xkcd

by **@maniexx** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:16 pm UTC

Wnderer wrote:What sites are protesting SOPA today? So far I found xkcd, google, duckduckgo and wikipedia. Yahoo, bing, dogpile and wolfram-alpha aren't showing anything.

Also, xnxx.com :oops:

by **Wnderer** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:29 pm UTC

PolakoVoador wrote:
Wnderer wrote:What sites are protesting SOPA today? So far I found xkcd, google, duckduckgo and wikipedia. Yahoo, bing, dogpile and wolfram-alpha aren't showing anything.

Reddit and Cyanide&Happiness are also blacked out. And Gizmodo is doing something too.

Firefox has a banner, but not Opera.

And the Gnu website.

: gnu.png (45.06 KiB) Viewed 4344 times

by **PM 2Ring** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:36 pm UTC

A_of_s_t wrote:
Kibate wrote:Good job on noticing the hidden message, i wouldn't have seen it too
Spoiler:

You have to be kidding me... is that really what's hidden? (I can't see it on my monitor)

Would we lie to you? :mrgreen:

I can just see it on this monitor, but it's pretty easy to see with any image viewer that let's you adjust the contrast & brightness.

Or you can use this handy piece of JavaScript I just whipped up, assuming you're running a browser that can handle the HTML5 Canvas element...

Code: Select all: <!DOCTYPE html> <html><head> <title>Reveal</title> <script type="text/javascript"> var context, img; function byId(id) {return document.getElementById(id)} function init() { // Get the canvas element. var canvas = byId('myCanvas'); if (!canvas || !canvas.getContext) return; // Get the canvas 2d context. context = canvas.getContext('2d'); if (!context || !context.getImageData || !context.putImageData || !context.drawImage) return; img = byId('myImage'); canvas.height = img.height; canvas.width = img.width; process() } // Get canvas pixel data from context ctx function get_pixels(ctx, ox, oy, w, h) { try { try { //Attempt to read canvas data var imgd = ctx.getImageData(ox, oy, w, h); } catch (e) { //Ask user to give us permission to read canvas data netscape.security.PrivilegeManager.enablePrivilege("UniversalBrowserRead"); var imgd = ctx.getImageData(ox, oy, w, h); } } catch (e) { var msg = "Unable to access Canvas image data: " + e; alert(msg); throw new Error(msg); } return imgd; } function change(x){return (x>0 && x<16) ? 255 - x : x} function process() { // Draw the image on canvas. context.drawImage(img, 0, 0); // Get the pixels. //var imgd = context.getImageData(0, 0, img.width, img.height); var imgd = get_pixels(context, 0, 0, img.width, img.height); var pix = imgd.data; // Loop over each pixel for (var i = 0; i < pix.length; i += 4) { pix[i ] = change(pix[i ]); // red pix[i+1] = change(pix[i+1]); // green pix[i+2] = change(pix[i+2]); // blue // i+3 is alpha (the fourth element) } // Draw the ImageData object. context.putImageData(imgd, 0, 0); } </script> </head> <body> <img src='http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/sopa.png' id="myImage" onload="init()"><hr> <canvas id="myCanvas">Your browser does not have support for Canvas.</canvas> </body> </html>

Just save the above file somewhere, give it an .htm (or .html) extension and open it in your browser. Your browser will probably warn you that you're doing a potentially unsafe operation because you're reading and modifying data from a website that it's not sure about.

Tested in Firefox and Konqueror.

by **Chezzik** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:37 pm UTC

Wnderer wrote:What sites are protesting SOPA today? So far I found xkcd, google, duckduckgo and wikipedia. Yahoo, bing, dogpile and wolfram-alpha aren't showing anything.

Long list here:
http://sopastrike.com/

Copied into this spoiler:

Spoiler:

It's obviously not complete. For example, boardgamegeek isn't in there.

by **kargoth** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:47 pm UTC

Ya'll are getting way too technical to see the background. Copy it into paint, flood the black background with yellow, read away

by **Johnnyjohnny** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 4:48 pm UTC

http://sopastrike.com/strike/

Send messages. DO it.

by **RyanfaeScotland** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:11 pm UTC

DrZiro wrote:Fun fact: In Swedish, "sopa" means "piece of trash".

Fun Fact: You got ninja'd.

Wnderer wrote:What sites are protesting SOPA today? So far I found xkcd, google, duckduckgo and wikipedia. Yahoo, bing, dogpile and wolfram-alpha aren't showing anything.

