STOP SOPA – #openttdcoop blackout
You may have gathered that the United States are trying to pass a bunch of laws named the Stop Online Pirace Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). These laws are a threat to internet freedom and may be copied to other countries if they are passed. Fortunately the former has been put on the shelves indefinitely under the pressure that has been put on the American Congress over the past few weeks but PIPA is still on its way.
Information on SOPA (and PIPA) can be found in this video or the Reddit article that started it all or this wikipedia article or this video that is a bit more ranty. The Reddit article explains what will basically happen: the internet will blackout on Wednesday the 18th of January. Currently 150 sites are supporting this action, amongst them are: Wikipedia, Reddit, AOL, Mozilla, WordPress, Tucows, Red 5 (makers of FireFall), Riot Games (makers of League of Legends, currently the biggest game on the planet), Mojang, Creative Commons and a lot of others. A full list can be found at Sopa Strike. Google, Facebook, Twitter and others might join in in a less disruptive way.
Under the #openttdcoop members there are several people who like a free and censorship-free internet. Thus we are supporters of what Anonymous have now dubbed OpBlackout and thus we will join in on this global action. We will block access to all our services except from the ones that will allow you to keep playing OpenTTD on Wednesday the 18th from 0:00 to 23:59 CET (GMT+1). Services will resume as regular at midnight on Thursday the 19th as if nothing has happened.
Happy fighting for internet freedom.
Note also that wikipedia put up a page explaining the context and their reasons to join this internet freedom campaign: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout
The block was a great succes IMO, not just for #openttdcoop but for all websites opposing SOPA. It got people talking about it and made them realize what SOPA could mean to internet as we know it. Thanks for making people realize and value what freedom of speech means and stands for.