The DLC temporary blackout

It is with great reluctance that we feel forced to undergo this temporary blackout of this site in solidarity of the anti-SOPA and anti-PIPA movement. We wish to refrain from becoming political except under extreme circumstances, and one has arisen in the United States that requires our urgent action.

There are two important pieces of legislation: SOPA ("Stop Online Piracy Act"), moving through Congress and its sister bill, PIPA ("Protect Intellectual Property Act") in the Senate. Both these bills present the same danger of radically transforming the free flow of information on the internet.

• Site owners will become liable for everything posted by its users, and could face jail time, heavy fines and DNS blacklisting if its users post copyright infringing content.
• Sites with user generated content including services such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter will be forced to monitor and censor everything uploaded by their users.
• Due process of law would be denied from site owners by initiating DNS blacklisting based solely on the good faith assertion of an individual copyright holder.
• The U.S. government would have the power to censor sites in a similar way to The Great Firewall of China.

For more information on why these bills are bad, see "What's Wrong With SOPA?", a one-page PDF rundown of SOPA from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and see this video for an explanation of the problems presented by PIPA.

Q: What can I do?

A: Call your representative and share your resistance to SOPA and PIPA

• Fight censorship - includes Voice-Over-IP to directly call your representative and share your opposition to SOPA & PROTECT-IP http://fightcensorship.info/
• Fight for the Future - features automatic email to your representative in opposition to PIPA http://www.fightforthefuture.org/pipa
• Stop American Censorship - features a Take Action Checklist with automatic emailing to congress. http://americancensorship.org/
• You may also find information on Contacting Elected Officials here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

If SOPA or PIPA pass, Government and corporations would be able to block any site anywhere in the world just for one infringing link. Sites with user generated content, including messageboards, will have to manually review and approve all content or risk getting shut down. Regular users face the possibility of 5 years in jail for posting any copyrighted work. Speak to your representative today and say NO to SOPA & PROTECT-IP.

For those who are not in the US, you can help by sharing this information on your social networks and via email and save the internet and freedom of information for all mankind.