Internet Freedom Day

Internet Freedom Day

One year ago we defeated SOPA.
Today, celebrate your freedom of expression.
January 18th is #InternetFreedomDay
What’s something you love on the net that you’d never want to see censored?

There are lots of great things we can do to celebrate this very important anniversary of
beating SOPA one year ago today! Check out a few of them at:

www.InternetFreedomDay.net

and do what you can to
celebrate the one year anniversary of beating SOPA today!

And don’t forget: Aaron Swartz was instrumental in helping to beat SOPA!

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Not sure what it’s all about? Check out the following article:

The Day Wikipedia Went Dark - Boston Review

Many sites, including all of my websites went dark that day!

As was noted in the article:

The free Internet will rise or fall on the involvement and ingenuity of the people, not on courts or lawmakers.

Internet Freedom Day: Coming together a year after SOPA/PIPA – EFF.org

Internet Freedom Day: Celebrate SOPA/PIPA Victory One Year Later!

SOPA protest swells as Google, Scribd and WordPress join

SOPA protest swells as Google, Scribd, and WordPress join – Arstechnica

“Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” a Google spokesman told Ars. “So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our US home page.”

List of those big sites that are protesting: sopastrike.com

More information at http://americancensorship.org/

MythBuster Adam Savage: SOPA Could Destroy the Internet as We Know It

MythBuster Adam Savage: SOPA Could Destroy the Internet as We Know It

Right now Congress is considering two bills—the Protect IP Act, and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)—that would be laughable if they weren’t in fact real. Honestly, if a friend wrote these into a piece of fiction about government oversight gone amok, I’d have to tell them that they were too one-dimensional, too obviously anticonstitutional.

Make no mistake: These bills aren’t simply unconstitutional, they are anticonstitutional. They would allow for the wholesale elimination of entire websites, domain names, and chunks of the DNS (the underlying structure of the whole Internet), based on nothing more than the “good faith” assertion by a single party that the website is infringing on a copyright of the complainant. The accused doesn’t even have to be aware that the complaint has been made.

I’m not kidding.

Hope everyone has contacted their Congressmen and women and told them exactly what you think of this unconstitutional and anticonstitutional ‘so called’ legislation! I have!

BTW: Don’t forget to urge the President to VETO NDAA!!! “President has until December 26 to act on NDAA” per Americans to Obama: Veto NDAA, White House phones jammed

SOPA flip flop

So we can’t just sit back and relax and enjoy the holidays, eh?

House Delays Taking Action on SOPA Until Dec. 21 – Mashable

Nope. Guess not. SOPA was supposedly pushed off till 2012, but then they flip flopped and now they will be meeting on the 21st. I wonder how they got Congress to come back when they were supposed to be on break? Must have been pretty profitable to them one way or another?

SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not...] – TechDirt

From this article: SOPA, bill to stop online piracy, hits minor snag in House – CBS:

Public Knowledge, a Washington based advocacy organization pushing for an open Internet, slammed the panel’s chair for pushing the legislation without understanding the bill’s unintended consequences.

“SOPA, as written, would threaten the functioning, freedom, and economic potential of the Internet,” said Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director of Public Knowledge, adding that scheduling a vote “when many members may well be absent demonstrates a clear desire to continue dodging the questions raised by experts, members, and the public.”

Tech Companies have repeatedly stated that this would be bad for everyone:

Looks like Congress has declared war on the internet – Gigaom

Tech firms fight SOPA by talking job creation – CNN Money

WTF is happening with SOPA now? – Boing Boing:

If you followed my tweets from the markup session for SOPA in the House of Representatives, you know how frustrating it was to watch: you had these lawmakers blithely dismissing the security concerns of the likes of Vint Cerf, saying things like, “I’m no technology nerd, but I don’t believe it.” In other words: “I’m a perfect ignoramus, but I find it convenient to disregard the world’s foremost experts.” Another congressman from Florida kept saying things like “No one can explain to me how this bill harms political debate or academic freedom.”

Congressional SOPA hearings: no opponents of the bill allowed:

Irony Alert: The House is holding hearings on sweeping Internet censorship legislation this week — and it’s censoring the opposition! The bill is backed by Hollywood, Big Pharma, and the Chamber of Commerce, and all of them are going to get to testify at the hearing.

But the bill’s opponents — tech companies, free speech and human rights activists, and hundreds of thousands of Internet users — won’t have a voice.

And can anyone be blamed for being upset with this mess!?!

