Save the Internet!
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
We’ve been remiss in covering the SOPA/PIPA fight. So in honor of today’s SOPA/PIPA strike, we will be on strike from 6AM to 6PM today.
In the meantime, here are some links:
Julian Sanchez, SOPA: An Architecture for Censorship
Dan Gillmor, Stop SOPA or the Net Really Will Go Dark
And for a stomach-churning “where are they now” experience, here is former Senator Chris Dodd, now MPAA President’s statement calling the decision to go on strike today an “abuse of power.”
If that doesn’t keep you busy, you can write your members of Congress via this link. Or call them directly!
I, for one, will still be on Twitter. So will #SOPAStrike, tracking how things go tomorrow.
Thank you– this presentation is just right for many non-technical folks so I’m referring them here. I have also signed at http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa. I enjoyed yesterday’s handing out of pink slips. The lobbyists and their Congressional Mini-Mes deserve the constituent equivalent of a DDoS attack and much, much more. FYI, a reliable source tells me that Kerry’s DC voicemail box is full and the staffers in the Boston office are getting lots of calls.
if fascism is the merging, for mutual benefit, of government departments and forces with corporate companies and their forces, then these two bills are a part of a fascist merger.
just as was at@t’s co-operation with the national security agency on wiretapping,
and visa’s co-operation with the dept of justice in depriving wikileaks of contributions,
and disney corp’s and ge’s co-operation with the whitehouse on news issues of national importance,
and google’s willingness to shut down web sites at government request here in the u.s., and its caving to chinese censorship.
no citizen should doubt for a moment that this fight has absolutely nothing to do with their personal rights to free expression or with individual citizens’ opportunity to communicate with each other over the internet.
this is a fight over “property” rights, though, of course, not over your or my real property rights in our houses and farms.
this is a fight where corporations in one failing industry are trying to stick another industry with legal liability for what amounts to copyright infringement.
the link denominated “statement” won’t work for me.
oher links o.k.
here is glenn greenwald’s article on the sopa, pipa arm-wrestling match:
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/18/chris_dodds_paid_sopa_crusading/singleton/
i cite it here for what it displays about what i consider the rot in the national democratic party.
greenwald’s column discusses the industry lobbying of former democratic lion sen chris dodd.
but he also discusses the industry payments to democratic lion sen. patrick leahy.
that discussion made me wonder if the appointment of right-wing corporatist supreme court judges like john roberts might not have had leahy’s (and his industry’s) tacit blessing.
in any event, greenwald’s revelations are just another reason in my mind to purge from the senate a large number of long-serving democratic senators.
i’d be willing to bet that following such a purge, the much bemoaned inability of the senate to represent the interests of ordinary citizens and to get its work done would suddenly evaporate.
speaking of rot in the democratic and rotten democratic lions, which i was,
did you know that democratic lion sen charles schumer had sponsored some of the legislation?
i didn’t.
is there any corporate interests that a democratic lion won’t support?
from the nytimes:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/techies-plan-to-take-sopa-protest-to-the-streets/
“… Beginning around 12:30 p.m. Eastern time, the New York Tech Meetup, an eight-year-old trade organization that has nearly 20,000 members, is calling for those who oppose the proposed bills to gather in Midtown Manhattan outside of the offices of Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who co-sponsored some of the proposed legislation.
As of Tuesday, more than 1,100 people had RSVP’d to the New York event, which is open and available to the public, said Jessica Lawrence, the managing director of the group…”
@orionATL: That is what I have been proposing. I mean it. I will work tirelessly to remove every single one of them that voted in favor of NDAA.
They all committed Treason against the US and its people. They are Traitors and practice Tyranny on a daily basis. Do you need some more T’s?
if you want some details/specifics about what legislation like this can do to weblogs, especially small ones, read pam spaulding’s column today at fdl:
http://pamshouseblend.firedoglake.com/2012/01/18/sopa-pipa-righthaven-newsright-and-going-dark/
spaulding’s own weblog got trapped in a previous incarnation of this “anti-piracy” hysteria.
my view is that the movie and recorded music industries pushing this are simply failing industries which have overcharged their customers and have produced boring content for decades. fewer and fewer customers want the overpriced cultural pablum they produce.
finally, what does PIPA stand for?
well, it is often written as “protect ip act”.
but what does the “ip” stand for?
the full, formal name is apparently:
“… The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act, S.968, or the PROTECT IP Act, also known as PIPA, would allow the Attorney General to require domain name registries to “suspend operation of, and lock, the domain name” of a website the DoJ determines to be “dedicated to infringing activity.”…”
quote from:
http://www.publicknowledge.org/take-stand-against-pipa-call-your-senator-now
“real online threats to economic creativity” – what kind of gibberish is that?
