• L. (unregistered) in reply to Chris
    Chris:
    Although I appreciate the joke, and lol @ the people who don't get it, I think even the appearance of support can damage the cause. People will point to whatever they can to say 'see? they think its good' and then read the first sentence and move on. This is a war for eyeballs and you have 15 seconds to make an impact.

    Mhhh .. a war of impacting eyeballs in 15 seconds ?

    That's gotta hurt tbh.

  • JolleSax (unregistered) in reply to Tom
    Tom:
    Im removing The Daily WTF from my RSS reader, I don't want to have anything to do with someone who supports SOPA ! :-/
    That's the irony about irony. It gets lost so easily...
  • L. (unregistered) in reply to TGV
    TGV:
    Nice one, Alex. Some people might need a sarcasm detector recalibration, though.

    I was thinking, with all these programmers here, perhaps we could start central list like you proposed with a kind of nickname for the server and its real, IP address. That would make it easier to refer to other sites.

    We could even use something like GreaseMonkey to automatically read the server's name, look up its IP address and redirect the browser.

    All we'd need would be some authority to keep the list of names and addresses sane.

    How about it?

    or maybe .. put it on paper, photograph, print, wooden table, chisel and the works.

    While you do that, I'll just start my own DNS --

  • TheSHEEEP (unregistered)

    Nice trolling :D

  • LeForgeron (unregistered)

    IPN & FTP (anonymous when possible) is the right fix to the http+ajax sillyness.

    But that addresses only half the problem. We need also a stronger law to get ride of all these worldwide SMTP emails. Enough with [email protected], the real people need to learn the way of bang mail address.

    Stop the spam now, ask your congress representative to push a law to only allow mailing using ! paths.

  • Xjph (unregistered) in reply to Tom

    Looks like someone didn't read the article.

  • Captain Obvious (unregistered)

    If JavaScript is outlawed, won't this site lose its main source of material??

  • Mo (unregistered) in reply to Casey B
    Casey B:
    I can certainly appreciate sarcasm, but I think the implications of SOPA / PIPA are topics that are already so misunderstood by the typical reader (let alone Congressmen) that this kind of misdirection is entirely inappropriate.

    The blackout is a serious protest to dangerous legislation. The Daily WTF is turning it into a joke.

    Really! Did you really seriously do a Bert Glanstrom post?

  • Bob Alberti of RFC1436 (unregistered) in reply to Ban JavaScript? You've got my vote

    The important thing to remember about Gopher, and about the Web at the time that Gopher was popular, was that FINDING and DISPLAYING images were two entirely separate steps. The HTML [image] tag was not invented until 1994: prior to that time you could download image files, but you had to use a separate program to look at them. It was a less hectic world that allowed Internet users the time to think about copyright protection.

    IMAGINE how this would contribute to the protection of copyrighted information today! Shepard Fairey would have been forced pause between finding a copyrighted photograph of Obama, and actually deciding to alter it into the famous "HOPE" poster - and possibly have saved himself a lot of time in court. It would no longer be immediately obvious that photographs of Gabourey Sidibe or Beyonce Knowles had been lightened and photoshopped to make both look like Angelina Jolie, giving the fashion magazines an opportunity to re-think these decisions. And most importantly, a simple typographical error can no longer cause your computer to accidentally display highly work-inappropriate images - copyrighted images, I might add - just as your boss walks into your cubicle.

    As the Internet goes dark for SOPA today, consider how much those dark screens look like the text-only Gopher displays of 1992... and think of how much better the world was back then.

  • A Gould (unregistered) in reply to Jason
    Jason:
    If I am reading this right, Alex is saying that TRWTF with SOPA is that there is already a tried and true way to get around the DNS hijacking that SOPA would introduce - by returning to hosts files and the days before DNS.

    Ding ding ding.

    Actually, I'd say there's two take-aways here.

    First is the theoretical. Removing sites from search engines (or even from DNS) does not remove them from the Internet. It's the equivalent of telling a cabbie "We think 123 Sesame Street may have done Naughty Things - if anyone asks how you get to Sesame Street, you have to tell them it doesn't exist." Of course, all the naughty people will still know how to get there (turn left on Oscar Drive, past the garbage can), and it still physically exists, so you haven't really done anything except annoy people.

    Second is the pragmatic. It won't take too many instances of DNS being censored before it's considered unreliable and hackers (the good kind and the bad) build workarounds.

    And I can't say I'd be sad if DNS died - domain names are rapidly getting stupid (oh, you have company.com? Well, you also need to get company.net, company.org, company.xxx, company.company, ...). Could you imagine if the phone company started doing custom area codes and charging folks?

