Wikipedia’s founder calls for halt to Richard O’Dwyer extradition to U.S. By James Ball, The GuardianSunday, June 24, 2012 15:11 EDT Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has made a rare political intervention to call on Theresa May to stop the extradition of British student Richard O’Dwyer to the US for alleged copyright offences. Launching an online campaign, Wales said O’Dwyer, 24, was the “human face” of a global battle over the interests of the film and TV industries and the wider public, which came to a head in the global outcry against proposed US legislation, Sopa and Pipa, cracking down on copyright infringement. O’Dwyer, a multimedia student at Sheffield Hallam University, faces up to 10 years in a US prison for founding TVShack.net, a crowdsourced site linking to places to watch full TV shows and movies online. “When I met Richard, he struck me as a clean-cut, geeky kid. Still a university student, he is precisely the kind of person we can imagine launching the next big thing on the internet,” Wales wrote in a comment article for the Guardian.
ACTA, SOPA and PIPA back in the news. ELI5: Why Facebook would oppose SOPA and support CISPA. : explainlikeimfive. Internet service providers to launch biggest digital spying operation in history on July 12. Madison Ruppert, Contributing WriterActivist Post Internet service providers (ISPs) across the United States are set to voluntarily begin a digital surveillance operation so large that nothing can even come close in the history of espionage. Starting on July 12, 2012, if you download software, videos or music which are potentially protected by copyright, you very well might find yourself targeted by any of America’s behemoth ISPs. Possibly the most troubling aspect of this is that these corporations are putting these so-called anti-piracy measures in place on a wholly voluntary basis in accordance with a deal with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Obama White House.
After that date, some users might find their bandwidth choked off completely until they sign some kind of agreement saying that they will not download materials which are potentially protected by copyright. This article first appeared at End the Lie. Online News Association Comes Out Against SOPA/PIPA. Paypal Pressured To Play Morality Cop And Forces Smashwords To Censor Authors. We have become quite accustomed to Paypal arbitrarilydeciding to shutdown the payment services for a website with no warning and little recourse.
Usually when it does so, it acts through its own volition. However, Paypal also has to deal with the whims of the credit card companies with which it is partnered. With that business arrangement, when a credit card company says to jump, Paypal must comply. When it does so, it effects all its own customers as well. Ebook publisher Smashwords reports that it has become one of the latest recipients of one such action. On Saturday, February 18, PayPal’s enforcement division contacted Smashwords with an ultimatum. This has put tremendous pressure on Smashwords to comply as it claims that it would be near impossible to change payment processors as Paypal is a major part in not only how it processes transactions but also how it pays its authors. We do not want to see PayPal clamp down further against erotica.
NG BBS — My SOPA Post. Firefox Add-On Bypasses SOPA DNS Blocking. The pending Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) continues to inspire opponents to come up with creative solutions to circumvent it. A new anti-SOPA add-on for Firefox, titled “DeSopa,” is such a counter measure. When installed, users can click a single button to resolve a blocked domain via foreign DNS servers, bypassing all domestic DNS blockades and allowing the user to browse the site though the bare IP-address (if supported). “I feel that the general public is not aware of the gravity of SOPA and Congress seems like they are about to cater to the special interests involved, to the detriment of Internet, for which I and many others live and breathe,” DeSopa developer T Rizk told TorrentFreak. “It could be that a few members of congress are just not tech savvy and don’t understand that it is technically not going to work, at all. So here’s some proof that I hope will help them err on the side of reason and vote SOPA down,” he adds.
Blarg? » And By Raging I Mean Flailing, And By Light I Mean Relevance. A friend of mine points me to this incredible New York Times article in which publishers lay out the fact that they are fundamentally opposed to public libraries, detailing their struggles as they take up arms against these nefarious institutions promoting such injustices as culture, literacy and the greater public good.
Ms. Thomas of Hachette says: “We’ve talked with librarians about the various levers we could pull,” such as limiting the number of loans permitted or excluding recently published titles. She adds that “there’s no agreement, however, among librarians about what they would accept.” It’s really a great article, full of these little turns of phrase that seem to come out of publisher’s mouths without them even realize how evil they sound.
“There’s no agreement among librarians to bend themselves, the public and the greater good over this barrel we’ve offered to sell them at a very reasonable rate”, they don’t quite say. But that’s not the best bit: Mr. The Great Martin Luther King Copyright Conundrum - Politics. Believe it or not, to legally watch that famous Martin Luther King "I Have a Dream" speech -- arguably one of the most hallowed moments in American history -- costs $10 thanks to the twisted state of United States copyright law. In related news, happy Martin Luther King Day! The news of how MLK's most famous moment costs money to watch is not a new one. But given the dramatic rise of the issue of digital rights, thanks largely in part to the dramatic controversy surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the story seems unusually prescient this year.
