Sometimes the people in my country just embarass the hell out of me! Then the others rally round and remind me why I'm proud of us most of the time!!! Thank you for posting all of this damned vital stuff!!! Blessings to all who participated, and those who would have if they had known in time (I am one of these)

Thank goodness it's at least lamed. I have a feeling that the outcome to the ACLU vs. the Salem, MO public library lawsuit could have an impact on future attempts at these bills.

Sopa is nearly defeated, It's not technically dead, but it's drowning in eel infested waters. http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/20/tec hnology/SOPA_PIPA_postponed/index.h tm

Don't forget to call your senators! Because of Reddit(for getting the ball rolling (I love you Reddit!)) and the rest of the internet we ARE making a difference! Your senators want to hear from you though. When their phones are ringing non-stop with calls about how out raged we are about SOPA/PIPA it makes them realize how important this is to the citizens. It only takes a moment to call. Because of calls from people like me and others living in Oregon, all Democrats in Oregon congressional delegation now oppose SOPA/PIPA.

I received a newsletter from the fightforthefuture.org group, apparently this was actually a fairly large success. Here's the text:

Today was nuts, right?

Google launched a petition. Wikipedia voted to shut itself off. Senators' websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them. NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks.

You made history today: nothing like this has ever happened before. Tech companies and users teamed up. Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms. The free network defended itself. Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear: from today forward, it will be much harder to mess up the internet.

The really crazy part? We might even win.

Approaching Monday's crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA. Last week there were 5. And it just takes just 41 solid "no" votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate. What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach.

But don't trust predictions. The forces behind SOPA & PIPA (mostly movie companies) can make small changes to these bills until they know they have the votes to pass. Members of Congress know SOPA & PIPA are unpopular, but they don't understand why--so they're easily duped by superficial changes. The Senate returns next week, and the next few days are critical. Here are two things to think about:

1. Plan on calling your Senator every day next week. Pick up the phone each morning and call your Senators' offices, until they vote "no" on cloture. If your site participated today, consider running a "Call the Senate" link all next week.

2. Tomorrow, drop in at your Senators' district offices. We don't have a cool map widget to show you the offices nearest you (we're too exhausted! any takers?). So do it the old fashioned way: use Google, or the phonebook to find the address, and just walk in, say you oppose PIPA, and urge the Senator to vote "no" on cloture. These drop-in visits make our spectacular online protests more tangible and credible.

That's it for now. Be proud and stay on it!

--Holmes, Tiffiniy, and the whole Fight for the Future team.

___

P.S. Huge credit goes to participants in the 11/16 American Censorship Day protest: Mozilla, 4chan, BoingBoing, Tumblr, TGWTG, and thousands of others. That's what got this ball rolling! Reddit, both the community and the team behind it, you're amazing. And of course, thanks to the Wikimedians whose patient and inexorable pursuit of the right answer brought them to take world-changing action. Thanks to David S, David K, Cory D, and E Stark for bold action at critical times.

P.P.S. If you haven't already, show this video to as many people as you can. It works! http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/

I was too late finding out about the blackout. It wasn't until I attempted to find some info on wiki that I knew... after I blogged :/

So far it's failed.....time will tell if it's for real or not though.

My tiny contribution was blacking out my business site because I have an infringing name.