This isn't to say don't sign this, but if you are really concerned, the absolute bottom line is phone calls. Anything you can do to funnel phone calls in is what counts.
Edit: Let me add this, which makes it absurdly easy: http://fightforthefuture.org/
This is the first use of the White House petitioning system that I think is actually really clever. (Honorable mention: Petition to Please Take Petitions Seriously.)
Rest assured this will get just as ignored as any other. Please call your rep.
If I remember correctly, that means they have to respond to it within a month, which would be Dec. 27th?
Efficiency is the enemy for things like this, because it only shows a minimum amount of involvement with the issue. You show you care at all by participating in petitions, but you prove you care more by participating in more time-intensive activities.
This is something that you'll see people close to politicians say quite a lot, that the method of communication counts, and a multiplier is used to count your input based on that method. It's why you're supposed to write to your $political_representative on paper rather that firing off an email, and it's why you're supposed to hand write the letter (legibly, please!) rather than typing it. A person who takes an hour or two drafting a compelling response to legislation, writing a final copy by hand, taking it to the post office, affixing a stamp, and mailing it out has shown more concern for the issue than does a guy who goes on HN, sees this link, and fills out a form to effectively just say "yeah, me too, what he said!"
That aside, welcome to HN. I hope you enjoy it.
F^(#!~& server-side browser filtering... >:-(
Before anyone claims "OH, so we should just do nothing instead????". Posting a dubious e-signature to an internet petition does nothing. There are people out in the streets sleeping in parks getting pepper sprayed and arrested because the government can't simply ignore it (unlike every single internet petition).
Filling out a whitehouse petition is like getting punched in the face by your boss then slipping a folded piece of paper into the complaint box he put in the break-room next to the donuts.
Actually now in britain we have it set up so whenever one of these gets 100,000 votes, it must be debated in parliament. One of the few useful or interesting things cameron has done. Of course they are quite rightly not bound to do anything more than debate it, and in the long run it will probably just be a more efficient way of shutting people up. "Look, we've debated it, we've given parliamentary time to your issue, what more do you want? This is a representative democracy you know!"
fuel prices - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/347 (small decrease implemented, plans for the future shared)
immigration - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/19658 (basic plans shared, recently implemented changes listed, already heard some people having visa issues, so something is happening)
summer riots - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/7337 (no direct actions, but response means pretty much "this is happening anyways", there's some more information about what the local authorities can do)
Hillsborough 1989 - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/2199 (accepted, disclosure will happen)
financial education - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/8903 (this one does look like a non-answer, but maybe they're really doing the reviews now)
private pensions - http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1535 (no response yet, only crossed the line recently)
While I'm not crazy about all the answers, there was some effect (or at least an explanation or a commitment to the original plan). They're quite far from "a more efficient way of shutting people up" the way it's presented in the comments here.
Even worse, if enough petitions get that many votes, it could be spun as a problem for politicians who want to get things done, "The public keeps wanting us to debate these stupid issues! We can't get to the more important things!" Yes it sounds far-fetched, but some newspapers will sink that low...
In the truth-vacuum of DC, it's pretty relevant.
OT, but is it then reasonable to infer that the increasing closeness of Presidential elections over the past couple of decades may have simply been a cost-cutting operation by the lobbying industry?
The petition system is an ineffectual smokescreen.
edit: banning is too harsh. censored to the agreement of all corporate interests, all potential corporate interests and the interests of those rich and American enough to have influence
You apparently just cannot create an account from that particular page.
For whatever reason account creation doesn't work from the 'Stop SOPA' petition page.
Short serious video: http://youtu.be/1ngRPuXpCIw
Long sarcastic video with a British accent: http://youtu.be/JhwuXNv8fJM
(Sidenote: I think it is an extra step worse that the government put up a website for petitions, and still ignores their own system. Random petitions (e.g. "\signed" forum posts) are one thing, but this is more like toying with people.)
That said, I think this petition has something important that other whitehouse.gov petitions don't: in that, under SOPA, there is actually technically a possibility that the government would censor itself (via whitehouse.gov), which is pretty funny if you think about it.
Edit: I suppose I mean "funny" in a darker sense.
See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45176460/ns/technology_and_scien...
Otherwise there'll be another attempt at SOPA after outrage fatigue. And there had been many before.
On the other hand, if he veto's maybe we can make up the difference. I'd be happy to contribute to a president who is a proven proponent of internet liberty. I just don't have the bankroll of the hollywood execs. Maybe some of the recent internet billionaires can fill in the gaps.
1) The petition gets removed for containing infringing content
or worse...
2) The government moves towards removing imgur.com because it is doing the hosting of the infringing content
I know, I know its absurd, but who really believes that that link can bring down whitehouse.gov?
We need a better methodology.
???
