Pest Control and Bug Exterminator Blog

Today was to be the internet blackout day in protest of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). Mike Halvorsen named some big names in his blog post on those that were going to protest: http://michaelhalvorsen.com/2012/01/google-amazon-facebook-twitter-shutting-day-protest-sopa/

Among those names were Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and Ebay. None of these have actually closed their sites for the day, but a few are voicing some protest on their site. Other big name websites, like WordPress, Reddit, and Wikipedia have stepped up to the plate. Here are screen shots of websites protesting the “Stop Online Piracy Act”.

WordPress

I actually found WordPress.com to have the more unique and creative protests. Imagine how many wordpress blogs could be in danger of SOPA regulations. In fact, this entire blog could be shut down for even using a screen shot of the wordpress homepage. Clearly wordpress has not blacked out their entire site due to SOPA, as this is a wordpress.com blog, and I am personally grateful they did not.

WordPress.org also strikes in opposition of SOPA. Although at the bottom of the page you can find a link back to the old wordpress.org page.

Amazon

In case you missed Amazon’s protesting efforts…

So look again and you will see a small box in the top right hand corner labeled “Reasons to oppose or modify SOPA.” Amazon is walking a fine line here as many authors may have reasons to support SOPA.

Google

No doodle from Google in protest of SOPA. The google logo still appears on the google maps vertical, but does not appear in google’s other vertical searches. The link on google’s home page takes you to their page dedicated to protesting the movement and includes the following nifty PDF. < click the image to download it >

Surprisingly YouTube shows nothing in opposition of SOPA.

Wikipedia – Biggest Protester

Very compelling message by Wikipedia, a site built upon FREE information. They also implement a great call to action to help push phone calls to “your representatives.” Their goal is to melt Washington D.C. phone lines. Worthy attempt. Although wikipedia did not have a complete blackout, and they are employing a rather sneaky redirect. Although I assume that Google will most likely ignore this black hat tactic. You will notice that the above page loads first then the redirect loads on top of that page. My guess is that Wikipedia understands the damage that could occur to their SEO should they show the search engines a bunch of duplicate content and/or pages down. And if you really need Wikipedia to do your homework then try http://simple.wikipedia.org.

Other Notable Protesting Websites

Mozilla‘s home page:

Mozilla’s blog mentions the protest but their blog and all other internal pages are still live.

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Reddit‘s Entire Website for 12 hours:

This includes all of Reddit’s internal pages.

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Wired.com is censored in protest of SOPA

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Pinterest.com, upon login gives the following message and screen shot in protest.

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Slickdeals.net adds a notice on their homepage.

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Congress Woman @RepAnnaEshoo of California is protesting on her site:

Anna Eshoo represents California’s 14th Congressional District–the heart of Silicon Valley. She is Ranking Member of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee.

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Craigslist.org is also adding a protest to their local directories, but with a link to click on through.

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Slashdot.org marks through their logo and posts two articles at the top of their page explaining SOPA.

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Fark.com Homepage Support for SOPA

Watch Why You should Support SOPA Video. Farks deeper pages are all still active. And instead of a blackout they went with a white-out.

Non Protesting Sites as of Today:

Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Ebay have nothing on their homepages in opposition of SOPA. Bing announced it’s protest, but nothing on Bing shows them as protesting. And while Godaddy was once listed as a supporter, they have nothing on their website going either way.

Perhaps it’s because the bill is nearly dead at this time, but with the exception of Wikipedia and Reddit, I feel that the protesting websites have failed to actually “BLACK OUT”, and their protests are weak. As a business, I can understand the actual costs involved in shutting down for a day. Google would loose millions if it closed it’s doors for one day. Wikipedia has the luxury of being a Non-Profit, so no money will be lost. As for Godaddy, they are smart for staying out of the political heat.

Feel free to add any additional sites in protest to the comments below.

Related articles

• Microsoft opposes SOPA (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• SOPA blackout list grows, as Google confirms plan to include link on homepage (100gf.wordpress.com)
• Stop SOPA/PIPA Censorship! WCMA Joins the Strike! (wcma2.wordpress.com)
• SOPA to be resurrected after blackout protests (slashgear.com)
• Say NO to SOPA & PIPA! (jeenus.wordpress.com)
• Stop SOPA And PIPA (neilperkin.typepad.com)
• What it SOPA & PIPA ? Why it is matter ? (ictreview.wordpress.com)

And that is a day in online protest, from your local pest control guy, at Bulwark Exterminating.