Alex Pasternack, the editor of Vice's tech site, Motherboard, blogged about the issue on a few months back: If you weren’t alive to witness Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the Washington Mall 48 years ago this week, you might try to switch on the old YouTube and dial it up. We know what you're thinking: why the heck do we have to pay to watch American history? It's not the Martin Luther King estate's fault, necessarily.
A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP. As you have probably heard, there are two pieces of legislation currently pending that we, and others like us, believe seriously threaten the internet. I wanted to take some time to delve into the text of both of these bills, and outline their potential consequences as I am able to understand them. As you can imagine, this is a complex issue, and as a result this is going to be a complex post. I highly encourage you to set some time aside to read this thoroughly. Grab some caffeine, we are going to be here for a while. As a disclaimer, I am not a lawyer, I'm a sysadmin. The following is not legal advice, but rather an outline and personal interpretation of critical portions of the legislation. Note: In recent news, several legislators have suggested that they will be removing the DNS provisions from both SOPA and PROTECT IP. The Sacred Texts Much of this post will be focusing on Title 1, Sections 101, 102, and 103 of SOPA; and Sections 2, 3, and 4 of PROTECT IP.
The Battlefields 1. PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet. SOPA and PIPA. A must watch: PIPA and SOPA in 14 minutes. SOPA & PIPA message from Capt. Jean-Luc Picard. SOPA Supporters. Marvel To Actively Support SOPA. SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, has been prominent in certain parts of the news of late. Introduced in the USA House Of Representatives back in October, it attempts to curb the actions of internet pirates by, it seems, curbing the actions of pretty much everyone.
Or that’s what its critics would have you believe. It would ban online adertising on sites deemed to be piracy distributors, get their listings deleted from search engines, even remove their DNS listings from servers so that users would be unable to visit the sites in question. And streaming copyright material could be punished by five years in jail. Critics say that this bill would ban proxy servers that hide internet identities and global position – the same systems that allows the Arab Spring uprisings to happen. A number of businesses have declared their support to the bill – sometimes to their detriment. Well, now it’s time for the internet to turn on Marvel. Corporate Endorsers Dropping Support of Stop Online Piracy Act. Some good news on the SOPA front: its corporate base of supporters is starting to crumble. One of the few Internet-based organizations to support SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act (referred to by supporters as the Internet censorship bill), was GoDaddy.com, the domain name registration site that manages over 51 million domain names across the Web.
When the coalition opposed to SOPA found out about this, they kicked off a grassroots campaign to pressure GoDaddy, mainly by telling people who have registered domain names with them to find another vendor. This had the intended effect. GoDaddy today renounced its support for SOPA. Go Daddy is no longer supporting SOPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” currently working its way through U.S. GoDaddy is not alone. The dynamic is clear. This is very good news for the coalition opposing SOPA as we head into markups next year. Law Firms Removing Their Name From SOPA Supporters' List; SOPA 'Support' Crumbling. So we were just discussing how a bunch of companies who were listed by the US Chamber of Commerce as SOPA/PIPA supporters are demanding to be taken off the list, noting that, while they had agreed to a generic statement about fighting the sale of counterfeit goods, they don't support crazy broad legislation like SOPA/PIPA.
It seems that others listed as "supporting" SOPA are scrambling to get off the list as well. The Judiciary Committee's official list had included a bunch of big name law firms as being in support of the law as well -- which is a little strange, since law firms usually don't take official positions on things like this. They may express opinions on such matters on behalf of clients, but outright supporting legislation is a different ballgame altogether. A group of lawyers (most of whom have a long history of working with the entertainment industry) did send a letter to the Judiciary Committee to say that they agreed with Floyd Abrams' analysis of SOPA.
Rubio Withdraws Support For Controversial Internet Law. Get Breaking News First Receive News, Politics, and Entertainment Headlines Each Morning. Sign Up Legislative Session Coverage MIAMI (CBSMiami) – On the same day that thousands of websites including Wikipedia and WordPress have gone dark to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act; Florida Senator Marco Rubio announced he was withdrawing his name and support for the bill. “Congress should listen and avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences,” Senator Rubio wrote on his Facebook page.
