# Google, Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo all shutting down for a day in protest!



## uDaeth

On January 23rd, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Yahoo are all considering shutting down in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act

More on this:
http://paulshireytech.com/2012/01/06/you-could-lose-google-yahoo-amazon-and-facebook/


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## tehdansorz

Dammit!Maybe people don't have the money to buy something huh?Maybe people need a good antivirus to get but don't have enough money?I will never tolerate that!!:down: :down: :down: :down: :down: :down: :down: :down:


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## dustyjay

Trying to tie in the Anti-virus here.


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## namenotfound

Is it all of Google (like search), or just their stupid YouTube site?


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## ThePCguy95

Truthfully, I hope this happens. It will be an eye-opener to the public and could cause a bit of backlash withing the government if people actually understood what this could do. And how is antivirus software relevant? I'm just a bit curious.

And to namenotfound, it will be search, not just YouTube.


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## uDaeth

People actually torrent antivirus, believe it or not


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## uDaeth

tehdansorz said:


> Dammit!Maybe people don't have the money to buy something huh?Maybe people need a good antivirus to get but don't have enough money?I will never tolerate that!!:down: :down: :down: :down: :down: :down: :down: :down:


I don't support SOPA, I just report the news


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## namenotfound

I don't understand tehdansorz's complaint. What does antivirus have to do with SOPA?

SOPA would give record labels (and others) a kill switch to the Internet, they'd be able to shoot first and ask questions later (or never).

So what does this have to do with antiviruses?


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## uDaeth

namenotfound said:


> I don't understand tehdansorz's complaint. What does antivirus have to do with SOPA?
> 
> SOPA would give record labels (and others) a kill switch to the Internet, they'd be able to shoot first and ask questions later (or never).
> 
> So what does this have to do with antiviruses?


There's people who actually torrent anti-virus instead of getting free anti-virus. The original purpose of SOPA was to prevent online-piracy but we know it's exactly what you said, an advantage for Hollywood. Either way, it's a fundraiser for the government. Once they get enough political donations they will say it's not passed


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## ThePCguy95

uDaeth said:


> There's people who actually torrent anti-virus instead of getting free anti-virus. The original purpose of SOPA was to prevent online-piracy but we know it's exactly what you said, an advantage for Hollywood. Either way, it's a fundraiser for the government. Once they get enough political donations they will say it's not passed


I love the end of this comment, It is exactly what they will do. The only thing is that they will do it in a legal and inconspicuous way...

And if people torrent Antivirus software, can they not just use Avira, AVG, or even Windows Defender? (Not that I like defender, but it is free.)

Edit:
I guess I skimmed over what uDaeth said about free software before I wrote this, oops.


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## Ent

ThePCguy95 said:


> or even Windows Defender? (Not that I like defender, but it is free.)


MSE is a full antivirus solution by Microsoft that superseeds Windows Defender. It's also free.


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## TheShooter93

> Either way, it's a fundraiser for the government. Once they get enough political donations they will say it's not passed


While it may be...there's a lot of big companies backing its passing. While some have withdrawn their support, there's still a good sized list. It's not as if we can shrug it off thinking it won't pass. Because if we don't, it likely will pass.


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## uDaeth

TheShooter93 said:


> While it may be...there's a lot of big companies backing its passing. While some have withdrawn their support, there's still a good sized list. It's not as if we can shrug it off thinking it won't pass. Because if we don't, it likely will pass.


It's a fundraiser. But believe me, we are fighting it.


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## Blackmirror

i cant live without Google
its my god lol


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## Phantom010

I'm more worried about the consequences of that "Stop Online Piracy Act" than losing Google for a day. As for Facebook, they can leave it down indefinitely!


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## valis

last I heard this was a 'may shut down'........not a 'will shut down'.

either way, I'll believe it when I see it.


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## valis

Phantom010 said:


> I'm more worried about the consequences of that "Stop Online Piracy Act" than losing Google for a day. *As for Facebook, they can leave it down indefinitely! *


seconded and carried........


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## uDaeth

Ent said:


> MSE is a full antivirus solution by Microsoft that superseeds Windows Defender. It's also free.


I use MSE on all systems I built for my clients


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## Phantom010

And besides, there are quite a few search engines out there... I'll use Bing on the 23rd.


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## valis

like I said, I'll believe Google will voluntarily shut down when I see it.


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## CrazyComputerMan

No problem for me!

I'll just ask friends to use TSG instead of Facebook and hey it's 100% better then Facebook. Untilness Mike want to join this campaign but i think he wont


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## uDaeth

namenotfound said:


> Is it all of Google (like search), or just their stupid YouTube site?


It would be all of google including all services associated with it most likely (except adsense)


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## uDaeth

Phantom010 said:


> And besides, there are quite a few search engines out there... I'll use Bing on the 23rd.


True, but Google isn't just a search engine


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## Ent

If this goes ahead, should we have a big notice explaining what's going on to prevent a huge influx of "google isn't working" threads?