I didn't see anything on Google but then noticed I'm using .co.uk and it is only the .com that has changed (I think, I didn't check them all). Not a huge change to it like, just a small link, but it is still cool to see Google on 'our' side.

It's kinda annoying how us Scots (and the rest of the Brits) are getting all these anti-SOPA messages yet very few of them carry any information on what non-yanks should do to help. Best I've got so far was e-mail the US Embassy but I'm doubtful that will do any good. Anyone else got any suggestions?

by **Khaba** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:13 pm UTC

I've been a bit too busy to follow the SOPA/PIPA thing in incredible detail - how would these bills prevent Randall or any content owner from allowing their work to be shared, as he implies in the caption?

(Apologies if this is a dumb question.)

by **Webzter** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:19 pm UTC

RyanfaeScotland wrote:It's kinda annoying how us Scots (and the rest of the Brits) are getting all these anti-SOPA messages yet very few of them carry any information on what non-yanks should do to help. Best I've got so far was e-mail the US Embassy but I'm doubtful that will do any good. Anyone else got any suggestions?

Reddit has some good information under the non-US citizen section (and, associated with that, the preceding section on ACTA)

by **jasc15** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:27 pm UTC

Forgive my ignorance on the issue, (I've heard about this in passing since October, but it seemed to mostly come from people complaining that they won't be able to continuously torrent GB's of copyrighted material 24/7) but how does this affect a site like XKCD? Some imply that the slightest mention, or link to copyrighted material on a site could lead to that site's censorship (some of the avatars used here, for example).

by **J Thomas** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:40 pm UTC

jasc15 wrote:Forgive my ignorance on the issue, (I've heard about this in passing since October, but it seemed to mostly come from people complaining that they won't be able to continuously torrent GB's of copyrighted material 24/7) but how does this affect a site like XKCD? Some imply that the slightest mention, or link to copyrighted material on a site could lead to that site's censorship (some of the avatars used here, for example).

What I see claimed boils down to basicly:

Any corporation that has sufficient clout can get any website shut down whose friends do not have sufficient clout, and there isn't much anybody could do about it -- unless of course they have enough clout.

Basicly, six or so giant corporations could shut down anybody they wanted to in the USA, and each of them is strong enough that nobody else could intervene -- unless another of the six chose to oppose it.

Maybe they would be kind and altruistic and all, and it wouldn't actually be much of a problem. It's a question of what legal rights they should have.

by **VanDerZagallo** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:47 pm UTC

Does anyone know if facebook will 'blackout' too? That would be interesting.

by **Fire Brns** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:51 pm UTC

Untill I saw the background behind the black I figured Sopa might as well be in place because I didn't get my funny. But this reminds me of how people just sit in groups who agree with each other.Sopa will not be stopped because of this comic I doubt anyone in congress will ever see it.

When someone on another site explained how broad sopa actually was, I decided I didn't like it. Before that all I heard was a bunch of free information websites are against it with no explanation why which left me undecided.

Netzach wrote:Why do these laws have such ridiculous names? In Swedish "sopa" means "a piece of garbage" and "pipa" means "to squeek" amongst other meanings.

In spanish sopa means soup. but then again acronyms like "farc" make no sense to english speakers (I tack on an "e" at the end).

by **jpers36** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:51 pm UTC

jasc15 wrote:Forgive my ignorance on the issue, (I've heard about this in passing since October, but it seemed to mostly come from people complaining that they won't be able to continuously torrent GB's of copyrighted material 24/7) but how does this affect a site like XKCD? Some imply that the slightest mention, or link to copyrighted material on a site could lead to that site's censorship (some of the avatars used here, for example).

My best understanding: the biggest issue is that large corporations will be able to claim damages and commit harm to other, probably smaller websites without due process. Post-SOPA/PIPA, the assumption will be that the takedown claim is valid and the burden of proof will be on the site taken down. On top of that, the definition of infringement will be vastly widened to include linking to an infringing site, even in user-generated content. For example, Google will be forced to stop returning search results to any site deemed infringing by the government, lest they be labelled infringing themselves.

by **dasper** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:54 pm UTC

It would be really nice to have a hard link to this page so I can link it on Facebook with an accurate thumbnail and other sites as well so it makes more sense in a week.

by **VanDerZagallo** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:56 pm UTC

jasc15 wrote:Forgive my ignorance on the issue, (I've heard about this in passing since October, but it seemed to mostly come from people complaining that they won't be able to continuously torrent GB's of copyrighted material 24/7) but how does this affect a site like XKCD? Some imply that the slightest mention, or link to copyrighted material on a site could lead to that site's censorship (some of the avatars used here, for example).

