SOPA NOT postponed, so unless you want the internet to turn into a corporate home shopping network:

[OccupySamizdat]

This is extremely serious. It's the Great Firewall of America that's at stake, along with draconian measures to commercialize the web and kill it as a democratic platform. They're trying to ram it by us on the 21st when no one's looking.

If you don't know what this is, here's a short video:

http://vimeo.com/31100268


Contact your congresspersons about SOPA and PROTECT IP. Soon.

Please spread the word, bump this thing, do whatever needs to be done.

Working on a solution to make snail mailing easier right now. For now,

• Go here to send an email to your congresspersons:
(takes a few minutes tops unless you want to reword it)

https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173

• To call bookmark this and wait until office hours or sign up to be notified:

http://americancensorship.org/

Tell them right away if you're a voting constituent.

A few straightforward facts, you may or may not want to mention

• Since its inception, the development of the technology behind the internet has been almost wholly funded by American taxpayers -- from its birth at ARPA to hundreds of billions of dollars spent on dubious telecom subsidies
  
  
• If anyone ought to have any say in how the internet should function within the borders of US jurisdiction, it is the American public -- and we have NOT spoken on this issue
  
  
• The American taxpayers paid for a democratic medium to foster free expression, open communication and innovation -- not a home shopping network effectively controlled by giant corporations
  
  
• These principles take precedent over the whims of the entertainment industry, which played no significant role in the development of this medium
  
  
• It is frankly disgusting to watch the representatives of the American public summarily rush to appease big business interests, with such utter, insulting and perhaps even contemptuous disregard for the interests for the constituents they are supposed to represent
  
  
• This legislation sets a precedent for online censorship, modeled after the "Great Firewall" of China, potentially fracturing an open internet into secluded 'walled gardens' of approved content
  
  
• This legislation allows for the takedown of non-infringing content along with infringing content, in gross violation of our First Amendment Rights
  
  
• Qualified technical experts have expressed unambiguously that this legislation threatens the security and stability of the internet
  
  
• This legislation is uniformally opposed by the biggest American innovators of the web
  
  

Tell them that this will affect how we choose to vote in the 2012 elections and onward.

[EFerrari]

1. K&R

[OccupySamizdat]

2. Just to be clear...

I really can't stress enough how serious this is. This bill is a death knell. It is the beginning of the end for the free internet if we let them get away with it.

[OccupySamizdat]

3. bumping because of urgency

n/t

[snagglepuss]

4. K & R

[OccupySamizdat]

5. Don't know what K&R means, but thanks for the bump -- please keep this going...

I promise I'm not trying to attention whore here, but all your families, friends, neighbors and cats need to know about this travesty, before you get to wrapping presents.

[Hatchling]

11. Kick and reccomend.

It bumps your post and means they have hit the DU rec button to reccomend the post to other members.

p.s. how is reccomend spelled? This doesn't look right.

[OccupySamizdat]

12. less c

more m

[Hatchling]

25. Thanks!

[AZ Progressive]

6. The War on the 99% continues...

Now Corporate America (yes sacrificing some silicon valley corporations) want to take away the last bastion of freedom and open information left in this country, and want to make the U.S. Government practice Chinese style censorship. They want utter tyrannical-like control over the people.

This is frightening and that more and more fascist legislation can even be proposed, let alone pass and even signed, makes the future really scary.

BTW I don't care if the corporations / industries are or not in coordination with each other, their control over the Government to pass such extreme legislation is scary enough to warrant Revolution by all means possible. It's enough that millions of Americans are financially drowning and going through unimaginable mental suffering because the corporate controlled government won't help them.

[Mosaic]

22. Like the tea party would sometimes say

It may be time for some 2nd Amendment remedies. They never bothered the protesters with guns at their rallys.

[Kaleko]

7. Signed several petition drives already,

but there are a number of DIFFERENT COMPETING BILLS to combat piracy circulating through Congress.

Does everybody get that?

So, as one article said: "2012 will likely prove to be a decisive year in the government’s regulation of the open Web."

So many battles to fight on so many fronts against the ever-tightening noose of the police state, and I'm all out of hopium tonight.

[OccupySamizdat]

10. The important thing is to let them know we're watching...

And 2012 is an election year, so if they stab us in the back, they're gone.

Also, consider that internet petitions are valued only slightly higher than letters to Santa. It takes an enormous amount of people for them to matter.

SNAIL MAIL YOUR SENATORS.

http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

We're working up something to make this easier, where people can do this online and have it mailed for them, but a real signature and a hand-written address go a long way. You know who writes real letters? People who vote.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

8. Signed, shared, have yet to call...

I suspect most complacent Americans will sit on their hands yawning...until all they can see on the Internet is advertisements, then they'll whine "well I didn't know they did that!"

It's like pushing boulders uphill to get anyone off their butts to do anything - even to protect their own rights!

Too many people are so dumb and passive, it's going to cost us all dearly. it already has. How much more - I'm afraid to think about it too much.

[OccupySamizdat]

9. Consider the other problem...

Last edited Sat Dec 17, 2011, 07:50 AM - Edit history (1)

I think the vast majority of us are cynics who think everyone else is complacent while we wallow in our own complacency.

Let's raze hell about this.

[themadstork]

13. kick!

[OccupySamizdat]

14. !

[aikanae]

15. They are doing this already

If this doesn't pass will it stop them from what they are already doing?

Domain seizure oversight lax and broken
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/expert-domain-seizure-oversight-too-lax-targets-out-of-luck.ars

UMG claims "right to block or remove" YouTube videos it doesn't own
(shutting down a video that's critical of them)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/umg-we-have-the-right-to-block-or-remove-youtube-videos.ars

[blackspade]

24. Interesting articles.

Thanks for posting.

[Laelth]

16. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[hunter]

17. Similar to the Patriot Act...

We're going to "protect" you from pirates.

Yeah, right, sure they are.

People who have perfectly legitimate businesses on the internet are going to be put on the equivalent of "no fly" lists, our baggage is going to be inspected, and we'll all be groped by inspectors wearing rubber gloves.

And criminal mega-corporations will get a fast pass around the inspections and first class internet access to sell their crap and spread their lies.

[OccupySamizdat]

18. !

[OccupySamizdat]

19. !

[OccupySamizdat]

21. !

[RainDog]

20. k&r n/t

[Quantess]

23. this seems very important

[steve2470]

26. k&r nt

[New7up]

27. k&r n/t

[Iwillnevergiveup]

28. Kicked

and rec'd! One of my 8th grade students is really onto this, and before I watched the video, he explained pretty clearly how high the stakes are.