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## uDaeth

Ent said:


> If this goes ahead, should we have a big notice explaining what's going on to prevent a huge influx of "google isn't working" threads?


I'm sure they'll send out a mass email


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## valis

I think he was talking about TSG.......that said, again, I'll believe it when I see it.


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## uDaeth

It's something they might or might not do. It's not set in stone yet, but it would make a huge impression on both sides of this bill


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## TechGuy

I'd be pretty shocked if any of the big guys (Google, Facebook, Amazon) went through with this. At most, they'll put a splash screen on their home page that you have to read before clicking a "Whatever, Continue" button.


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## uDaeth

Sure, but if this bill actually got passed, those companies except for maybe Amazon wouldn't last very long at all. Even though it's probably one of the government fundraising schemes, they need to make as big of a point as they can so it really doesn't get passed.


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## valis

Not quite. I am pretty certain that Google and Facebook would continue to flourish regardless of SOPA.


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## TechGuy

I agree. And I'm not sure that it would really affect Amazon at all. Google would have the PITA job of having to remove sites from it's search even if they're only suspected of having pirated information on them, but I think they could handle it.


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## ekim68

More on this:

More web sites and games going dark to protest SOPA [Update]



> Even though opponents of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) won a big victory on Friday when it was announced that the DNS blocking provision would be removed from the bill, it looks like the idea of shutting down web sites to protest the bill is gaining steam.
> 
> We have already reported that Reddit plans to shut down for 12 hours on Wednesday, January 18 in their own SOPA protest. Now Marcus "Notch" Persson, the creator of the hit PC game Minecraft, has announced via his Twitter page, "We'll silently take down http://minecraft.net and http://mojang.com on the 18th in protest of SOPA."


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## valis

well, wiki is shutting down it's english language site tomorrow.....but that's for PIPA, not SOPA.


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## lotuseclat79

Wikipedia will be down tomorrow in protest - Wednesday, January 18, 2012, or maybe up in protest mode without access to its information on its website with only its home webpage???

-- Tom


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## valis

as far as I know, they are only shutting down their english language pages.......


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## Drabdr

I read that Google will be changing it's home page up tomorrow. So far, I haven't seen any details posted (if any are available).


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## dustyjay

Th Wikipedia Protest has started already, the site is blacked out for 24 hours.


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## dustyjay

It is the English Pages and the Italian pages so far. The Spanish, Portugese, French, Polish, and other pages do have Black Protest Banners across the top of the pages.


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## ekim68

Good for them....How dare Governments change the Internet....:down:


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## dustyjay

Considering that Congress and the Senate both rely heavily on Wikipedia for research, I am sure they will feel it today. Then when Google goes dark for them they will feel betrayed. I guess they can go cry to the MPAA and the RIAA about it for comfort.


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## valis

Drabdr said:


> I read that Google will be changing it's home page up tomorrow. So far, I haven't seen any details posted (if any are available).


The Google logo is censored out......pretty funny, actually......:up:


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## DaveBurnett

Pics please of Google - not done on the UK page.


Edit: OK I Googled it


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## Phantom010

DaveBurnett said:


> Pics please of Google - not done on the UK page.


It seems to be only on google.com.

Type www.google.com/ncr


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## DaveBurnett

It has only got the extra line :
Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web! 
the second bit being a link to the bill details


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## valis

DaveBurnett said:


> Pics please of Google - not done on the UK page.
> 
> Edit: OK I Googled it


et voila.


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## Phantom010

Click on the black banner and *THIS* is the page you get.


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## DaveBurnett

Ta. 
Interesting that even if I set my location and go to .com rather than .co.uk I still don't see the blacked out banner, but do see the message line.


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## Phantom010

DaveBurnett said:


> Ta.
> Interesting that even if I set my location and go to .com rather than .co.uk I still don't see the blacked out banner, but do see the message line.


I just tried reproducing what you are seeing on that Google page instead of the black banner but I can't. What's your browser?


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## Phantom010

*http://sopastrike.com/*


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## valis

by the by, if you turn off scripting, you can still get to wikipedia today.


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## TheShooter93

I'm able to access Wikipedia normally. Did they not follow through with the blackout?


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## DaveBurnett

> What's your browser?


Firefox 9.01

Wick' only effects the English page.


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## Phantom010

This is what you see on Wiki:


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## Phantom010

DaveBurnett said:


> Firefox 9.01


Did you try it with Internet Explorer?


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## Phantom010

valis said:


> by the by, if you turn off scripting, you can still get to wikipedia today.


I concur. :up:

They're not trying very hard...


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## Phantom010

TheShooter93 said:


> I'm able to access Wikipedia normally. Did they not follow through with the blackout?


Is your scripting disabled?


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## TheShooter93

> Is your scripting disabled?


Not that I know of. I'm running Google Chrome normally.


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