9 ms·

Impressive SOPA blackout

139 points by nicholasreed 15y ago

joezydeco 15y ago
So is this some kind of meta-pirate joke? The source is ripped directly from the German Pirate Party website. http://www.piratenpartei.de http://www.piratenpartei.de
- jemka 15y ago
  >ripped directly Author of the code: "I place this code in the public domain. I require no attribution." : https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa Your research-foo leaves much to be desired.
  - joezydeco 15y ago
    My bad. I thought the public domain code was just the mousehandler at the bottom, not all the CSS tricks above.
    - zachstronaut 15y ago
      The javascript does all the parallax motion of the shadow and adjusts the box and text shadow blur based on distance of "light source" from content. So the CSS and JS are rather intimately linked for the full effect. This is just the web nerd in my jabbering away. ;)
  - fossuser 15y ago
    Just a note about copyright law: You can't legally place something in the public domain (even saying you want it public domain is meaningless). The best you can do is license it permissively giving up your five rights to copyright with a clear, perpetual and irrevocable license. The Apache license is a good one to use. This code as it stands is still fully copyrighted and copying it is technically a felony.
    - eridius 15y ago
      I've heard that's true in other countries, but I'm pretty sure the US allows you to place something in public domain.
      - fossuser 15y ago
        That's not the case, you can't opt to enter things in the public domain in the US - the best you can do is license permissively.
    - pbhjpbhj 15y ago
      Creative Commons have a pretty good piece on this under their CC0 info at http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0 http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0. I'd be very interested if anyone knows of a genuine situation in which one can't disclaim the IP rights one is offering up in a CC0 license (some aspect of moral rights?). I'm thinking of the possibility of problems with heirs-in-title, or somesuch, choosing to assert a right that their successor (the work's creator) wished to give up ... but really I can't see why an heir should be allowed such a right. ?
    - fossuser 15y ago
      Why am I being down voted? What I said is correct and shows some of the current absurdity of copyright. It's clear, relevant, and accurate.
jeff18 15y ago
Credit to Zachary Johnson: https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa
- nicholasreed 15y ago
  Thank you for posting this; my dev tools cut it off when I looked for attribution (terrible excuse, I just thought it was impressive).
  - zachstronaut 15y ago
    No worries, nicholas. This is the second time the link has hit the ycomb news homepage, so I've gotten plenty of attention already. Today is about stopping SOPA!
- zachstronaut 15y ago
  I can't believe how far my template has spread. I'm just really happy to help fight against SOPA.
  - dundun 15y ago
    Phish.net is also using it. I saw your name in the source and was wondering if you were affiliated with that site or this was a widespread thing. Anyway, great work.
  - im_dario 15y ago
    I used it in http://qomun.com http://qomun.com (shameless plug). Also it has been used by several high traffic spanish blogs and pirate parties (http://pirata.cat http://pirata.cat and http://www.partidopirata.es/ http://www.partidopirata.es/). Kudos!
shingen 15y ago
Green Peace is also using this, not sure whether the German Pirate Party ripped it off from them or vice versa. http://greenpeace.org http://greenpeace.org
- NanoWar 15y ago
  Well that's probably why they're called Pirate Party :P
  - earthboundkid 15y ago
    Man, I wish there were a real Pirate Party, so I could get someone to issue me a Letter of Marque to attack all those stupid Spanish Galleons sailing up and down the coast.
- spleeyah 15y ago
  It's actually public domain: https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa
jenius 15y ago
There are a lot of people using this, I am at http://jenius.me http://jenius.me as well. This was posted 3 days ago and rose to the top of hacker news when the original author released it, I don't understand why some other site is now getting credit for it or why a duplicate link is on the popular page of HN again... Here's the link from 3 days ago, with over 170 upvotes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3468386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3468386
- thomholwerda 15y ago
  We at http://www.osnews.com http://www.osnews.com used it as well (we're back up after 24hrs in UTC time). You can still view our version at http://www.osnews.com/?sopa=1 http://www.osnews.com/?sopa=1 (for posterity). Great work by Zachary Johnson.
JohnTHaller 15y ago
LibreOffice.org seems to be the one that started popularizing this script.
- spleeyah 15y ago
  It's actually public domain: https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa
FuzzyDunlop 15y ago
I find it strange that a method of protest appears to be an opportunity to see who can make the nicest looking one. Given the title of the thread, are some considering the blackout less of a political manoeuvre and more of a portfolio addition? Obviously they need to be attention grabbing enough to highlight the cause, but as a metric surely effectiveness is better than impressiveness?
- a_a_r_o_n 15y ago
  "I find it strange that a method of protest appears to be an opportunity to see who can make the nicest looking one." Why not? Is a protest sign less credible if it's not made of cardboard and Sharpie™? You should make everything you touch beautiful.
  - eridius 15y ago
    The more effort it takes to produce a protest, the more meaningful the protest is.
JoshTriplett 15y ago
It certainly looks nice, except that the text flows right off the bottom of the page, and scrolling doesn't work. I had to shrink the text font to see the whole thing, and in particular the link that appears at the end.
brok3nmachine 15y ago
Here's an HTML5 blackout that I found pretty impressive as well: http://acko.net/ http://acko.net/ Never saw the site before the blackout though, so I'm not sure if it is just a slight modification to their original homepage.
- chc 15y ago
  It is. All the elements are the same; they just changed the colors to black.
shocks 15y ago
I love that while most people would remark "Oh, that's cool", I (and I imagine a majority of us here...) immediately hit Ctrl+Shift+I and tried to figure out how it was working... Hah. :)
- felipemnoa 15y ago
  Archived for future dissection.
  - zachstronaut 15y ago
    I created the spotlight with a CSS3 radial gradient. I used pointer-events: none; on the element with the gradient so that mouse events would "go through" that element to the content below (the links). The lighting shadow casting effect is created via a box shadow and a text shadow. I'm adjusting the offset of the shadows based on the mouse position, and I'm also adjusting the blur on the shadows based on the distance of the "light source" for the content that is "casting" a shadow.
    - felipemnoa 15y ago
      Thanks for the info.
jschuur 15y ago
Even responds properly to touch gestures in iOS. Now that's impressive.
mirkules 15y ago
Thank you for making sure the site is readable even though javascript is disabled (I mean this sincerely). Edit: I would also like to point out that disabling javascript on wikipedia's page does not display the blackout and lets you continue to use the site (apologies if this was mentioned before)
- zachstronaut 15y ago
  I did that just for you in particular. I did it so you would call your congress members and tell them you oppose SOPA. And you made those calls for me, right? :p
  - mirkules 15y ago
    Not yet, been at work all day. But, I saved the numbers in my cell, and will call as soon as I'm out. :) On a side note: should I leave a voicemail after hours or is it more effective to send a fax? Never had to do this, but since this law would affect our collective lifebloods even for those outside of USA, it's time for action.
    - zachstronaut 15y ago
      Sometimes there is a voicemail box for after hours calls. Fax works. Phone call works. Email works. Make sure to let them know you are a constituent. It helps to tell them your address.

