Fights for the Internet’s Future Starting at midnight, Mozilla will join other leading Internet companies, public interest groups and citizens in opposing The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the US House of Representatives. We’re censoring the Mozilla logo on many of our web sites as part of American Censorship Day and we sent Congressional leaders a joint letter together with AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yahoo!, and Zynga raising our concerns with the bill. This marks the first time we’ve come together with these giants of the Internet on any policy issue. The decision to inform legislators and users of our serious reservations with SOPA was a no-brainer and fell into place quickly over just a few days of discussion. We believe The Stop Online Piracy Act threatens our ability as an industry to continue to offer our many important software and web services to the hundreds of millions of users who rely on them, as well as the many employees and developers we support to innovate these technologies.
Mubarak intensifies press attacks with assaults, detentions SIPA Press agency photojournalist Alfred Yaghobzadeh is treated by anti-government protesters after being wounded during clashes in Cairo. (AP) New York, February 3, 2011--Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak unleashed an unprecedented and systematic attack on international media today as his supporters assaulted reporters in the streets while security forces began obstructing and detaining journalists covering the unrest that threatens to topple his government. "This is a dark day for Egypt and a dark day for journalism," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. "We hold President Mubarak personally responsible for this unprecedented action," said Simon, "and call on the Egyptian government to reverse course immediately." In the past 24 hours alone, CPJ has recorded 30 detentions, 26 assaults, and eight instances of equipment having been seized. Here is a round-up of attacks on the press:
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Nancy Pelosi, Ron Paul join SOPA opposition We've already written about the wide variety of groups outside of Congress, including legal scholars, high-tech investors, and network engineers, that oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act. More recently, we've seen growing opposition within Congress itself. The latest SOPA opponent: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Reacting to a tweet from San Francisco resident Jeffrey Rodman, the San Francisco Democrat tweeted on Thursday that her colleagues "need to find a better solution than #SOPA." She also urged Congress: "#DontBreakTheInternet." This seems to be the first time Pelosi has weighed in on the SOPA debate, and it suggests that the concerns of SOPA's critics are being heard on the Democratic side of the aisle. And Pelosi is far from the only member of Congress opposed to the legislation. Also opposed to the legislation is Rep. We haven't seen any reason to believe that Rep.
foreignlobbying Toby Moffett PLM Group Egypt Meeting Member Price, David (Representative) Price, David with the following Members of Congress to discuss the legislative status of the proposed U.S. foreign aid program for Fiscal Year 2008 DeLauro, Rosa L. DeLauro, Rosa Lowey, Nita (Representative) Lowey, Nita Mr. Livingston Group None (Maj. - Egypt desk officer, CENTCOM (U.S. officials to discuss the current status of U.S. None (Maj. Mr. None (Egypt program director - U.S. officials to discuss the entire range of issues in U.S. None (Deputy Chief - U.S. None (Counselor for Public Affairs, U.S. None (Second Secretary for Economic and Political Affairs, U.S. None (Minister-Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs, U.S. None (Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Mr. staff Margaret Scobey (Hon. - U.S. Mr. Mr. None (Maj. None (Foreign affairs officer - Office of Regional Security and Arms Transfers, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Department of State) None (Egypt desk officer, Office of the Secretary of Defense) Phone
Vodafone verspreidt sms’jes Egyptisch regime Nieuws - De afgelopen dagen hebben de operators in Egypte verschillende sms'jes verspreid met overheidsboodschappen. "Meewerken aan mensenrechtenschending", vindt D66 in Europa. De operators in Egypte zijn een instrument van het regime geworden tegen de anti-Mubarak protesten van de afgelopen week. Pro-Mubarak propaganda Niemand? Vodafone heeft in elk geval protest aangetekend. Meedoen aan mensenrechtenschending Europarlementariër Marietje Schaake (D66/ALDE) maakt zich grote zorgen over deze ontwikkelingen. “Dit soort handelingen zijn onderdeel van onderdrukking. “Wat er in Egypte gebeurt is echt nog nooit gebeurd. Geen duidelijk standpunt van Europa “Ik wil wel van Vodafone weten of ze anders hadden gehandeld als ze hadden geweten dat de politieke leiders van Europa achter hen stonden als ze ‘nee’ hadden gezegd. Ze heeft de hoge vertegenwoordiger van de EU Katherine Ashton per brief verzocht een duidelijk signaal af te geven waar Europa staat in deze kwestie.
The Stop Online Piracy Act: A Blacklist by Any Other Name Is Still a Blacklist During the past week, momentum against the House’s draconian copyright bill has gained steam, as venture capitalists, Internet giants and major artists have denounced it for handing corporations unprecedented power to censor countless websites and stifle free speech. In response, the bill’s big-pocketed supporters have gone on the offensive, attempting to mislead the public about the bill’s true reach. In a particularly egregious example, the Chamber of Commerce posted an attack on its website insisting that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is not a “blacklist bill." Before they even saw the House bill, they started calling it the “New Internet Blacklist Bill.” Blacklist? That sounds pretty bad. Of course the word “blacklist” does not appear in the bill’s text—the folks who wrote it know Americans don’t approve of blatant censorship. Second, the bill encourages private corporations to create a literal target list—a process that is ripe for abuse.
Crisis Group Statement on the Situation in Egypt Cairo/Washington DC/Brussels | 3 Feb 2011 The past several days have brought both hope and fear to Egypt. As Wednesday’s and Thursday’s tragic and wholly unacceptable events illustrate, risks of worse bloodletting continue to mount. The International Crisis Group calls on Egyptian authorities and members of the opposition to take urgent action to stop civil strife and resolve the political crisis. There is no greater priority than ending the violence and preventing a slide into greater chaos. On Wednesday 2 February, according to Crisis Group and other eye-witnesses, a significant number of regime loyalists took to the streets and in some cases engaged in organized attacks against what had been peaceful protests. In recent days much of the focus has been on President Mubarak’s immediate resignation.
Firms forced to send pro-Mubarak texts: Vodafone Updated Fri 4 Feb 2011, 3:59am AEDT Egyptian authorities have forced mobile phone operators to broadcast pro-government messages amid protests engulfing the country, British-based operator Vodafone said. Vodafone condemned the "unacceptable" situation which comes after the government cut mobile communications in a bid to prevent demonstrators from coordinating their protests earlier in the crisis. "Under the emergency powers provisions of the Telecoms Act, the Egyptian authorities can instruct the mobile networks of Mobinil, Etisalat and Vodafone to send messages to the people of Egypt," Vodafone said in a statement. "They have used this since the start of the protests. "Vodafone Group has protested to the authorities that the current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable. Several text messages have been sent out via mobile operators in Egypt since mass protests against the rule of president Hosni Mubarak began on January 25. Some services have since been restored.
How The Web Became a Political Force vs. SOPA Good ideas aren’t enough. They need champions and constant vigilance, or Congress will take them from you. Many problems arise when your country’s legislature is consistently more responsive to its donors than its constituents. One of these problems is that simple good ideas can’t just be left alone to bask in their goodness. The Internet is clearly a good idea — not tautologically good, but certainly one of the better things that’s happened to human communication and the spread of knowledge in recent centuries. The reaction online has been one of the largest upswells of traditional advocacy by web-native organizations in recent memory. Google’s fighting the good fight within the halls of Congress, where its representative was the only opposition witness allowed before the House Judiciary Committee. 4Chan, BoingBoing, and other top web properties converted their home pages to CENSORED home page takeovers, offering priceless in-kind advertising to the cause. The result?