This video explains a little bit about it: http://vimeo.com/31100268 (I would use the url code, if I could)

by **Fire Brns** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:58 pm UTC

Khaba wrote:I've been a bit too busy to follow the SOPA/PIPA thing in incredible detail - how would these bills prevent Randall or any content owner from allowing their work to be shared, as he implies in the caption?

(Apologies if this is a dumb question.)

^This is what I was trying to say I felt. The explanation made recently still does not decently explain it.
Sopa I an overuse of copyright protection; basically making the internet a police state run by corporations, it would make youtube clips where someone posts an "edited version of a family guy scene" illegal.

VanDerZagallo wrote:Does anyone know if facebook will 'blackout' too? That would be interesting.

and no.

by **Cousj001** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 6:17 pm UTC

There is a list of all websites who are protesting against SOPA today. I tried counting, but I gave up after 800.
http://sopastrike.com

by **Icalasari** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 6:48 pm UTC

Ctrl-Alt-Del and Shortpacked! are also rallying against SOPA, as is 4chan (all text posts are being auto censored there)

Interestingly, Penny Arcade doesn't seem to be doing anything. I'd have expected them to join in =/

by **jpers36** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 6:53 pm UTC

Sluggy Freelance is participating as well. Red State isn't shutting down, but is restricting its main page posting to anti-SOPA articles for the day.

by **lingomaniac88** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:03 pm UTC

Felderburg wrote:All the comics I checked linked from the archive are blacked out... except for "Porn Folder" (http://xkcd.com/981/).

Strange. I found that #1003 shows up normally, and a lot of the others are blacked out.

by **Nylonathatep** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:05 pm UTC

From Penny Arcade

http://penny-arcade.com/2012/01/18

Brenna asked me what SOPA was last night, and I was quiet for about fifteen seconds while I tried to create a definition that would make any kind of sense to someone who wasn’t a Redditor. If you say that it’s a mechanism for curbing the distribution of copyrighted material, that’s not something that people think is “wrong.” This is a huge part of the problem, and if you have been wondering how things managed to get this far that’s a big part of it. Someone asked me my “stance” on SOPA/PIPA last week, and I told them that I had the same stance as every other conscious being; that it’s Satanic. But I didn’t know what to do.

Also I'll make this easier for everyone who doesn't have a cheap monitor.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd22 ... reveal.png

or just save today's comic into your harddrive, open with MS Paint, select "Fill with color" and click on a random black spot to reveal the message Mr Black hat guy have to say about SOPA.

by **Chezzik** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:34 pm UTC

Nylonathatep wrote:From Penny Arcade

http://penny-arcade.com/2012/01/18

Brenna asked me what SOPA was last night, and I was quiet for about fifteen seconds while I tried to create a definition that would make any kind of sense to someone who wasn’t a Redditor. If you say that it’s a mechanism for curbing the distribution of copyrighted material, that’s not something that people think is “wrong.” This is a huge part of the problem, and if you have been wondering how things managed to get this far that’s a big part of it. Someone asked me my “stance” on SOPA/PIPA last week, and I told them that I had the same stance as every other conscious being; that it’s Satanic. But I didn’t know what to do.

Also I'll make this easier for everyone who doesn't have a cheap monitor.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd228/lonewanderer666/sopareveal.png

or just save today's comic into your harddrive, open with MS Paint, select "Fill with color" and click on a random black spot to reveal the message Mr Black hat guy have to say about SOPA.

Or, just go to the first page, scroll down to the 6th reply, and click the "Spoiler" tag. You'll see it in black and white

by **cemper93** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 7:57 pm UTC

http://www.thedailywtf.com has a beautifully executed SOPA strike page. Actually, that page may be one of the best jokes they ever made.

http://www.panda3d.org is down too, but not mentioned in the list.

by **Chezzik** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:03 pm UTC

Fire Brns wrote:^This is what I was trying to say I felt. The explanation made recently still does not decently explain it.
Sopa I an overuse of copyright protection; basically making the internet a police state run by corporations, it would make youtube clips where someone posts an "edited version of a family guy scene" illegal.

If you are trying to convince a conservative that SOPA/PIPA is bad, it's very easy:

Say that you see it as the "Fairness Doctrine" part 2.