The nightmarish SOPA hearings – ComPost – Washington Post:

This is terrifying to watch. It would be amusing — there’s nothing like people who did not grow up with the Internet attempting to ask questions about technology very slowly and stumbling over words like “server” and “service” when you want an easy laugh. Except that this time, the joke’s on us.

…

As long as there have been new technologies, the entertainment industry has been trying to get them shut down as filthy, thieving pirates. Video cassettes? Will anyone tune into TV again? MP3 players? Why even bother making a record? Digital video recorder that lets you skip ads? That’s a form of theft!

…

SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, is a bill that, in the name of preventing online piracy of copyrighted work, creates a horrifyingly large censorship authority for the Internet. Among other things, it requiresservice providers (which have come out opposing the bill) to block access to entire sites if a user on the site is accused of copyright infringement.

There are dozens of reasons this is wrong. The biggest and most pressing is that not only does the bill not do what it sets out to do, it also creates a horrifyingly blunt instrument to censor the Internet.

Top Internet engineers warn against SOPA:

Some of the original engineers of the Internet called Thursday for lawmakers to scrap anti-piracy bills, saying the proposals would pose major technological barriers for the Web and stifle new innovations.

The letter comes as House Judiciary committee members on Thursday debate the Stop Online Piracy Act introduced by Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) that has drawn impassioned support from media firms but opposition by Web firms and some public interest groups.

…

Vint Cerf of Google, domain name system software author Paul Vixie and Internet routing engineer Tony Li were among 83 high-profile engineers who signed an open letter to Congress in opposition to the House Stop Online Privacy Act and Senate Protect Intellectual Property Act.

“If enacted, either of these bills will create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure,” the engineers wrote.

An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress:

Today, a group of 83 prominent Internet inventors and engineers sent an open letter to members of the United States Congress, stating their opposition to the SOPA and PIPA Internet blacklist bills that are under consideration in the House and Senate respectively.

The article has the letter itself, as well as a link to the pdf of the letter.

It also has the impressive list of VERY SMART PEOPLE! Engineers! People who would know! SOPA is a very bad thing!

Call your Senators! Please work it in to your busy holiday schedule. I did and I hope you will too. I will do it again come Monday. All this on the weekend when we can’t do anything about it?! Very annoying that they would flip flop like this at beyond the 11th hour!

As an American Citizen..I am appalled at our Congress. And even more so with our President who seems to be backing this crap legislation.

The PIPA (Protect IP Act = Senate Bill S.968) is no better. Both of these crap legislations need to go!

These bills are so bad, in next to no time, we could all be feeling like we are in a tyrannical empire … The NDAA was bad enough and they let that piece of crap legislation through already. Don’t let Congress make yet another major mistake and give away the remaining liberties and freedoms we so love.

In the words of Eye Drops from the old ZDTV/TechTV: “Think about that!“

EDIT: Adding the following from Cory Doctorow on Twitter:
“@doctorow: A good piece explaining what #SOPA can mean to everyday Americans http://t.co/qIqInkYJ” The original posting is here: http://www.bricoleur.org/2011/12/overbroad-censorship-users.html

Lying is not Patriotic

A valiant speech by Ron Paul: Lying is not Patriotic

It was refreshing to hear Ron Paul in Congress speaking out on the Wikileaks/Julian Assange situation on Youtube!

Who will be next? One really has to ask this question.

This heinous Espionage Act has had only dire and detrimental consequences to the freedom of the people of our country in the past. Many suffered unjustly as noted in Naomi Wolf’s article here at Huffington Post.

Those who allow themselves to forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

Are we doomed to a “1984″ fate 26 years later than predicted? It looked like we were heading there, but if this is allowed, I fear for all of us in this once great country.

Freedom is something that takes diligence to maintain.

And don’t forget, some of the most horrible things in history were done with the best intentions.

Protect net neutrality

Protect net neutrality

Rather than send this via email, since I hate receiving unsolicited emails, I figured I would just put it on my blog.

Our ability to have a free and open Internet is under attack.

The Federal Communications Commission has been attempting to enforce net neutrality safeguards that would keep big telecoms from inspecting and filtering the Internet content you access, blocking websites and applications they don’t like, and overcharging you for using the Internet. But a recent court decision prevents the FCC from regulating net neutrality in the way it tried.

The FCC now faces an important decision. Will it stand up for consumers and reclassify broadband Internet providers to ensure the Internet stays free?

