Colleagues: The Internet is a global resource and I'm thankful that the majority of our Apache and OODT users needn't put up with any of the shenanigans that the governments of Syria, Iran, and China employ routinely to throttle the free distribution of software, open exchange of ideas, and unmoderated dialog of critique deployed against their respective peoples.
Sadly, the United States of America is considering legislation [1], [2] in its dual legislative houses of government that is on par with these oppressive regimes[3]—all in a misguided attempt to stop piracy of both durable and logical goods. While we are an international organization that freely distributes software beyond national borders, we've got to admit that the practices employed within the United States has global ramifications, especially since our software, being free and open source, enjoys a worldwide audience and runs the majority of the web's infrastructure. Other efforts within the Apache Software Foundation have already stepped forward with visible, tangible displays of their commitment against the SOPA and PIPA acts currently under consideration by the USA House of Representatives and Senate, respectively. Some of these efforts have elected to participate in an "internet strike" by displaying banners and/or "going dark" on the 18th of January, 2012. I would strongly urge the Object Oriented Data Technology (OODT) project of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) to join in this solidarity and demonstrate a commitment towards the unregulated and open exchange of ideas that we expect on the internet. Towards that end, I propose we shutter the OODT website at http://oodt.apache.org/ and replace every page accessible under that domain with a singular white-text-on-black-background that conveys, without any doubt, our commitment to an open, un-regulated, free-of-government control internet that eschews the ideas of both SOPA and PIPA. I hope OODT will join in this protest. And, if it is at all possible, ALL of apache.org will follow suit. The Internet is at a vital nexus point, and we face an opportunity for change we dare not squander. Yours faithfully, Sean. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act [2] http://edrn.me/S [3] http://edrn.me/t