FRIDAY April 22, 2011 UPDATE

It has now been almost 1 month since we posted about Rebecca Black’s Friday Song.

Views: 114,837,942
Estimated Earns on Youtube Ads alone: $57,418.50
Dislikes: 2,299,855 (86.5%)
Likes: 311,519 (13.5%)
iTunes Chart: 72

And comments are still flowing in at about 1 per second! How long can this last?

To the song’s credit the percentage of likes has increased as former stats from first post 11% Likes to 89% Dislike. We have also considered that fact that most billboard hits per genre of music are probably not liked by a huge percentage of the overall population. There are those that will never listen to a rap song to even give it a vote. So, despite our cynicism, she has a target audience that can carry her song. We don’t know exactly how many times Friday has been downloaded, but she is currently at 72 on iTunes chart, down from her position at #20. So have a Good Friday!… Got to go. Got to get some cereal… I now need to decide which seat I can sit iiiiiiinnnnnn!

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If you have already heard this tune before, then I must apologize in advance.  You know what I’m about to inflict upon you.

If you have not heard this song before, then it is your responsibility to humanity to partake in the horrific and graphic reality that I am about to describe that the rest of us are having to endure like yokes upon our backs.

First, the horror.

On February 10, 2011, Ark Music Factory posted a YouTube video that would help redefine the viral industry forever.  No other music video has drawn as much attention and ire as Rebecca Black’s “Friday” single.  From the lyrics to the video itself to the tone of her singing is, as a good friend of mine put it on Twitter, “like nails down a chalkboard and knives into my eyes.”

The song lashes out at you with lyrics such as “Yesterday was Thursday. Today is Friday…Tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterwards.”  That is followed up by the brilliance of “Fun, fun, fun, fun!”  Oh, the humanity!

It has been mentioned and scoffed at by almost every radio station across the country.  Sports commentators are evening weighing in.

She is still a trending topic on Twitter and has been at least since sometime last week.  That has to be some sort of Twitter record.

At the time of me typing this sentence, of the 47,706,751 million YouTube hits on her official video, there are 706,886 “dislikes” and 83,491 “likes”.  Comments are literally being posted at more than one per second.  The pace is astonishing.

So what’s all the rage about?  …the song making the waves by Rebecca Black, Friday…

Again, I apologize to you, the viewer, but discussing this issue must be a group effort.

*10 Minute Update: Since I recorded those figures 10 minutes ago, the “dislikes” have climbed to 708,585 (1,699 difference) and “likes”, heaven forbid, are now at 83,689 (198 difference).

Now, the harsh reality…

Although iTunes does not disclose their sales numbers of songs, she is currently ranked on iTunes.com at #23 in the Top 100 of downloaded songs. On PopVortex.com’s release of their iTunes Top 100, she currently ranks #19, two slots ahead of Pink and well ahead of Usher, Katy Perry and the original YouTube sensation himself, Justin Bieber.

Forbes and Billboard differ in their estimation of just how many times “Friday” has been downloaded, but most estimate that it has been downloaded well over 2 million times. As iTunes scratches a check at $.70 on the dollar, Ark Music Factory has presumably cashed in over $1 million.

With 47 million views on YouTube, Ark Music is also cashing in on paid advertisements. As a pest control company on our scorpion video, we average about $.71 per thousand views. For us, this is enough to pay for fountain drinks at the gas station down the road. If we calculate that her video even earns $.50 per thousand views, Arm Music is still banking over $23,000. That will be enough to buy Rebecca a car when she turns 16 three years from now.

It is hard to know how many royalties she is earning, since Ark Music Factory produced and released the video. Since she is the one putting herself up on a pedestal for every American, minus 83,000 of them, to take shots at, we certainly hope she is getting the vast majority of those checks. Annoying voice or not, she is taking this all the way to the bank. Horrific lyrics or not, we are the ones filling up her bedazzled pockets.

Ark Music Factory is the engine that is driving these young teens to completely defame their own character and reputation at such an early age. We’re sure their cut of the pie is quite large, sadly. Is the Ark Music Factory business model the American version of sweat shops? Pesty indeed.

We pride ourselves on doing quality pest control, but there are some pests you just can’t get rid of.