In support of the SOPA/PIPA Blackout, the Occupied Oakland Tribune web site will be unavailable for several hours on January 18.
The SOPA Blackout began as an effort to battle the Stop Online Piracy Act, pending legislation that threatens to give the US government and copyright holders the power to limit access to web sites accused of harboring copyrighted content. Boing Boing provides a brief analysis of the legislation here. As SOPA appears to be on the road to defeat, the fight continues against the similar Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) in the Senate. Already, Reddit, Boing Boing, the Cheezburger sites and others have joined the SOPA Blackout.
Unfortunately, the Occupied Oakland Tribune (OOT) is under another threat of censorship from the Bay Area News Group (BANG), the publisher of the Oakland Tribune newspaper and insidebayarea.com, which has threatened the OOT with legal action if we do not shut down this web site. Rather than threatening a minor outlet that supports the 99%, BANG should be focused on a more serious threat: censorship from legislation such as SOPA and PIPA.
More information about participating in or encouraging others to join the SOPA Strike can be found here.


Scott, won’t you please look into this Assemblymember Mary Hayashi’s charges being changed from felony to misdemeanor – this is just WRONG!
This is her second time to shoplift – she was spotted but not charged first time – Neiman Marcus store was waiting for her second time and arrested her.
She is being treated as though she is above the law. She should be REMOVED IMMEDIATELY from the CA Assembly.
Thank you very much!