia Founder