 "Reddit declares blackout on January 18 to protest SOPA")
Reddit, the online sharing community is declaring a blackout day on January 18th to protest the upcoming legislation on Internet privacy, SOPA. A member of the Reddit community had previously declared December 29th, 2011 as Dump GoDaddy Day to protest the domain service’s support for SOPA. Now, on the 18th of January, 2012, Reddit is attempting to show the effect SOPA would have on the sharing site if the legislation were to be passed by shutting down the site from 8 am to 8 pm Eastern Standard Time (6:30 pm - 6:30 am Indian Standard Time).
Reddit’s swordsman for the blackout
Reddit said in a blog post that the site will be shut down with a message on display on how SOPA will destroy the internet. They said, “We will be displaying a simple message about how the PIPA/SOPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit, link to resources to learn more, and suggest ways to take action. We will showcase the live video stream of the House hearing where Internet entrepreneurs and technical experts (including reddit co-founder Alexis “kn0thing” Ohanian) will be testifying. We will also spotlight community initiatives like meetups to visit Congressional offices, campaigns to contact companies supporting PIPA/SOPA, and other tactics.”
According to the Washington Post , Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales wants to join in on Reddit’s protest. Wales said that he is in favour of the blackout and would like to act quickly to co-ordinate with Reddit for the blackout, however, he’s leaving the decision to users. He said the community should take a vote soon to blackout or not to blackout. Other supporters of the blackout, of course, include Anonymous, the hacker group who are tweeting up storms to provide information on and garner support from Facebook, Twitter and Google for the blackout.
Paddy does not, we repeat, definitely does NOT belong in the category of Mac-head (yeh right!). She does get excited by her iPhone and her iMac and her iPod Nano and her Macbook and Bali's iPad and her future iHouse (patent pending). Ok, so maybe her head is a little bit forbidden fruit shaped. She likes shooting video (iPhone 4 camera zindabad!) and editing montages (Final Cut Pro zindabad!), whether the scene calls for it or no. In her spare time, she's either kicking it on stage with KB the keyboard or kicking butt at Taekwondo.