Hat tip to Andy Mabbett in Birmingham, England for this:
Here’s the text of the petition:
I invite others to approach their central government in a similar manner.
of real concern to me is that the u.s. attorney general would be empowered to enforce a complaint from a self-alleged “victim” of copyright infringement.
isn’t that just dandy.
think of the attorneys general we’ve had from ashcroft in 2000 thru the current loser, eric holder.
now think of their devotion/cravenness regarding “national security” matters
and ask yourself just how long you think it would take for our attorney general to begin using pipa/sopa for “national security” purposes.
oh dear, the H’wood Moguls have got their panties in a twist. Via Deadline Hollywood:
@mzchief:
“… These laws generally need allegations only, no proof and no due process; and enforcers are eligible for legal immunity even if the allegations are later shown to be false…”
that’s one of the key obnoxious provisions of the law – when a corporations complains, the u.s. attorney general (and u.s. taxpayers) do their work for them.
democratic senatorial lion (or is that lyin’) patrick leighy sponsored this piece
of kegislative shit.
he needs to be removed from the senate for that work.
oh, and about the money:
check out the do-re-mi donations for dem senator leighy and dem senator schumer.
and don’t forget tea-bagger and anti-gov dude representative eric cantor in the (red light) house of representatives.
“… Donations from organizations supporting SOPA/PIPA
House of Representatives:
Rep. Eric Cantor [R, VA-7] $668,192
Rep. Howard Berman [D, CA-28] $590,398
Rep. Steny Hoyer [D, MD-5] $557,107
Rep. James Clyburn [D, SC-6] $486,927
Rep. Michael Capuano [D, MA-8] $465,500
Rep. Bruce Braley [D, IA-1] $438,839
Rep. Nancy Pelosi [D, CA-8] $416,100
Rep. Allyson Schwartz [D, PA-13] $409,019
Rep. John Boehner [R, OH-8] $403,800
Rep. Gary Peters [D, MI-9] $395,798
Senate:
Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] $3,502,624
Sen. Charles Schumer [D, NY] $2,648,770
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand [D, NY] $2,080,651
Sen. Barbara Boxer [D, CA] $1,431,843
Sen. Scott Brown [R, MA] $1,364,872
Sen. Robert Portman [R, OH] $1,363,009
Sen. Patrick Toomey [R, PA] $1,291,744
Sen. Michael Bennet [D, CO] $1,019,172
Sen. Mark Kirk [R, IL] $911,296
Sen. Patrick Leahy [D, VT] $905,310
Donations from organizations oppossing SOPA/PIPA
House of Representatives:
Rep. William Owens [D, NY-23] $303,609
Rep. Chellie Pingree [D, ME-1] $204,200
Rep. Gary Peters [D, MI-9] $168,370
Rep. Niki Tsongas [D, MA-5] $153,550
Rep. Gerald Connolly [D, VA-11] $110,530
Rep. Kurt Schrader [D, OR-5] $108,550
Rep. Michael Capuano [D, MA-8] $100,050
Rep. James Moran [D, VA-8] $99,750
Rep. Allyson Schwartz [D, PA-13] $97,300
Rep. James Himes [D, CT-4] $96,500
Senate:
Sen. Michael Bennet [D, CO] $1,359,304
Sen. Barbara Boxer [D, CA] $388,914
Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] $339,226
Sen. Charles Schumer [D, NY] $303,434
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand [D, NY] $289,894
Sen. Patrick Toomey [R, PA] $281,655
Sen. Patty Murray [D, WA] $280,072
Sen. Chris Coons [D, DE] $212,550
Sen. Richard Blumenthal [D, CT] $170,199
Sen. Scott Brown [R, MA] $152,369
For a full list of organizations that support or oppose SOPA/PIPA, and made the above donations, visit Open Congress…”
source:http://www.mvass.com/2012/01/18/sopapipa-money-top-10-list/
Ars Technica has a post on those estimates on how bad piracy is. Most of the estimates are made up from whole cloth, with no evidence to support them. Some have evidence, but it isn’t good, and it appears that, by leaving people with more money to spend, piracy may actually have some economic benefits.