I support phish.net supporting the blackout.

side rant....US laws should not govern the internet...a worldwide network

I agree with dyn0mite.

I actually wrote a lengthy note to my appropriate congressmen.
I'm on this site every single day, and phish.net has my constant support.
To think that any government or overseer could ever have any say in how a place like this operates appalls me, and I will do what it takes to never let that happen.

Thanks for all you do!

If SOPA or PIPA become laws we all need to create our own internet... with black jack and hookers!

How can anyone control such a huge network of pipes and tubes?

originally thought the site was hacked...glad .net is back...and +1 for a good cause

Also, I for one thought that the Phish.net black-out looked way better, and more flashier, than the wikipedia one. I did not really see any other sites with the black-out so I cannot comment on those. I just wish google had participated more in it. Of course that would just mean everyone would actually use Yahoo for a change.

@dyn0mite said:

I support phish.net supporting the blackout.

side rant....US laws should not govern the internet...a worldwide network

There are already plenty of U.S. laws that govern the internet. Think about it. There are laws that do good for the internet. Unfortunately SOPA and PIPA would be very negative to the internet. They would stop very little piracy and put the badges of the internet in the large corporations.

**applause**
Nice job, guys! @sethadam1 is the man!

I support this cause, but I missed you guys. Nice to be back.

I wasn't involved in the decision to black out Phish.net, but I wholeheartedly supported it.

I wrote to my reps in DC and 2 of the 3 I wrote to have come out against SOPA/PIPA when they hadn't been before. Oddly enough it was the 2 Republicans who did, I am very disappointed in my Democratic Senator right now and she will be hearing from me again if she doesn't announce something soon.

[Just so you guys know, @sethadam1 was very serious about this blackout - I tried to get to the admin tools to do some behind the scenes work yesterday and I was locked out there too!]

i did my part but really missed .net

Wrote my reps too. Was very disappointed that my Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who I had campaigned for and donated to as a congresswoman supported PIPA, as well as other Senators I generally respect, like Pat Leahy from VT, who generally seems like a good guy. Guess that's the power of money and lobbying (and also not having technically competent staff that doesn't really get into the techie details of some of these bills as much as they should and is surprised when there's an outcry). Hope the protest changed their minds!

One thing users of Phish.net know is that we are already vigilant about enforcing copyright laws and protecting rightsholders. Our site's Terms of Use prohibit posting copyrighted materials (like pirate links to LivePhish.com soundboards, as opposed to band allowed audience recordings). We request (and receive) permission to sometimes reproduce Phish’s copyrighted photos and videos. When we do, we properly display their ©.

Anyone who has tried to post links to copyrighted materials in the forum for instance knows that admins (and users!) enforce the ToU with thumbs down and calling out violators.

While we don’t think Phish would ride roughshod over ToU enforcement in a SOPA/PIPA world, the same cannot be said for many other corporations. We know the RIAA and MPAA have tried to sue individual users, sometimes children, over downloading pirate materials. In countries like China and Russia (as well as here with WikiLeaks), the copyright laws are sometimes used to quash political dissent, by forcing payment processors or advertisers not to use a site, or jailing dissidents who have unlicensed copies of software like Microsoft Word on their hard drives, as a pretext.

We already have tools to go after piracy, which is less of a problem anyway with subscription service models like iTunes, Spotify and Netflix. SOPA/PIPA is a sledgehammer approach to kill a fly, and anyone who thinks folks like the RIAA and MPAA should just be able to shut down entire websites on their say-so without notice and opportunity for the sites to respond is advocating for a world like George Orwell would have imagined in 1984.

ColForbin wrote, "I wrote to my reps in DC and 2 of the 3 I wrote to have come out against SOPA/PIPA when they hadn't been before. Oddly enough it was the 2 Republicans who did, I am very disappointed in my Democratic Senator right now and she will be hearing from me again if she doesn't announce something soon."

Historically Republicans support less govt. regulation and a smaller govt. so it seems to make sense to me; however, I do agree with most of what you wrote. When I tried to write to my CO Senators the links to their emails were conveniently not working the last couple of days. Props to phish.net for doing the right thing!

Big kudos to zachstronaut for the template and the phish.net guys for going through with the protest.

It's great that it got so many senators (10 - 13) to change their stance on the bill. At the same time, it's pathetic that so many senators put their support behind bills that they didn't understand.