Difference between revisions of "1005: SOPA"
| Line 10: | Line 10: | ||
SOPA, the {{w|Stop Online Piracy Act}} and PIPA, the {{w|Protect IP Act}}, were pair of contraversial bills considered by the United States government late 2011 and early 2012. Inside of the bills contained the ability for the US government to deny access to American internet users at a judge's request. These would be activated if the government could prove a site was primarily used to harbour illegally distributed copyrighted goods, such as video games, music, and TV shows. | SOPA, the {{w|Stop Online Piracy Act}} and PIPA, the {{w|Protect IP Act}}, were pair of contraversial bills considered by the United States government late 2011 and early 2012. Inside of the bills contained the ability for the US government to deny access to American internet users at a judge's request. These would be activated if the government could prove a site was primarily used to harbour illegally distributed copyrighted goods, such as video games, music, and TV shows. | ||
| − | Many people considered this to be censorship and, as the bills game infamy online, many popular websites and web comics participated in a mass protest on January 18, 2012 to accounce their displeasure with the bill in an attempt to convince the | + | Many people considered this to be censorship and, as the bills game infamy online, many popular websites and web comics participated in a mass protest on January 18, 2012 to accounce their displeasure with the bill in an attempt to convince the House of Representatives to reverse their judgement, which had at the time been considered likely to pass if drafted. This was XKCD's participation in the protest. [[Randall]] discusses that as someone who would have better copyright protection that he would not have ever gotten popular if fans had not been allowed to distribute the comic. |
The image text referred to a common theme across protesting sites: a blackout of the internet. Sites such as Google changed to a black background, while Wikipedia prevented access by linking their sites to a black page with white text explaining their participation. | The image text referred to a common theme across protesting sites: a blackout of the internet. Sites such as Google changed to a black background, while Wikipedia prevented access by linking their sites to a black page with white text explaining their participation. | ||
| − | After the protest, the bills from being drafted on January 20, 2012. | + | After the protest, the bills postponed from being drafted on January 20, 2012. |
{{Comic discussion}} | {{Comic discussion}} | ||
Revision as of 21:20, 16 August 2012
| SOPA |
 Title text: In protest of SOPA, I'm currently getting totally blacked out. |
Explanation
SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA, the Protect IP Act, were pair of contraversial bills considered by the United States government late 2011 and early 2012. Inside of the bills contained the ability for the US government to deny access to American internet users at a judge's request. These would be activated if the government could prove a site was primarily used to harbour illegally distributed copyrighted goods, such as video games, music, and TV shows.
Many people considered this to be censorship and, as the bills game infamy online, many popular websites and web comics participated in a mass protest on January 18, 2012 to accounce their displeasure with the bill in an attempt to convince the House of Representatives to reverse their judgement, which had at the time been considered likely to pass if drafted. This was XKCD's participation in the protest. Randall discusses that as someone who would have better copyright protection that he would not have ever gotten popular if fans had not been allowed to distribute the comic.
The image text referred to a common theme across protesting sites: a blackout of the internet. Sites such as Google changed to a black background, while Wikipedia prevented access by linking their sites to a black page with white text explaining their participation.
After the protest, the bills postponed from being drafted on January 20, 2012.
add a comment! ⋅ add a topic (use sparingly)! ⋅ 
refresh comments!Discussion
Anyone try the brightness-contrast with the XKCD 2008 x-mas Special? 66.19.70.101 02:20, 9 January 2013 (UTC)
- Negative. 108.233.253.211 02:53, 9 January 2013 (UTC)
- Yes. There is NO color information in those black panels, all pixels read 0x000000. 108.162.216.53 20:52, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
- I tried it in Microsoft Office 2010 and got a faint, but very readable image just like the one above.141.101.99.42 18:35, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
What do they mean "typical XKCD fashion"? What other comics have hidden messages in them? 173.245.48.91 22:11, 8 August 2014 (UTC)
- The "typical xkcd fashion" line wasn't referring to the exact scenario of a hidden message in the comic. It was referring to the tendency of xkcd comics to have deeper messages (besides the explicit point being made) that may not be immediately visible. NealCruco (talk) 19:13, 17 March 2015 (UTC)
To me, the phrasing "I'm getting totally blacked out" suggests that the narrator is getting blackout drunk. Does anyone else get this impression, or am I crazy? 108.162.241.123 16:58, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
- Ah yes, I totally get that impression too. 103.22.201.115 14:45, 11 November 2015 (UTC)
PDF links and DYN link on the comic page are no longer available.
- Added links to archived versions of these, around the time the comic was published. – Yfmcpxpj (talk) 03:10, 14 January 2021 (UTC)
I'm glad both that there is a hidden joke and that somebody found and posted it, but the idea that somebody was playing around with brightness on every comic just to find if there is anything like that freaks me out even more than tongue awareness.
[[Category:]]
