End of January the US Congress will vote to pass two laws, the “PROTECT IP Act” (PIPA) and the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA). If these laws pass they would enable copyright holders to get court orders against websites accused of doing or facilitating copyright infringement. So far so good, the openSUSE Project is against copyright violations.

We are a community that provides free and easy access to Free and Open Source Software. We innovate, integrate, polish, document, distribute, maintain and support one of the world’s best Linux distributions. We are working together in an open, transparent and friendly manner as part of the worldwide Free and Open Source community. And in this community there is no room for copyright abuses. That however does not mean that the end justifies the means. We at openSUSE are opposed to the proposals because we depend on our users to not only be able to freely and openly contribute their code but also their opinion and other information. Why that is threatened by these proposals, you can read over at the EFF, or watch this video from Fight for the Future

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

We hope the decision to blackout openSUSE.org will educate people around the world about this issue that threatens the basics of the internet, will make some US based contributors, friends and users contact their representatives in congress and inspire others to join the strike.