  • Jonathan Garcia (unregistered)

    I disagree with your opinion, SOPA is just to benefit the owners not the users... And does not end here, this will take a lot of jobs.

    So its better to be against SOPA!

  • <THIS INFORMATION CENSORED BY SOPA> (unregistered)
    We can only hope that our legislators introduce common sense guidelines to ban HTTP (and HTML/JavaScript) as well so we can all return to the more sensible GOPHER standard.

    Sounds like the plot of a Bert Glanstron wet dream!

  • Synchronos (unregistered) in reply to Ralph
    Ralph:
    Bert:
    I think this one may have been too subtle for most (including me, /wrists).

    Also, I love how Wikipedia's "blacking out" involves fully loading the page as usual, but then just using a bit of javascript to overlay the notice. It's mildly irritating, but it isn't stopping me using their site.

    Ahh, that explains why I didn't see any black-out on Wikipedia today!

    And that, my friends, describes exactly the effectivity of the SOPA: the real guys won't even notice they were blocked! But pity the poor ordinary consumers!

  • (cs)

    I take it from the image that Alex doesn't really understand the "Cool Story, Bro" meme.

  • I. Get Sarcasm (unregistered) in reply to Tom

    It's called sarcasm, dude.

  • Ron (unregistered) in reply to Delmania
    Delmania:
    SOPA/PIPA are dangerous bills that need to be stopped, that's true, but another insidious bill before Congress is the "Research Work Acts" (HR 3699) which seeks to lock publicly funded research in the United States behind the paywall of publishers, forcing us to double pay for science that could save or improve our lives.
    Science should be restricted to registered, licensed scientists. Deregulation is from Satan. You don't want the terrorists learning how to drive the Mars rovers, do you?
  • Blake (unregistered)

    Removing DailyWTF from Google Reader. Don't care how bad copyright infringement is it's not worth losing our right to due process to fight it. I don't want my freedoms eroded.

  • Jerry (unregistered) in reply to mildewhall.com
    mildewhall.com:
    as a creative I'm the last person to want my stuff ripped off
    I think you something there.
  • Bob (unregistered)

    This post is the most asinine thing I've read in a long time. I can't tell... is this a joke? Sarcasm? Oh, I sure hope so! I really hope this is just a joke, but somehow, I think it's not. And for that reason, it's with a heavy heart that I remove your site from my RSS reader and, sadly, cease to visit your site at all.

    If I'm wrong, and this actually was a joke, please let me know so I can continue enjoying the hilarity of this site. jackman bob 1 at hotmail dot com

  • setbit (unregistered)

    I think you may have overplayed this, Alex.

    I never go near the Daily WTF without my sarcasm shields full forward, but I was probably a third of the way through the post before I was absolutely, positively sure you weren't serious.

    If you told yourself, "Nobody could reasonably think I'm that stupid or evil," you're wrong. Life is full of people who can seem fine for a very long time before their true colors come through.

    Glad to know you're (probably) not one of them.

  • (cs) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    This post is the most asinine thing I've read in a long time. I can't tell... is this a joke? Sarcasm? Oh, I sure hope so! I really hope this is just a joke, but somehow, I think it's not. And for that reason, it's with a heavy heart that I remove your site from my RSS reader and, sadly, cease to visit your site at all.

    If I'm wrong, and this actually was a joke, please let me know so I can continue enjoying the hilarity of this site. jackman bob 1 at hotmail dot com

    Fuck off Bob, and take your retarded kid with you...

  • Alesix (unregistered)

    I support TDWTF supporting the movement's support for the Support Online Piracy Act!

  • Sarcasm Troll (unregistered)

    It is a bit overdone, I agree.

    It's funny and all. And even the subject gives it away. Or read till the word "white-out".

    But judging from the number of people who didn't get it - this was the most subtle WTF in many years.

  • freelancer (unregistered)

    ...okay, seriously, to anyone who is actually taking this article seriously;

    Read it again. Thoroughly. Actually, you shouldn't have to read it thoroughly to see the blatant sarcasm, but apparently you do. So do that. Then think for a moment. Does that all make sense? Does most of it make sense? Would anyone seriously suggest banning DNS and HTML and going back to GOPHER? No? Bingo. You're right. You have now discovered a new (to you) concept: sarcasm.

    If you have read this far and still think this site seriously supports SOPA... $deity help you. You're more WTF than anything else here. And that says a lot. Personally, I think we're better off without you.

  • setbit (unregistered)

    After thinking about it for a little while longer, here's the fundamental problem I have with this post:

    There's really no such thing as "pretending" to be an a**hole. If you behave badly enough that people think you're a malicious jerk, you really are a malicious jerk.