The FCC has asked for public comment on their net neutrality plans. Join me in submitting a comment in support of the FCC doing everything it can to protect a free and open Internet. Just click the link below to submit your comment.

http://www.credoaction.com/campaign/fccnn_replycomments/?rc=homepage

I have already submitted my comments. Maybe you could too…

60 Years after Orwell published Nineteen Eighty Four

Frail, cowardly Winston saved us by Robert Harris, Times Online

Clearly much of Nineteen Eighty-Four is a satire on Stalinism, from the physical description of Big Brother’s face (“black-haired, black-mous-tachio’d, full of power and mysterious calm”) to the split in the party led by the Trotsky figure, Emmanuel Goldstein. And if that were the limit of Orwell’s ambition – to describe England as a Stalinist state – the novel would be regarded today as a brilliant period piece about the horrors of communism, comparable perhaps to his friend Arthur Koestler’s Darkness at Noon: an important work, still read but confined to a limited audience.

However, what sets Nineteen Eighty-Four apart – the difference in ambition which means that millions of people who have never read a word of Orwell nevertheless know what “Orwellian” means – is that it parodies the totalitarian impulse in general. The original ideology behind this impulse may be communist or fascist, or nationalist or corporate or institutional, but the methods by which it proceeds are in each case the same: the stamping out of the capacity for individual thought and freedom, not merely by physical force but by a complete denial of privacy and by the control of all information, even to the extent of policing the language in which thoughts are expressed.

(BOLD emphasis mine)

Yes, I think at least to date, Winston did in a way save us, but whether Winston’s testament will continue to do so for another generation remains to be seen. Although, I see wonderful stirrings among the younger generations in the areas of privacy, liberty, freedom and individuality. It gives me hope to see this as we mark the 60 year milestone since the book 1984 (Nineteen Eighty Four) by George Orwell was published. Orwell’s last and greatest work — that took the last of everything out of him to bring to fruition. Thank you George Orwell.

Footnote: To Robert Harris: Maybe George Orwell didn’t get it wrong. Maybe, by publishing this book, and so many people taking the possibilities to heart is what in part helped to prevent this type of horrific society in 1984 from actually coming to pass? Just a thought…

NO CLEAN FEED – Stop Internet Censorship in Australia

NO CLEAN FEED – Stop Internet Censorship in Australia

Help spread the word about the campaign by blogging about the filter, linking to nocleanfeed.com website, or including one of their buttons on your own site or blog.

If nothing else learn about what is going on in Australia … because Australia may just be the proving ground for a terrible worldwide or at least countrywide filtering system that may be coming to USA or wherever you live!

RIAA Determined to destroy tributes to artists and more!

RIAA NAZIS DETERMINED TO DESTROY NEW AND FRINGE MUSIC:

I just got this new directive from the CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) in the USA that applies to all public radio stations. Here’s an excerpt:

“In any three (3) hour period you can transmit up to three (3) different selections of sound recordings from any one CD, but you can transmit no more than two (2) consecutively. Additionally, in any three (3) hour period you can transmit up to four (4) different selections by the same featured artist, or up to four (4) different selections of sound recordings from any set or compilation of CD’s, but you can transmit no more than three (3) consecutively.”

As the Just As We Thought Blog noted — so much for dedicating programs to artists when they die or to honor birthdays.

Sad. They have to feel in total control! That is such an alien concept … controlling music. Music is all about freedom and speaking out, revolution, love, deep thoughts. That is so contrary to control!

I will be so happy when artists finally say, “That’s it! I have had enough of this!”

That will be a truly great day for all music lovers the world over.

Malevolent voices that despise our freedoms

Malevolent voices that despise our freedoms – Phillip Pullman (TimesOnline)

Are such things done on Albion’s shore?

The image of this nation that haunts me most powerfully is that of the sleeping giant Albion in William Blake’s prophetic books. Sleep, profound and inveterate slumber: that is the condition of Britain today.

We do not know what is happening to us. In the world outside, great events take place, great figures move and act, great matters unfold, and this nation of Albion murmurs and stirs while malevolent voices whisper in the darkness – the voices of the new laws that are silently strangling the old freedoms the nation still dreams it enjoys.

Phillip Pullman, the childrens’ author, continues in the article to talk about reality that are echos of the Orwellian 1984.

I would suggest that you read first Phillip Pullman’s article and then read my 1984 posting from 2005. There is a sad and striking similarity.

And what of us (here in the USA)? And what of us?

Must read.

More great discussion at: http://www.modernliberty.net/