Bruce Upbin · Storify

Amazon Is Down

Bruce Upbin — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:12:59 GMT

Storified by Bruce Upbin · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:12:59

Amazon is down for 25 mins now. Wow
— Effi Fuks-Leichtag · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:09:48

RT @skokielibrary: Amazon is down. However, you can still check out books from us to your heart's content. http://encore.skokielibrary.info.
— Elizabeth · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:33

Hmm, I guess Anonymous got tired of flooding the feds and decided to take down Amazon today? http://pic.twitter.com/qPbmkI96 · John Claus

Sertão · Tarcisio Schnaider

Amazon is still down. Never seen an indie bookstore shut down mid-day. Everyone: meet you at @strandbookstore!
— Jason Pinter · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:18

Amazon's page is down? Today is my bestest day! #amazonisevil
— Carrie Rollwagen · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:30

While Amazon’s homepage is down, their cloud music player is still up. #phew
— Matt · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:31

Jeff must be crying. #amazon down
— Nathan Smith · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:29

That's a bit bizarre, for amazon to be down. Good thing it's not affecting AWS ... yet. http://pic.twitter.com/X764ojoQ · Beryllium9

Amazon is down. The terrorists have won.
— Lance Kidwell · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:39

http://Amazon.com is down. That's what happens when you try to run your own servers. Shoulda put it in tha cloud.
— Douglas Sims · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:41

Amazon is down. omg #endtimes #facebookisnext
— Susan Jane Bigelow · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:50

"How many dollars per second do you think Amazon being down costs?" "Since they're unprofitable, they're actually gaining money."
— Patrick Collison · Thu, Jan 31 2013 11:52:12

RT @dr_pete: AMAZON IS DOWN! HEAD FOR THE HILLS, PEOPLE!! *starts looting office*
— Annie Cushing · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:22

i wonder how much amazon loses per minute by being down #alot
— derek kwan · Thu, Jan 31 2013 12:06:21

Is Amazon down for you too?
— The Verge · Thu, Jan 31 2013 11:39:22

The Story of SOPA, So Far

Bruce Upbin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:31:05 GMT

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is dead at last, after massive critique and protest blackouts since the bill was introduced. Proponents still want a means to restore law and order to the Web. The #noSOPA crowd wants a solution that won't break the Internet.

Storified by Bruce Upbin · Fri, Jan 20 2012 12:31:05

SOPA was introduced on October 26, 2011 by Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the
House Committee on the Judiciary. The original co-sponsors are Representatives Conyers (DMI),
Goodlatte (R-VA), Deutch (D-FL), Chabot (R-OH), Ross (R-FL), Blackburn (R-TN), Bono
Mack (R-CA), Terry (R-NE), Schiff (D-CA).

SOPA is meant to fight pirate, counterfeit and spam sites. But it goes way beyond anything in current law, including the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, that gives copyright owners an avenue for taking down infringing material and sites. SOPA is like Roundup, meant to kill everything bad. It gives the U.S. Attorney General the ability effectively to shut down a foreign site by getting an ISP, search engines, ad networks and/or payment network providers such as PayPal to stop doing business with the infringing site. There's also an avenue for private sites to ask other sites to be taken down in the same way.

Judiciary committe chairman Lamar Smith, with aides.

DSC00790 · TWCEDU

Here is SOPA, otherwise known as HR 3261.

H.R.3261.IH - Bill Text - 112th Congress (2011-2012) - THOMAS ...

... 'THOMAS - Bill Text - H.R.3261.IH', link: 'http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z? c112:H.R.3261. ... H.R.3261 -- Stop On...

Here is Vice.com pointing out that Lamar Smith is also a copyright violator. Whoops.

The Author of SOPA Is a Copyright Violator | VICE

US Congressman and poor-toupee-color-chooser Lamar Smith is the guy who authored the Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA, as I'm sure you know, ...

Here's Markham Erickson from the netCoalition providing an early analysis of SOPA for the "against" crowd.

On October 26, the independent music label's trade group issues this statement expressing its support for SOPA, saying that its "member music labels as [small and medium-sized businesses] simply do not have the financial means or resources to engage in widespread copyright enforcement on the Internet, either domestically or abroad"

A2IM: American Association of Independent Music — Blog — A2IM Press Release: A2IM Applauds the U.S. House of Representatives Proposed "Stop Online Piracy Act" Legislation

Posted in Press Releases by A2IM A2IM Applauds the U.S. House of Representatives Proposed "Stop Online Piracy Act" Legislation The Americ...