    Please don't be a jerk, Alex.

  • vastrightwing (unregistered)

    My two cents is that SOAPA is not about “theft” so we’ve been lead down the wrong path (again). No SOAPA is about control of the internet, or as others have deftly put it, it is the Great Firewall of the US. Think of all the B.S. legislation that is disguised for something good, yet is intended to control us. Just to name a few: patriot act, red light cameras, homeland security, etc., etc. Look, a free an open internet means people can learn the truth and it’s much harder for the shadow government to control the truth. With SOAPA, it will be a simple matter to do away with information they don’t like. Simply remove the DNS entry of the website they don’t like. Nice and simple: no courts, no mess, no due process.

    So arguing that this may or may not stop piracy is a red herring. That’s not the issue at all.

  • foo (unregistered) in reply to Chris
    Chris:
    Although I appreciate the joke, and lol @ the people who don't get it, I think even the appearance of support can damage the cause. People will point to whatever they can to say 'see? they think its good' and then read the first sentence and move on. This is a war for eyeballs and you have 15 seconds to make an impact.
    Full ack! You should write "SARCASM!!!11!" diagonally across the page in huge red letters! Flashing!
  • kilativ (unregistered)

    this is obviously a sarcastic post.

  • Someone (unregistered) in reply to PhilipTyre
    PhilipTyre:
    YOU CANT FUCKING DO THAT!!!!!!! THE SOPA LAW IS AGAINST FREEDOM OF SPEECH

    Missing sarcasm tag, or really stupid commenter? SO HARD TO TELL!

    Anyone know where I can get my sarcasm detector serviced? I would love to find out it's broken. Otherwise, I'd have to find a new planet to live on.

    You, sir, are TRWTF. It is not sarcasm if it needs to be marked with the sarcasm tag. You are right about one thing though. You MUST live on another planet.

  • Tom Servo (unregistered) in reply to Tom

    It would do good for you to read entire articles instead of your RSS feed's title text.

  • *. (unregistered) in reply to Tom
    Tom:
    Im removing The Daily WTF from my RSS reader, I don't want to have anything to do with someone who supports SOPA ! :-/

    I like how this post just outed all the lazy idiots who only read the first line of an online article before leaping straight into the comments so they might grace us with their uninformed and incomplete opinion. If only it was always so easy.

    Well played Alex!

  • Argle (unregistered)

    "Let the Domain Name System a natural death ..."

    Don't you hate it when you a word out?

  • Brian T. Saurus (unregistered) in reply to Ban JavaScript? You've got my vote
    Ban JavaScript? You've got my vote:
    Real users should be able to do it all with a monitor command prompt and hex op codes.

    Command prompt? COMMAND PROMPT?!?

    If you can't do it by flipping switches and reading LEDs, you have no business doing it at all! Damn newbies with their fancy Vee Dee You's. Next you'll be asking for error messages with real English words in them, like those numbskulls who use that newfangled COBOL thing.

    storms off, muttering something about vacuum tubes

  • (cs) in reply to Jerry
    Jerry:
    mildewhall.com:
    as a creative I'm the last person to want my stuff ripped off
    I think you something there.
    No, "creatives" actually talk that way.
  • Agreed (unregistered) in reply to Tom

    I am doing the same. It makes me sad to think that I won't see the great posts here anymore after today.

  • Agreed (unregistered) in reply to Agreed

    Mmm, sarcasm doesn't come across well on the internet.

  • (cs) in reply to Ronwell
    Ronwell:
    DutchMan:
    You're right that the internet is growing to big and is going to break. But the SOPA act isn't going to change it.

    The SOPA act will block websites that contain copyrighted material, but it's just the beginning of something bigger. It's the beginning of the Great firewall of American. If we let this happen they will keep adding thing they may block, and when will we stop them then.

    STOP SOPA BEFORE IT'S TO LATE.

    It's going to break? Like, in half or will it be more of a shattering?

    It will be like bending a fork in a distorted position... you can probably still eat your food with it, but it will be easier to just get a spoon instead. The internet will be a lot less fun if this passes and it wont really do anything about the problem its trying to solve. In other words just more legal regulation and more control and prying into our lives.

  • Jonathan H. (unregistered)

    I absolutely love how the satire and parody of this is lost on some people. It really does make me feel better about me. Thank you people who don't get sarcasm and witty humor. Thank you for boosting myself esteem.

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    Jerry:
    mildewhall.com:
    as a creative I'm the last person to want my stuff ripped off
    I think you something there.
    No, "creatives" actually talk that way.

