Article Lead Image

Reddit’s homegrown magazine releases special SOPA edition

"The Redditor" has compiled user-generated content into a 14-page special issue about the controversial antipiracy bill.

 

Kevin Collier

Tech

Posted on Jan 17, 2012   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 10:35 pm CDT

There’s one way to still get your Reddit during the great SOPA-inspired blackout on Wednesday.

The Redditor, a monthly online magazine, started as an inside joke on the social news site but turned into a serious endeavor. Now it’s getting really serious, as Reddit prepares to black out the site to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, a piece of proposed legislation that many in the Reddit community strongly oppose.

The 14-page issue, compiled from user-generated Reddit content and free to download as a PDF, has a single, timely theme: How to fight SOPA and PIPA, a related piece of legislation. It features infographics, a history of SOPA, and an editorial from a redditor in China titled “Let Me Tell You What Life Is Like With Restricted Internet.”

“Over the past week we have worked tirelessly to pull together a mini-issue calling attention to SOPA & PIPA,” magazine editor Blair Drager, known on Reddit as ohblair, wrote on r/politics. “The content in this issue was created by the reddit community—basic introductions to the proposed legislation, info, letters, comics, pictures, videos, quotes, and what you can do to help.”

It’s already a hit with fans.

The Redditor has been consistently excellent and kept me occupied during recent holiday travels,” wrote ModsAreKillingReddit. “Your magazine is a prime example of the kind of creativity that can be chilled by overbearing, lopsided IP laws and enforcement,”

Image via The Redditor

Share this article
*First Published: Jan 17, 2012, 9:29 pm CST