SOPA Awareness

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The following was what loaded if you tried to access the site on January 18th, 2012. I saw some complainers whining that protesting was gay or that it didn’t accomplish anything. In this case, it did quite a lot. It raised awareness of a terrible bill that would have repercussions that the whiners would not enjoy if it passes. This isn’t to say that copyright protection isn’t important, because it is. There probably needs to be better legislation but SOPA was not it. In any case, if you joined the fight against SOPA, thank you; It’s rare that common folk will get together and rabble-rabble until they are heard.
EDIT: At least 18 senators now oppose the bill now since the protests.

If SOPA were to pass, you would load this website only to find out it was blocked. Please read why.

Today 70sBig.com is participating in the SOPA/PIPA boycott. The “Stop Online Piracy Act” and “PROTECT IP Act” are respectively House and Senate bills that falsely aim to reduce online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. In actuality this legislation invites Internet security risks, threatens online speech, hampers Internet innovation, bans or censors any website, and reduces our rights we have as internet users.

There’s a reason that other websites like Reddit and Wikipedia are participating in today’s boycott: the bills destroy every free right we have as internet users. Today 70’s Big wants to bring this to your attention so that you understand the implications of the bills and arm you with fire power in how we can help prevent them from passing. If we fail, this website (and many others) may be altered or banned from you.

First I want to share what a friend had to say about the bills. He works in and is knowledgeable about the information security field.

SOPA is the digital equivalent of politicians trying to slowly destroy the fundamental protections of our Bill of Rights through the guise of fear mongering that they’ve been doing with everything from organized crime to domestic terrorism. They market this supposed metastasis of problems with the internet such as digital crime and use it to say, “We need to control this and we’ll do it by basically taking your rights away, even if you don’t know it.” It’s humorous that they think they will solve problems because SOPA’s policies, when put into an actual technical implementation, will make it harder to distinguish the differences between their policy enforcement at network border gateways, real problems that service providers are having, or actual criminal attempts to subvert security and/or availability of network services. This is just one example of the bullshit SOPA presents and represents.

Philosophically, we’d be giving up our fundamental rights to do as we please on the internet. If I wanted someone telling me what I can or can’t do on the internet, I’d move to China, North Korea, or somewhere in the Middle East.

If this issue is confusing, maybe this video will clear things up for you:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Here are some links to help you learn more:
SOPA For Dummies
WordPress’ thoughts
Reddit’s thoughts
Reddit’s FAQ (explains both sides)
Wikipedia’s thoughts

Here are some links where you can actually DO something to help prevent these bills from passing:
Sign an anti-SOPA petition with Google
Stop American Censorship
Stop The Internet Blacklist Legislation (with information on how to contact and politely inform them that you will boycott them because of their support of SOPA)
Useful information for contacting your local representative
List of companies that support SOPA

Summary, TL;DR
Politics are rarely discussed on 70’s Big, but this legislation would not only affect this website, but your personal experience on the internet. Please review the information above and help us make a stand. It’s up to us to hold onto our freedom.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
–Margaret Mead

15 thoughts on “SOPA Awareness”

  5. “It’s rare that common folk will get together and rabble-rabble until they are heard”

    Sort of like occupy wall street. You interpreted those protests as if it was some sort of hippie hangout when the fact of the matter is it brought important issues into the national dialogue. A dialogue that prior to OWS, the Tea Baggers were dominating to nobody’s benefit.

    Regardless of your politics, I think it’s cool that you speak your mind and that you brought the site down yesterday to raise awareness about this bill.

    Release the Part II!

  6. Good work, Justin. I sent 3 emails to my Senators and my Congresscritter yesterday. It took quite a while to get to Patty Murray’s email, since her server was being hammered by all of the traffic. :-)

  7. Justin,

    lets say the length of my femurs are the same as yours, and the length of my tibia was the same as yours,ie our legs are same proportions. HOWEVER…let’s also say that your torso was about 3 inches longer than mine. You LB squat, I HB squat. Would our back angles be similar? or am i leaving something out? physics is a little foreign to me at the moment (currently taking a physics class in college though). But I get that the difference between HB and LB has a lot to do with the back angle created by the bar placement. But i also get that the difference for most in placement of the bar is roughly 2-3 inches…. with that little of a difference, how is a persons anthropometry not the most important factor in bar placement/type of squat to use.

    I say this because I HB squat, yet I feel I still use considerable amounts of hip drive and I don’t feel my body being as “upright” as one might think a HB should. I have a short torso.

    all that being said, I do understand that if i were to LB, that would shorten my moment arm even further, creating an even smaller angle at the hips thus amplifying the qualities in a good LB squat. But i guess what I’m asking is, is it possible for a HB squat to resemble a LB squat/involve more posterior chain than it “theoretically” does, due to a persons build?

    I know this belongs to the squat discussion from earlier, but I just thought of it now.

    also, feel free to kick me in the dick if I ever see you in person if this question is stupid as shit… as I said physics is one area of lifting I have yet to fully comprehend.

    Prob use this for Friday’s Q&A.

    –Justin

  9. I’m just confused as to the distinction you make between protesting about this, and the “Occupy” movement. Protesting is gay until you happen to agree with the cause?

  10. Occupy Movement – Protesting that they don’t have a job by actively doing something that does not get them a job.

    This – Protesting internet censorship by actively doing something that shows how bad internet censorship would be.

  13. Okay Justin, that works, one more thing to add that I thought of After i posted that.

    IF, IF, IF, my logic is correct, and someone with a short torso is LB squatting, is it possible for that person to be TOO posteriorly dominant in the squat, therefore requiring assistance exercises for the quads, in the same vein that theoretically a HB squatter requires say an RDL to make up for the anterior dominance of the HB squat.

  14. Don’t know if anybody will see this since there’s a new post.

    In my opinion, this cause is pretty much the same cause behind occupy wall street.

    The problem is wealthy people and large corporations lobbying for congress to do what they want. It’s the reason for our financial crisis (the purpose of occupy), and it’s the reason for SOPA and PIPA.

    They are the same cause! Whether or not either protest really accomplishes anything, or you agree with how they’re being carried out, the cause is the same, and you’re all on the same side.

  15. Pingback: » Q&A – 15

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