No news today: BeefJack ‘blacks out’ against SOPA and PIPA

Posted January 18, 2012 by Lewis Denby in And This Week, News.

Unfortunately, dear readers, you won’t find any posts on BeefJack today. But trust us, it’s for a good reason…

If you’ve come to BeefJack in search of hot gaming news today, as well you might, then we have to disappoint you. BeefJack won’t be posting any new news today. In fact, we won’t be posting any content at all. Are we lazy? Have we gone bonkers? Nope. Not quite.

I’ll tell you who has gone bonkers, though: those behind SOPA and PIPA, the US bills that are pretty much threatening the very thing that makes the internet so remarkable: the ability for users to communicate with no borders, and for us to develop a vast network of information that stretches right around the globe.

This is a good website to take a look at if you’re interested in finding out more about the bills, which purport to curb copyright infringement but actually leave internet companies – including websites and internet service providers – massively vulnerable to the unscrupulous actions of any company which might like to take action. It is a system that would mean if somebody in a comments thread on BeefJack posted a link to – say – some game footage that hadn’t been okayed by a publisher, not only could BeefJack be blocked from access in the United States, but our web host – which is based in the US – could be shut down. And that’s without anyone having yet proved that the offending link infringed copyright.

Obama may have come out against SOPA, but these bills still exist, and those who demand them will continue to push hard for them. Today, those who disagree with the bills have the opportunity to protest them by, effectively, taking ourselves offline. This time it’s our choice. Next time, it might not be.

We would love to join the hundreds of outlets imposing a ‘full’ blackout tomorrow, taking their entire services offline. We’re not doing that, for a couple of reasons, most significantly that we weren’t able to sort an appropriate replacement page in time. So sure, you’ll be able to view our old content. But nothing new will appear all day.

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow, and we’ll be spending the day working hard on new BeefJack initiatives with the view to make the site a more wonderful place for gamers online. Go and take a walk in the park, or something.