Next Wednesday, Jan. 18th, The France Hopper Network will shut down for the full day in protest of SOPA. We firmly believe that if SOPA is passed, it will destroy the Internet as it exists today. We believe that SOPA is nothing more than an excuse to gain unrestricted control over the content on the Internet. We believe it is an excuse to continue to fail to innovate in the fight against piracy. While we do not condone piracy, we firmly believe there are much more effective and far less controversial methods that can be easily implemented by publishers to prevent content piracy. Pirates have gotten smarter. Corporations have gotten stupider. On the 18th, we will be replacing the front page and all of FHNWRK with a message stating our opposition with links to get involved in the fight against SOPA.
We thank you for your understanding and look forward to seeing you again on the 19th.
Stephen J. Weber
– Founder, CEO ai|inc and The France Hopper Network