Nice strike today in support of a free internet

[viking60]

Just wanted to give you guys kudos for participating in the anti SOPA/PIPA strike today.
Good show!

[doktor5000]

Tell that to some of the german forum users

Actually i've appreciated it too, that Mageia helped fight censorship.

[wobo]

Not "some", actually it was one, claiming that the SOPA and PIPA issue only concerns USA. He also complained about the missing democracy at Mageia because the action was not properly discussed in advance. Believe me that this is not the position of the whole German crowd!

Anyhow, tonight in the main German tv news they showed a report about the action, starting with an explanation who was the initiator of the SOPA & PIPA (movie&music industry), the political situation (Republican party, the position of the White House), and about the Blackout action, featuring a short statement of the founder of Wikipedia. I can tell you that such a report in the main tv news is quite unusual. If they talk about computers at all then mostly about large German events (CeBIT) and privacy issues (Google, Facebook et al) or the war against child porn.

[viking60]

Well those Germans and their formalities. Next you will need a democratic decision to be officially against murder....
(To be fair; the french will make it an undemocratic decision - and be all for it )
In my book censorship is not OK - not even if it happens elsewhere. You may act against it always, everywhere without me participating in any process - democratic or undemocratic.
Fedora and Distrowatch participated too.
There is a clear tendency for politicians all over the world to desperately try to control the internet. Not all are as aware as the Germans (I am a great fan of the Bundes Verfassungs Gericht and their Data retention decision) - here people are comfortably numb and just don't care. And boy do the politicians and the bureaucrats try to exploit that!
They see that they can loose power and even be removed by the internet - so the their natural reaction is to try to control it. In the US I can mention Wikileaks. In the EU we have the Data retention. Throw in a few terrorists and pedophiles (not necessarily Catholic priests - but it helps) and you will get people to be all for "control".
Add some noble DRM and put that poor artist on the TV, that works and works and cannot feed his family because of piracy etc.. And everybody will be sympathetic to the new systems.
Everybody who did not flunk in history will know that these systems, once they are in place, will be abused for other and more practical "purposes"
And if the artists actually mean that their art should be protected by censorship and reduced freedom - then I will eat my socks.
They are just used for a "higher" purpose called "keeping my but in office".