The Fairness Doctrine was an attempt to use the government to stop Rush Limbaugh's radio show, and, on the whole, control the whole radio industry. Like the show or not, it has been very successful, and Congress felt like it was their duty to stop it. Because of 1st amendment, they couldn't just make the show illegal, so instead, they tried to give the FCC the ability to withdraw licenses from stations whose programming was too biased.

Now, the government sees the internet as another huge industry that cannot be controlled. The wildest part of the internet is forums (like the one you are reading now), reddit, and youtube. People can, and do, say anything.

Once again, the first amendment gets in the way. But, Congress is creative. Is it possible for them to get the power to shutdown entire sites based only on the content posted to the site?

The answer is obvious ... copyrighted material. Find a site that you don't like, spam it with copyrighted material (as a plant), and then if they don't clean it up completely, have them shut down at the DNS level.

The only obstacles were technical (no current method to force DNS servers to drop records), and political (DMCA guarantees safe harbor privileges to ISPs and websites from the actions of users). SOPA/PIPA are designed to clear both obstacles.

Liberals are a little different. Some days they support the 1st amendment, other times, they see it as a barrier to more government control. The same argument may work for them too, but many of them want governmental control on Radio.

Usually scaremongering works with liberals. Explain that the RIAA and Disney are big business, and that they are the only ones pushing for this legislation.

Khaba wrote:I've been a bit too busy to follow the SOPA/PIPA thing in incredible detail - how would these bills prevent Randall or any content owner from allowing their work to be shared, as he implies in the caption?

(Apologies if this is a dumb question.)

The forums would not be allowed, because there is no way to guarantee that someone won't slip in quote that violates a copyright, or the DeCSS key into their post.

The comic itself would survive SOPA and PIPA, but the precedent of allowing the FCC to take down sites at a DNS level is dangerous, and it would leave open the door for more legislation that could make disliked content (such as XKCD) illegal.

by **A civilian** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:18 pm UTC

All these blackouts, all these news articles, all this EFF activism, and zero links to non-biased sources or even to the text of the bill.

It's sad how many teenagers will just sign these petitions without knowing or understanding what it is they're supporting. And the thing is, yes, the bills should be opposed, but if a swarm of pro-free-internet, anti-evil-corporate-overlord forumites voice their opposition for all the completely wrong reasons it's still a sad comment on the state of the Web's general public.

No, this is not directed against anyone in particular - in fact, there's been little to no discussion of SOPA on this thread. But I did read through all the signatures on the Wikipedia discussion on a blackout, and looked at all the EFF and Wiki links that they used to support their arguments.

by **Chezzik** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:49 pm UTC

A civilian wrote:All these blackouts, all these news articles, all this EFF activism, and zero links to non-biased sources or even to the text of the bill.
Are you joking?

You mentioned Wikipedia later in your comment. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org. Click "Learn More", the only link on the page. Start reading.

The first two links you'll come to are Wikipedia's pages about PIPA and SOPA. The third and fourth links you hit are to the text of the actual legislations.

A civilian wrote:It's sad how many teenagers will just sign these petitions without knowing or understanding what it is they're supporting. And the thing is, yes, the bills should be opposed, but if a swarm of pro-free-internet, anti-evil-corporate-overlord forumites voice their opposition for all the completely wrong reasons it's still a sad comment on the state of the Web's general public.

I don't speak for everyone, but it was almost 20 years ago that I was last "a teenager".

Despite what you think, it's not an anti-evil-corporate-overlord rant. It's an anti-government-controlling-what-we-say rant, which is generally a conservative principle.

Democrats and Republicans in Congress can both be found on both sides of the bill. To citizens on both sides of the political spectrum, this appears to be the perfect opportunity to determine which of our legislatures represent us, and which are just schills for special interests.

by **Rory** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:52 pm UTC

If tilting your monitor doesn’t reveal the hidden background to the comic, attached is an image I made by brightening the comic.

Transcription of hidden image:
A message from sysadmins everywhere:
black hat guy: “Seriously, don’t screw with DNS. If you break this internet, we are not making you a new one.”

by **jwa** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 8:56 pm UTC

A civilian wrote:All these blackouts, all these news articles, all this EFF activism, and zero links to non-biased sources or even to the text of the bill.

Here ya go, text of the bill:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.3261:

by **jpers36** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:03 pm UTC

A civilian wrote:... even to the text of the bill...

