December 17, 2011

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

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.

December 15, 2011

SOPA Blackout: Calling all webmasters

edit - took down post, put up page:

http://www.open.salon.com/blog/greg_sg/2011/12/15/sopa_blackout_calling_all_webmasters