[Koha] US-Centric question - SOPA/PIPA protest blackout on k-c.org tomorrow (US time)?

[MJ Ray]

robin at catalyst.net.nz
> Unfortunately this is one of those wonderful US govt initiatives that 
> will affect people in many countries. On the flip side, there's very 
> little those of us in said other countries can do about it.

Some are hoping to use the new e-petitions mechanism to get the UK
parliament to debate and ideally condemn the US proposals.  I doubt it
will work, but it's something we can do.  I'll post it to my website
and probably the co-op's homepage once I know where it is.

More to the point, the corrosive lobbyist grapevine (see
http://twit.tv/show/floss-weekly/192 ) means other governments will
doubtless bring forward similar proposals (if they haven't already),
so make sure that you are in touch with your local campaigns. In
Europe, EDRI.org is a good starting point. Also, look at any business
or professional groups that you or your organisation support and check
whether they are involved and on what side.

Sometimes these bad laws will purport to be about copyright
infringement (I live on the coast so I will not call it piracy),
counterfeiting or pornography, but those are secondary issues used as
trojan horses: these laws are primarily giving control of public
internet access to certain corporations that the public would choose
to avoid in an open market (see Phorm for the public avoiding someone).

Anyway, I'm happy it's a protest not a blackout.

Regards,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/