While all the other sites on the Internet are dimming the lights in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act, the link lovers at Fark.com have gone bright white to show their support of the controversial bills — because they are just sick and tired of having to do their jobs every day. [More]
Government Policy
XKCD Creator: I Wouldn't Be Able To Do My Job Without A Free Internet
By 1.18.12
We here at Consumerist have been posting links to Randall Munroe’s online comic xkcd for more than five years. So we weren’t shocked to see that today’s xkcd dealt directly with the topic of the day — the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act. [More]
Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh: Bipartisan Support Of SOPA & PIPA Smacks Of Money
By 1.18.12
We’ve already heard the rallying cry against SOPA/PIPA, urging us not to let the LOLcats die, so we thought we’d ask the king of the LOLcats himself, Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh, to weigh in on SOPA. He explains why his sites are standing against SOPA today and how these potential laws would threaten the Internet as we know it. [More]
Reddit's Alexis Ohanion: Piracy Can Be A Great Opportunity
By 1.18.12
Reddit is set to black out for 12 hours starting at 8 a.m. ET this morning. But in advance of that temporary shutdown, the site’s co-founder Alexis Ohanion has been making the media rounds to speak out against the Stop Online Piracy Act. [More]
MPAA Calls Anti-SOPA Blackouts A "Gimmick" To Punish Politicians & Turn Us All Into "Corporate Pawns"
By 1.18.12
The Motion Picture Association of America cares about you. It doesn’t want children to see boobs or hear curse words (though rampant bloodshed is cool) and it doesn’t want you to turn into a pawn of the big corporations that it says are really behind today’s blackouts at sites like Craiglist and Wikipedia, which everyone knows are both monstrous examples of corporate greed. [More]
Pirate Bay Joins SOPA Protest By Sort Of Blacking Out For The Day
By 1.18.12
For years, BitTorrent tracker site thePirateBay.org has been one of, if not the biggest target in the music, movie, software and video game industries’ anti-piracy efforts. So it might come as no surprise that, along with many, many other sites, the folks at Pirate Bay decided to shutter for the day today… well, sort of. [More]
Anti-SOPA Protests Planned Around The Country Today
By 1.18.12
Even though the House Judiciary Committee has moved its planned hearing on the Stop Internet Piracy Act from today until February — perhaps hoping that we’ll all be too hungover from Super Bowl beer and wings to care — that’s not going to stop people who are peeved about SOPA and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act, from taking to the streets to have their say. [More]
Jeff Jarvis Weighs In: SOPA "Changes The Architecture Of Our Greatest Tool Of Speech"
By 1.18.12
To say that Jeff Jarvis, the media blogger, journalist and author behind BuzzMachine.com, is against SOPA/PIPA, would be more than an understatement. When we connected with him to prepare for our “SOPA/PIPA Only” content for today, Jarvis made it clear that he’s as anti-SOPA as anyone could be. [More]
Every Protest Needs An Anthem And This Anti-SOPA Ditty's Got LOLcat Jokes
By 1.18.12
If only every political issue or very important cause could be explained with a song about LOLcats, maybe everyone would enjoy a higher level of understanding. Case in point: SOPA/PIPA is a big deal to those of us who enjoy the current form of the Internetz. No one wants those adorable cats to go anywhere, right? [More]
Craig Newmark Talks To Us About SOPA: "Things Can Go Bad Real Fast"
By 1.18.12
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has been a vocal opponent of SOPA and PIPA with good reason: According to Newmark, if the bills as currently written were passed into law, “any site with any kind of user provided content could be shut down easily. For example, Wikipedia, Amazon, craigslist. Any media site with commenting.” In an email interview with Consumerist, Newmark (who is also a member of the Board of Directors of our parent company) warned that, despite White House opposition, and recent changes to the bills to limit DNS filtering, consumers should still be concerned. [More]
SOPA/PIPA And What It Means To You: Ben Parr Explains It All
By 1.18.12
Sorting through all the SOPA/PIPA related news today is bound to get overwhelming. Sites like Wikipedia, Reddit, those in the Cheezburger network, Boing Boing, Mozilla and more are dark to protest the proposed anti-piracy laws. We’ve roped in a few industry experts and veterans to help sort out what exactly is going on here, and were lucky enough to get Mashable’s former and formidable editor-at-large Ben Parr to weigh in. [More]
Consumerist Is Against SOPA/PIPA And That's All We're Writing About Today
By 1.18.12
The editorial staff of Consumerist would like to let you know that we have chosen to suspend our normal coverage so that we can bring you news, information, and opinion concerning the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation and why Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports and Consumerist, is against it. Inside is the letter we at Consumers Union, along with U.S. PIRG and the Consumer Federation of America, sent to several members of Congress on November 15th. [More]
SOPA and PIPA Far From Dead, Despite Concerns Of White House And Changes To Bills
By 1.17.12
Although the White House this weekend expressed “serious reservations” about elements of the pending anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA, and House leaders have said they will not conduct hearings on their bill any time soon, the legislation is far from dead. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said this weekend that he hopes to open debate on the Senate’s version later this month. And House sponsor Lamar Smith said he will continue work on that chamber’s version. Internet protests planned for tomorrow, in which some of the web’s largest sites will go offline for 24 hours, are expected to go ahead as scheduled. [More]
Have A Private Student Loan Horror Story? Today Is The Last Day To Tell The CFPB
By 1.17.12
We see enough horror stories about private student loans that we know there must be quite a few of them out there. If you’d like to contribute to the public good by sharing your experience, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would like to hear what you have to say. And if you actually had a good experience the CFPB would like to hear about that, too. [More]
The Case Against Pennies Might Make You Want To Send Yours Back To Uncle Sam For Something Useful
By 1.13.12
For your Friday afternoon viewing pleasure, we thought we’d share a YouTube video featuring a case against pennies our reader Lisa sent our way. Sure, you may have seen it, as it’s a few months old, but since we’re sure each and every one of you hasn’t seen every single thing ever on the Internet, this one’s worth a post. [More]
Survey: U.S. Consumers Are Feeling Pretty Darn Optimistic Right About Now
By 1.13.12
We’re all a bunch of optimistic Spendy McSpendersons lately, according to a new survey that says consumer sentiment is remaining high in the new year. As more jobs are being created, consumers have lifted their collective spirits for the fifth consecutive month. [More]
Coca-Cola Reveals It Blew The Whistle On Orange Juice Contamination
By 1.13.12
When word broke that the Food and Drug Administration had halted orange juice shipments to check for a potentially harmful fungicide, the government was mum on which company found evidence that triggered the reaction. Now Coca-Cola solved the mystery by confirming it was responsible for spotting carbendazim — an illegal fungicide believed to cause infertility — in a shipment from Brazil.
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According to the AP, Coca-Cola spotted carbendazim not only in its own drinks, but those of a competitor. Testing revealed of 35 parts per billion of the fungicide in a Coke product, a level that the Environmental Protection Agency poses no significant threat. [More]
California To Require More-Efficient Chargers For Mobile Devices
By 1.12.12
In a move that will likely have a huge ripple effect in the mobile device accessory market nationwide, the California Energy Commission approved the nation’s first ever energy standards for the chargers you use to power up everything from your phone and tablet to your power drill. [More]