139 points by nicholasreed 15y ago

So is this some kind of meta-pirate joke? The source is ripped directly from the German Pirate Party website. http://www.piratenpartei.de http://www.piratenpartei.de

jemka 15y ago
>ripped directly Author of the code: "I place this code in the public domain. I require no attribution." : https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa Your research-foo leaves much to be desired.
- joezydeco 15y ago
  My bad. I thought the public domain code was just the mousehandler at the bottom, not all the CSS tricks above.
  - zachstronaut 15y ago
    The javascript does all the parallax motion of the shadow and adjusts the box and text shadow blur based on distance of "light source" from content. So the CSS and JS are rather intimately linked for the full effect. This is just the web nerd in my jabbering away. ;)
- fossuser 15y ago
  Just a note about copyright law: You can't legally place something in the public domain (even saying you want it public domain is meaningless). The best you can do is license it permissively giving up your five rights to copyright with a clear, perpetual and irrevocable license. The Apache license is a good one to use. This code as it stands is still fully copyrighted and copying it is technically a felony.
  - eridius 15y ago
    I've heard that's true in other countries, but I'm pretty sure the US allows you to place something in public domain.
    - fossuser 15y ago
      That's not the case, you can't opt to enter things in the public domain in the US - the best you can do is license permissively.
  - pbhjpbhj 15y ago
    Creative Commons have a pretty good piece on this under their CC0 info at http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0 http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0. I'd be very interested if anyone knows of a genuine situation in which one can't disclaim the IP rights one is offering up in a CC0 license (some aspect of moral rights?). I'm thinking of the possibility of problems with heirs-in-title, or somesuch, choosing to assert a right that their successor (the work's creator) wished to give up ... but really I can't see why an heir should be allowed such a right. ?
  - fossuser 15y ago
    Why am I being down voted? What I said is correct and shows some of the current absurdity of copyright. It's clear, relevant, and accurate.

