January 17, 2012: SOPA Blackout

We will participate in Wednesday's SOPA blackout, joining Reddit, Wikipedia, and many other sites in protesting the really stupid bill currently before the House, as well as its companion, the "Protect IP Act," before the Senate. (I know that it would be nice of me to use phrasing like "Ill-advised and overly broad," but since I am not a politician, "stupid" it is, and "stupid" I'll call it.)

SJ Games has been victimized repeatedly by piracy over the years, and we're against it. Intellectual property is property, and the people who take it are thieves. That does not justify the creation of a complex, stupid law that will give the government draconian powers to act on unsupported and malicious complaints. Here's an EFF position paper with lots of detail.

Details of our down-ness are not yet worked out, so check tomorrow's Illuminator to find out exactly when and how you'll be seeing a black screen on this site.

A Texas scorecard for the bill:

• The U.S. Representative from our area, Lloyd Doggett, has already come out firmly against SOPA. Thank you, Congressman Doggett.
• Our senior Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, sent a politician's form letter: several paragraphs reiterating the Senate bill sponsors' justifications before saying that she wasn't on that committee but would "keep your views in mind" if the bill came before the whole Senate.
• Our junior Senator, John Cornyn, sent an auto-reply to my e-mail on December 23 but never actually responded. However, he was one of six senators who sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asking that Senate consideration of PIPA be delayed, so he may be thinking about leaving the dark side.

-- Steve Jackson