“Therefore, I have decided to withdraw my support for the Protect IP Act.” Rubio’s statement also said he hopes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will abandon plans to send the act to the Senate floor while giving legislators more time to address the concerns and ramifications of a potentially crippling bill to the Internet. SOPA would allow the U.S. attorney general to seek a court order to shut down access to offshore Web sites. SOPA is losing steam, Internet censorship may not become law.
Cato Institute Digs Into MPAA's Own Research To Show That SOPA Wouldn't Save A Single Net Job. One of the things we've noticed in the debate over SOPA and PIPA is just how the other side is really lying with statistics. We've done a thorough debunking of the stats used by the US Chamber of Commerce to support both bills, as well as highlighted the misleading-to-bogus stats used by Lamar Smith in his support of the bill. But every day, more bogus stats are rolled out.
Julian Sanchez, over at the Cato Institute, has decided to dig into one specific bogus number, the supposed claim of $58 billion in "losses," and to show how the numbers don't hold up to any scrutiny. In fact, using the details of where the numbers came from, Sanchez makes the case that SOPA won't save a single net job for the US economy. First off, the $58 billion comes from an absolutely laughable report for the Institute for Policy Innovation, done every year by Stephen Siwek at a firm called Economists Incorporated.
Believe it or not, though, it’s actually even worse than that. Okay. SOPA, the entertainment industry's attempt to legislate artificial demand for their products, and a declaration of war against the growing tech industry. : Economics. I urge you again to boycott hollywood - they are using our money to curtail our rights. Stop giving it to them. : movies. TIL That google offers free legal download of music in China, in a partnership with the largest record labels in the world (since 2009). All of this while they sue children for illegally sharing music in the western world. : todayilearned. p8ImI.png (PNG Image, 444 × 492 pixels) MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought. Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they'd better pass Hollywood's favorite legislation... or else: "Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake.
Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake," This certainly follows what many people assumed was happening, and fits with the anonymous comments from studio execs that they will stop contributing to Obama, but to be so blatant about this kind of corruption and money-for-laws politics in the face of an extremely angry public is a really, really, really tone deaf response from Dodd. Let's pick ONE Senator of voted for NDAA/SOPA and destroy him like we're doing for GoDaddy. Relentlessly investigate and find skeletons in his closet, money bomb is opponents, etc. : politics.
Reddit Forces Paul Ryan to Play Defense on SOPA - Politics. Link-sharing Website Reddit forced Congressman Paul Ryan to defend his position on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act Thursday after the Internet hive-mind pledged its support for his opponent, Democrat Rob Zerban, a harsh critic of the anti-piracy legislation. "Contrary to false reports, Congressman Paul Ryan is not a cosponsor of H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act," said Ryan press secretary Kevin Seifert in a statement. The wrath of Reddit, which was recently tested in a successful boycott of domain registrar Go Daddy for supporting the same legislation, is proving to be more fearsome than one might expect from a website that also trades in kitten photos and WTF ephemera.
This week, Reddit's increasingly ambitious users aimed to unseat a member of Congress who supports SOPA, pointing its attention toward Ryan. “Let’s pick ONE Senator of voted for NDAA/SOPA and destroy him like we’re doing for GoDaddy," said one user. So why are Redditors after him? I am (SOPA-opponent) Congressman Jared Polis, ask anything you'd like to know! : IAmA. I am a long time Redditor who wants to take our fight for personal freedoms to the next level. I am Dr Michael Ham, physicist, neuroscientist and candidate for the United States Senate from the great State of New Mexico : IAmA.
TvHVO.png (PNG Image, 421 × 1091 pixels) SOPA becoming election liability for backers - Jennifer Martinez. DotMN – MN Senators Franken and Klobuchar co-sponsoring controversial Internet censorship legislation. The Protect IP Act (PIPA) (S.968) was first proposed in the Senate in May by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) with the intention of stopping “rogue websites dedicated to infringing on counterfeit goods.” Initially cosponsored by other 11 Senators, including Minnesota’s Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, 28 peers have since joined. A House equivalent, “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) (HR. 3261) was introduced in October, since which the House Judiciary Committee have examined surrounding issues of SOPA in mid November and subsequently debated changes last week.
PIPA is targeting domain name system providers, financial companies, and ad networks — not companies that provide Internet connectivity — like SOPA. That basic idea here is to make new sets of intermediaries the checkpoints at which authorities can police for websites dealing in infringing content. While SOPA has been garnering most of the headlines, for all intents and purposes, these are two peas of the same pod. What is your perspective?