I think most citizens generally assume nowadays that the text of a bill being considered is either unreadable due to legalese (such as the PATRIOT Act) or just plain unavailable (such as Nancy Pelosi's comment about PPACA that "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."). And this assumption is held both by the politically naive and the politically astute. If either of these assumptions is incorrect, please let us know.

by **Turing Machine** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:09 pm UTC

Quicksilver wrote:I came here today in case Randall had something planned. Very creative.

doing what every single other site has done

lolcreative

by **d0nk3y_k0n9** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:15 pm UTC

Has anyone else noticed that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopa and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative still work, but nothing else on Wikipedia does as far as I can tell?

by **Fire Brns** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:42 pm UTC

d0nk3y_k0n9 wrote:Has anyone else noticed that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopa and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative still work, but nothing else on Wikipedia does as far as I can tell?

Press esc before the page loads completely and all pages will work, I tested with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato.

by **Antior** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:49 pm UTC

Fire Brns wrote:
d0nk3y_k0n9 wrote:Has anyone else noticed that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopa and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative still work, but nothing else on Wikipedia does as far as I can tell?
Press esc before the page loads completely and all pages will work, I tested with <a href="wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato">Potato</a>.

For Wikipedia, you can use the mobile site, disable javascript, or just add ?banner=no to an url. Apparently Jimbo et al. wanted to keep the site viewable in case people 'really' need it.

About the 'comic', could someone please add the alt-text to the original post in this thread?

Additionally, this comic isn't in the Archive page, and if I remember correctly, usually new comics are added to that page right away. There's also the lack of back/forward buttons (because of the black-out). This makes me wonder if this is actually comic 1005, or an unnumbered SOPA message; which would make Friday's comic #1005 (and probably cause some confusion).

by **Webzter** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:53 pm UTC

Fire Brns wrote:
d0nk3y_k0n9 wrote:Has anyone else noticed that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopa and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative still work, but nothing else on Wikipedia does as far as I can tell?
Press esc before the page loads completely and all pages will work, I tested with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato.

Just turn off JavaScript.

by **RyanfaeScotland** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:59 pm UTC

Rory wrote:If tilting your monitor doesn’t reveal the hidden background to the comic, attached is an image I made by brightening the comic.

sopa-hidden-image.png

Transcription of hidden image:
A message from sysadmins everywhere:
black hat guy: “Seriously, don’t screw with DNS. If you break this internet, we are not making you a new one.”

Holy-bloody-arse-shit-fucking-crazy-crap, does no-one read the other posts in this forum except maybe a handful of people (Chezzik getting honourable mention) ?

Well done on brightening the comic, there is only 5 other posts explaining how to do it and 1 that has already done it and posted it. Your nobel prize is surely in the post.

by **Fire Brns** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:02 pm UTC

RyanfaeScotland wrote:
Rory wrote:If tilting your monitor doesn’t reveal the hidden background to the comic, attached is an image I made by brightening the comic.

sopa-hidden-image.png

Transcription of hidden image:
A message from sysadmins everywhere:
black hat guy: “Seriously, don’t screw with DNS. If you break this internet, we are not making you a new one.”

Holy-bloody-arse-shit-fucking-crazy-crap, does no-one read the other posts in this forum except maybe a handful of people (Chezzik getting honourable mention) ?

Well done on brightening the comic, there is only 5 other posts explaining how to do it and 1 that has already done it and posted it. Your nobel prize is surely in the post.

We need a rule: Scroll through all the pages of thread if there is <5; read page one and most recent before current if >5.

by **d0nk3y_k0n9** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:12 pm UTC

Webzter wrote:
Fire Brns wrote:
d0nk3y_k0n9 wrote:Has anyone else noticed that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopa and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative still work, but nothing else on Wikipedia does as far as I can tell?
Press esc before the page loads completely and all pages will work, I tested with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato.

Just turn off JavaScript.

Obviously there are ways around what they've done; what I was trying to point out is that they've left the pages related to SOPA still accessible normally.

by **BytEfLUSh** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 11:33 pm UTC

Turing Machine wrote:
Quicksilver wrote:I came here today in case Randall had something planned. Very creative.

doing what every single other site has done

lolcreative

Can you post a link to some other site that has done this?

Fire Brns wrote:We need a rule: Scroll through all the pages of thread if there is <5; read page one and most recent before current if >5.

If number of pages == 5, stay calm and DO NOT PANIC!

by **DisreputableDog** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:13 am UTC

If you're outside the United States, petition the State Department.

http://americancensorship.org/#petition-state-department

(which I found on Metafilter)

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