Everyone Please Read: AUTOMATICWASHER.ORG TO GO DARK FOR 22 HOURS

[Unimatic1140]

Thousands of websites are going to go off line tomorrow (temporarily of course) to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills in the US House and Senate.

SOPA and PIPA are very very bad for mom and pop sites like automaticwasher.org. To sum it up if a bill like SOPA passes here is what could happen (this is just a fictional example): An automaticwasher.org member copies a copyrighted picture from Electrolux's website and uploads it to one of the threads. Electrolux sees this and complains to the government agency set up to enforce SOPA. This agency will force Google to clear every last mention of automaticwasher.org, force paypal to never process another donation and the worst part is they will force removal of the DNS entry of the domain automaticwasher.org which would prevent people from getting to the site. There would be nothing I could do to stop this process the way it is being set up.

Hollywood and the music industry are totally for this bill (imagine that). We must stop them.

We will be offline in protest from midnight central time until 10pm tomorrow Jan 18th.

<object width="853" height="480"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="853" height="480" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>
[this post was last edited: 1/17/2012-20:37]

 

[maytagbear]

Thank you, Robert!

Thank you for doing this.

I will miss AutomaticWasher.org, and I will miss everyone, but a day's protest seems to be small enough price to pay for what's at stake.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[turquoisedude]

Good on you, Robert! I support the decision to 'go dark' - thank you for this!!

 

[wayupnorth]

I AGREE

We have absolutely nothing to do with Hollywood or the music industry crap. Just a bunch of good people sharing their love of something we like and that right should not be taken away from us. By the way, I hope you mean January 18th, please.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Opps, thanks wayupnorth, I did mean January 18th. I just edited my original post.

 

[frigilux]

Fight the power!

 

[whirlykenmore78]

Right on Robert

Thank you for doing this! I fully support you and everyone else who shuts down to stop this "internet dictatorship". KEEP THE GOVERNMENT THE HELL OUT OF OUR WEBSITES!.
Nick

 

[MaytagA710]

Excellent Robert!

Thank you for doing this Robert, people need to stand up to poor and improperly tabeled legislation! Such a rediculous bill, should have been squashed right from the start.

On a joking side, with AW.org, Reddit, and Wikipedia down, what am I going to do tomorrow!?

 

[gansky1]

You have our support 100%!

 

Thanks for all you do to keep the site(s) great.  See you back here again Thursday night!

 

[peteski50]

In Dark!

Thank you Robert - we need to stick together and do what is necessary!

 

[pdub]

Thanks Robert

I also support this 100%.

 

[rickr]

Great idea! I support this too. Thank you Robert.

 

[tlee618]

I know you will do everything possible to keep the site going Robert!!  Thanks so much for all that you do.  Keep us posted.  

 

Terry

 

[aldspinboy]

100% !
Support !

 

[58limited]

On a joking side, with AW.org, Reddit, and Wikipedia down, w

Ha. I was thinking the same thing. I'm off on Wednesdays, so I spend a lot of time on here and other sites.

 

Thanks for doing this Robert, lets showem' what it will be like without very much internet if these bills pass.

 

[redcarpetdrew]

Bombs away!

We support you to the hilt! Kill two birds with one stone, tho... Seems ideal to squeeze a little system maint. in while you don't have any pesky posters in the way... LOL!

RCD

 

[jerrod6]

I read about this in the newspaper but didn't get enough information to understand the impact.  thanks for the example and I am in 100% support of the blackout support.  100%!

 

In addition to this we need to be contacting our reps in Washington so they understand our position on this.  Threaten to withhold our support and  votes for them in the next elections........they will get the message.

 

[joelippard]

I'm all for it!

It's none of their damn business what we choose to do online.  I think we have alot bigger problems in our country than this to address.

 

[swestoyz]

This is great Robert. Thank you so much for participating in the Blackout and all that you do for AW.org.

Ben

 

[rp2813]

100% in support of your decision Robert.

 

[Ultramatic]

<span style="font-size: medium;">You got vote Robert. Turn it off.</span>

 

[circlew]

I sure will miss it while it's out, but support you fully in doing this.

 

[whirlcool]

I agree with you too Robert. I am joining in too. The www.dual-reference.com website as well as the www.blacklabrador.com website will be going dark at the same time.
I am going to put up a page explaining the circumstances for the outage.

 

[arbilab]

As above, will greatly miss it and also support the blackout.

Jeezus, if that nonsense passed I couldn't even throw movie quotes into posts without a lawyer and a license agreement. As everybody ever in a Lucas movie once said, "I have a bad feeling about this."

It's another gawdam lobbying grab. Ostensibly benefitting a few media corporations. But idiots that they are, not realizing that people publicizing their properties benefits THEM and costs them NOTHING.

 

[mickeyd]

DELIGHTED to support your effort to stand up to corporate greed and Orwellian Big Brother Control. Your link was enlightening. I hope to see Congressman Higgins this Saturday and I will raise holy hell. Greed is so out of control today, and this is a glaring example.

 

In 40 minutes AW.org fades to black. This is historic and exciting. Till tomorrow night then.............

 

[golittlesport]

We are behind you

Thanks, Robert

 

[arbilab]

See y'all late tomorrow.

 

[Unimatic1140]

We're Back!

A big thanks to everyone here at aw.org for your support of us joining the SOPA/PIPA blackout today. Three sponsors of the SOPA bill in the House dropped their support today. It appears that the after the blackout today SOPA might be near death and hopefully the Senates bill PIPA wont be long behind.

There are many reasons to oppose this legislation. Here is another example of what could happen to us here at automaticwasher.org if this comes to pass...

Under the act, if someone personally wanted take our site down, all they would have to do is post a comment to the site that included copyrighted material.

If I didn't catch it in time or realize the text was copyrighted, the site could be reported. I certainly cannot afford a high-powered lawyer and the site would be shut down by the feds. Even if I could afford a lawyer we might not get our day in court until 14 months later. The perpetrator would succeed in getting rid of us at least until then. By that time it will be too late and all this would do nothing but help line lawyers' pockets.

I felt we did the right thing by joining the blackout today. We have to take a stand and protect the internet as we know it in any way we can.

OK, back to laundry and dishes everyone

ps I found it painful not to be able to check into aw.org today!

 

[lebron]

Lol that was rough

Glad to be back : )

 

[pulsator]

10:00pm rolled around...

... and then I realized it was still 9:00pm central time! Glad it's finally back!!! lol