Lamar Smith, the scumbag behind SOPA, is up for re-election this year. Let's make sure his opponent wins! : politics. Hey Reddit, I'm 15 and have an appointment with an assemblyman to talk about SOPA. Help? : AskReddit. Asked my Senator for a meeting, going to talk with their Legislative Assistant regarding PIPA. He is a cosponsor of PIPA. Anyone want to give me some things to highlight in the conversation? : AskReddit. GoDaddy lost 72,354 domains this week. It’s not enough. User talk:Jimbo Wales. Buzzblog: No, Wikipedia has not forgiven GoDaddy for backing SOPA. IAmA (real) GoDaddy Employee. AMAA. : IAmA. GoDaddy not only helped write #SOPA they are also exempt from it. Scumbags. | SOPA bill: Go Daddy yanks support after boycott - Tony Romm. Anonymous: Message to Go Daddy. Why is everyone trying so hard only to boycott Go Daddy, when there are boatloads of other companies supporting SOPA? : AskReddit.
SOPA is the end of us, say bloggers - Tim Mak. » SOPA: Endgame Is Total Internet Censorship Alex Jones. SOPA's most frightening flaw is the future it predicts. ELI5: Say SOPA passes. Exactly what websites are in danger/will be taken down, and exactly why? : explainlikeimfive. Now that SOPA has been shelved, is Reddit still going to participate in the blackout on the 18th? : AskReddit.
SOPA was just shelved! Now to defeat PIPA : technology. ELI5: What is PIPA and how is it different from SOPA? : explainlikeimfive. Since SOPA is shelved now, does anyone else believe that it was just a distraction from NDAA? : conspiracy. U.S. online piracy bill headed for major makeover. Canada would feel effect of proposed U.S. Stop Online Privacy Act - Canada.
SOPA Is Baaaack! PIPA support collapses, with 13 new Senators opposed. SOPA and PIPA Fully Alive -- And a New Bill Joins Them. Putting SOPA on a shelf. DNS provision pulled from SOPA, victory for opponents | Media Maverick. Al Jazeera's show The Stream sits down with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian on Wednesday, January 18th at 19:30 GMT (2:30 PM EST) to discuss SOPA and the blackout protest. Leave your comments and questions here, we will curate them starting now -- until. Will the SOPA bill kill the Internet? - Jennifer Martinez and Michelle Quinn. SOPA opponents may go nuclear and other 2012 predictions | Privacy Inc. Users, how would you feel if the site went dark along with Google, Facebook, and Twitter to protest SOPA? : AskReddit. CNETNews: Google will put an anti-#S... Google plans to use home page to protest SOPA. » Google Is Already Using SOPA-Like Censorship Alex Jones.
Source: Online protest threatens piracy bill. Web Site Will Shut Down to Protest Antipiracy Bills. In Piracy Bill Fight, New Economy Rises Against Old. Reid postpones vote on anti-piracy bill. Sopa dies, two more bills appear. I'm just too tired now. Why do they wish to take our freedom away so badly? : AskReddit. Clay Shirky: Why SOPA's Not Going Away. Wikipedia, Reddit plan site blackouts in SOPA protest - Jan. 16. Wikipedia blackout coming Jan. 18, says co-founder Jimmy Wales - BlogPost. SOPA. SOPA & PIPA - The Colbert Report - 2012-18-01. 5GXOb.jpg (JPEG Image, 646 × 720 pixels) Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news. Ee5w8.jpg (JPEG Image, 542 × 335 pixels) bUTn5.png (PNG Image, 1666 × 906 pixels) Go down for 24 hours like everyone else. 12 is weak. : SOPA. Founder Alexis Ohanian on CNBC: "Why is it that when Republicans and Democrats need to solve the budget and the deficit, there's deadlock, but when Hollywood lobbyists pay them $94 million dollars to write legislation, people from both sides of the aisle.
Hey Reddit, we're the activism team at EFF. Thanks for all you did to defeat SOPA! - AMA. : IAmA. Lesson 1267 - Where The Power Lies (A Comic About SOPA) SOPA Can Impact Companies Who Think They're Immune. Stopping SOPA. » Ron Paul blasts SOPA on the 2012 presidential campaign trail Alex Jones. If SOPA's Main Target Is The Pirate Bay, It's Worth Pointing Out That ThePirateBay.org Is Immune From SOPA. Tech at Night: Kill SOPA. Now. Piracy Act no easy sell in House - Jennifer Martinez. SOPA, PIPA, The State of US Surveillance. SOPA, PIPA, The State of US Surveillance. SOPA author back and worse than ever. New cybersecurity bill reminiscent of SOPA/PIPA controversy.