jeff18 15y ago

Credit to Zachary Johnson: https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa

nicholasreed 15y ago
Thank you for posting this; my dev tools cut it off when I looked for attribution (terrible excuse, I just thought it was impressive).
- zachstronaut 15y ago
  No worries, nicholas. This is the second time the link has hit the ycomb news homepage, so I've gotten plenty of attention already. Today is about stopping SOPA!
zachstronaut 15y ago
I can't believe how far my template has spread. I'm just really happy to help fight against SOPA.
- dundun 15y ago
  Phish.net is also using it. I saw your name in the source and was wondering if you were affiliated with that site or this was a widespread thing. Anyway, great work.
- im_dario 15y ago
  I used it in http://qomun.com http://qomun.com (shameless plug). Also it has been used by several high traffic spanish blogs and pirate parties (http://pirata.cat http://pirata.cat and http://www.partidopirata.es/ http://www.partidopirata.es/). Kudos!

shingen 15y ago

Green Peace is also using this, not sure whether the German Pirate Party ripped it off from them or vice versa. http://greenpeace.org http://greenpeace.org

NanoWar 15y ago
Well that's probably why they're called Pirate Party :P
- earthboundkid 15y ago
  Man, I wish there were a real Pirate Party, so I could get someone to issue me a Letter of Marque to attack all those stupid Spanish Galleons sailing up and down the coast.
spleeyah 15y ago
It's actually public domain: https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa

jenius 15y ago

There are a lot of people using this, I am at http://jenius.me http://jenius.me as well. This was posted 3 days ago and rose to the top of hacker news when the original author released it, I don't understand why some other site is now getting credit for it or why a duplicate link is on the popular page of HN again... Here's the link from 3 days ago, with over 170 upvotes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3468386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3468386

thomholwerda 15y ago
We at http://www.osnews.com http://www.osnews.com used it as well (we're back up after 24hrs in UTC time). You can still view our version at http://www.osnews.com/?sopa=1 http://www.osnews.com/?sopa=1 (for posterity). Great work by Zachary Johnson.

JohnTHaller 15y ago

LibreOffice.org seems to be the one that started popularizing this script.

spleeyah 15y ago
It's actually public domain: https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa https://github.com/zachstronaut/stop-sopa

FuzzyDunlop 15y ago

I find it strange that a method of protest appears to be an opportunity to see who can make the nicest looking one. Given the title of the thread, are some considering the blackout less of a political manoeuvre and more of a portfolio addition? Obviously they need to be attention grabbing enough to highlight the cause, but as a metric surely effectiveness is better than impressiveness?

a_a_r_o_n 15y ago
"I find it strange that a method of protest appears to be an opportunity to see who can make the nicest looking one." Why not? Is a protest sign less credible if it's not made of cardboard and Sharpie™? You should make everything you touch beautiful.
- eridius 15y ago
  The more effort it takes to produce a protest, the more meaningful the protest is.

JoshTriplett 15y ago

It certainly looks nice, except that the text flows right off the bottom of the page, and scrolling doesn't work. I had to shrink the text font to see the whole thing, and in particular the link that appears at the end.

brok3nmachine 15y ago

Here's an HTML5 blackout that I found pretty impressive as well: http://acko.net/ http://acko.net/ Never saw the site before the blackout though, so I'm not sure if it is just a slight modification to their original homepage.

chc 15y ago
It is. All the elements are the same; they just changed the colors to black.

shocks 15y ago

I love that while most people would remark "Oh, that's cool", I (and I imagine a majority of us here...) immediately hit Ctrl+Shift+I and tried to figure out how it was working... Hah. :)

felipemnoa 15y ago
Archived for future dissection.
- zachstronaut 15y ago
  I created the spotlight with a CSS3 radial gradient. I used pointer-events: none; on the element with the gradient so that mouse events would "go through" that element to the content below (the links). The lighting shadow casting effect is created via a box shadow and a text shadow. I'm adjusting the offset of the shadows based on the mouse position, and I'm also adjusting the blur on the shadows based on the distance of the "light source" for the content that is "casting" a shadow.
  - felipemnoa 15y ago
    Thanks for the info.

jschuur 15y ago

Even responds properly to touch gestures in iOS. Now that's impressive.

mirkules 15y ago

Thank you for making sure the site is readable even though javascript is disabled (I mean this sincerely). Edit: I would also like to point out that disabling javascript on wikipedia's page does not display the blackout and lets you continue to use the site (apologies if this was mentioned before)

zachstronaut 15y ago
I did that just for you in particular. I did it so you would call your congress members and tell them you oppose SOPA. And you made those calls for me, right? :p
- mirkules 15y ago
  Not yet, been at work all day. But, I saved the numbers in my cell, and will call as soon as I'm out. :) On a side note: should I leave a voicemail after hours or is it more effective to send a fax? Never had to do this, but since this law would affect our collective lifebloods even for those outside of USA, it's time for action.
  - zachstronaut 15y ago
    Sometimes there is a voicemail box for after hours calls. Fax works. Phone call works. Email works. Make sure to let them know you are a constituent. It helps to tell them your address.