In case you are blissfully unaware, today marks quite a specific day in, well, the history of the internet. To protest the upcoming legislation in the US congress (SOPA and PIPA… even the names kinda fucking suck) that could pretty much fuck the internet up as we know it, and to raise awareness of the implications, a lot of websites are going dark today.
Two of the most popular ones probably being the English Wikipedia and Reddit, but a lot of smaller websites are also joining the “internet blackout day.” Some metal sites are also trying to get their reader base familiar with the situation, namely The Gauntlet and Metal Archives (possibly more).
While Dose of Metal is all about freedom on the internet ‘n shit (in fact the website is started by a bunch of people who probably wouldn’t have ever met if it wasn’t for 1) internet and 2) metal), we won’t go to such drastic lengths.
Now, I speak for myself as this hasn’t been discussed internally, but the reasons I’ll personally keep posting today are: 1) seems kind of cocky to stop our website because as much as we’d like to believe it, we’re not really that big and we’d just be attention whoring and jumping on the band wagon; 2) a lot of people who read this website aren’t from the US, and while the bills in question could screw things up for everyone, seems unfair to those people to bother them with something they probably don’t even understand.
Instead, we’ll leave a few links to get familiar with the situation and make your own decision on whether or not these bills are bad, and in case you do find that they suck, there’s plenty of ways you (Americans) can protest this.
Wikipedia page on SOPA and PIPA (also, the only Wikipedia page you can read today)
Electronic Frontier Foundation’s info on SOPA and PIPA’s implications
The rest of you can keep your fingers crossed, but ALL OF YOU can listen to some metal. Later, bitches.