    Nobody likes having their stuff ripped off. So tell me, then, as a creative: I assume you have done some research into SOPA and PIPA, explain to me WHAT exactly they are going to do to prevent you from getting ripped off?

    All the research I conducted concluded that if someone wants to steal your creative content, sopa and pipa are going to do piss-all about it.

    Since it wont actually do what its supposed to do, and what it does do is go against everything american (freedom of speech, expression, freedom to surf the internet without uncle sam watching you, etc) it goes from being a bad idea to a very bad idea.

  • (cs) in reply to PiisAWheeL
    PiisAWheeL:
    Nobody likes having their stuff ripped off. So tell me, then, as a creative: I assume you have done some research into SOPA and PIPA, explain to me WHAT exactly they are going to do to prevent you from getting ripped off?
    I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're drunk.
  • (cs) in reply to hoodaticus
    hoodaticus:
    We could all switch to TORR / onion routing and let the government forget about every controlling the net again.

    If you do some research into the bill, you will find that it actually makes tor/onion illegal, by allowing an injunction to be raised against "any site... [etc]... that distributes a "product or service" that can be used to circumvent or bypass blockades erected against alleged pirate Web sites..." (snipped from http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57346592-281/how-sopas-circumvention-ban-could-put-a-target-on-tor/ )

    Notice the key word "CAN". If you "CAN" use it to get by the protocol, then it is illegal, regardless of its legitimate uses.

    Put that in your PIPA and smoke it.

  • Yannis 1968 (unregistered)

    Man, I am with you 100%, as long as I can get myself one of those green screen monitors I used for my unix class in the university. And how cool it woukd be if we can go back to sending love letters (instead of these evil e-mails), using dots slashes and backslashes on a dot matrix printer.

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    PiisAWheeL:
    Nobody likes having their stuff ripped off. So tell me, then, as a creative: I assume you have done some research into SOPA and PIPA, explain to me WHAT exactly they are going to do to prevent you from getting ripped off?
    I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're drunk.

    Lets pretend for a minute i'm sober, would YOU like to answer the question?

  • Jack (unregistered) in reply to kilativ
    kilativ:
    this is obviously a sarcastic post.

    It's obviously not quite obvious enough for a lot of people, and I think that's a problem.

  • Jack (unregistered) in reply to PiisAWheeL
    PiisAWheeL:
    Zylon:
    PiisAWheeL:
    Nobody likes having their stuff ripped off. So tell me, then, as a creative: I assume you have done some research into SOPA and PIPA, explain to me WHAT exactly they are going to do to prevent you from getting ripped off?
    I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're drunk.

    Lets pretend for a minute i'm sober, would YOU like to answer the question?

    They don't really intend to prevent it. They try to stop it, once noticed. They mean to make it harder for a site to continue to illegally distribute your IP, once it has been discovered to do so. And possibly to deter it in the first place.

  • Alex (unregistered) in reply to Tom

    It's a satire article. I almost did the same, but decided to read the whole thing first.

  • Jonathan H. (unregistered) in reply to Jack
    Jack:
    kilativ:
    this is obviously a sarcastic post.

    It's obviously not quite obvious enough for a lot of people, and I think that's a problem.

    A lot of people aren't taking the time to read it and see all the absolutely absurd "upsides" he talks about.

    Some people need to get their head out of their ass and use their brain. It's an obvious joke. On a HUMOR SITE no less. Dear Lord people, you make me weep for the future of humanity.

  • Cbuttius (unregistered)

    The only thing I see in favour of SOPA is it might finally decentralise a lot of the main dot.com organisations to run outside of the USA.

    That might mean more work for us (well ideally here in Europe) at exciting companies.

  • Slim Jim (unregistered)

    I tried looking up GOPHER, but Wikipedia is currently experiencing a blackout.

    Lol, TRWTF is that the RSS readership went down because of a obfuscated joke.

  • (cs) in reply to Jack
    Jack:
    PiisAWheeL:
    Zylon:
    PiisAWheeL:
    Nobody likes having their stuff ripped off. So tell me, then, as a creative: I assume you have done some research into SOPA and PIPA, explain to me WHAT exactly they are going to do to prevent you from getting ripped off?
    I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're drunk.

    Lets pretend for a minute i'm sober, would YOU like to answer the question?

    They don't really intend to prevent it. They try to stop it, once noticed. They mean to make it harder for a site to continue to illegally distribute your IP, once it has been discovered to do so. And possibly to deter it in the first place.

    You have re-explained why and the end goal. My question was HOW (or what will they do, as its worded).

    And that is my point. It can't prevent it. It can't even effectivly stop it.

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