Also on October 26, the House also releases its version of another Net bill called PROTECT IP, which is also known as the E-Parasites bill. Techdirt doesn't like it, writing "...any foreign site declared by the Attorney General to be "inducing" infringement, with a very broad definition of inducing, can now be censored by the US. With no adversarial hearing. Hello, Great Firewall of America."

PROTECT IP Renamed E-PARASITES Act; Would Create The Great Firewall Of America | Techdirt

As was unfortunately expected, the House version of PROTECT IP has been released (embedded below) and it's ridiculously bad. Despite prom...

On October 27, Corynne McSherry at the Electronic Frontier Foundation pens a response to SOPA, criticizing its breadth and chilling effect, saying it is "sending a troubling message to the world: it’s okay to interfere with the Internet, even effectively blacklisting entire domains, as long as you do it in the name of IP enforcement... And in what has to be an ironic touch, the very first clause of SOPA states that it shall not be “construed to impose a prior restraint on free speech.” As if that little recitation could prevent the obvious constitutional problem in what the statute actually does.

SOPA: US House of Reps copyright bill proposes national censorship, attacks on hosting services, Twitter, YouTube http://t.co/0F06vocn
— Cory Doctorow · Fri, Dec 23 2011 10:22:13

Electronic Frontier Foundation | Defending your rights in the digital world

Defending your rights in the digital world

On November 10, California congresswoman Zoe Lofgren sends a letter to Leonard Napolitano, Director of the Center for Computer Sciences at Sandia National Laboratories, asking him if SOPA, as written, would indeed break the Internet.

Napolitano writes back a few days later, saying yes indeed it would harm Internet functionality and weaken existing cybersecurity structures.

News Foo @Cronkite. That's The Way It Was

Bruce Upbin — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 01:35:50 GMT

O'Reilly, Google and the Knight Foundation sponsored a gathering of 120+ news people and technologists to brainstorm the future and potential of news. Lots of talk, lots of ideas. Good, smart people.

Storified by Bruce Upbin · Sat, Dec 03 2011 17:35:50

NewsFoo

Oct 7, 2011 ... News Foo is a gathering of 150 key practitioners and thinkers from the worlds of journalism, technology, and public pol...

"In fifteen years 90% of the news we read today would be algorithmically generated." #newsfoo Profoundly unsettling suggestion.
— Tom Coates · Sat, Dec 03 2011 13:49:39

"Journalists are horrible at judging risk. Crime has plummeted in this country, yet it still leads local news." -- @dangillmor #newsfoo
— Dan Schultz · Sat, Dec 03 2011 14:40:44

@bydanielvictor I agree. comments became distributed online with the rise of social media. Publishers ignore them at their peril. #Newsfoo
— Alex Howard · Sat, Dec 03 2011 16:40:15

Just added a #newsfoo session Sunday morning: "Online Advertising is Awesome". No sessions about $$$ so I added one. Let's talk about ads
— Brad Flora · Sat, Dec 03 2011 15:27:00

Another tool I learned about at #newsfoo: http://churnalism.com/
— Steve Doig · Sat, Dec 03 2011 15:25:11

For the infographics discussion at #newsfoo - see http://sloppyinfo.com for worst practices
— Mark Hurst · Sat, Dec 03 2011 15:58:07

@MahaRafiAtal Nope, you're not alone. These days, I budget 20-30 mins daily to -- don't laugh -- read a print newspaper. #newsfoo
— Dan Oshinsky · Sat, Dec 03 2011 16:55:02

@Ed Comments skeptic that I can be, I would never dismiss the whole form. Neither was it the intent here #newsfoo
— Karen Wickre · Sat, Dec 03 2011 16:58:44

"Some people are unsalvageable." - @Baratunde on people who still think @TheOnion is real #newsfoo
— Greg Galant · Sat, Dec 03 2011 14:58:02

replace Copyright with attribution plus voluntary collective licensing, paid by ISPs. #copyfight #newsfoo @newsfoo @kenyatta
— Sasha Costanza-Chock · Sat, Dec 03 2011 17:10:10

Sunday Newsfoo Board · Divergence

Headed to AM sessions at #NewsFoo. · Divergence

multi-tasker · philipn

Looking at a one future of splitscreened, widgetized real-time news. #newsfoo · Divergence