One year ago today..Today 1/18 marks the one year anniversary of the ANTI SOPA (STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT) /CISPA protest. Thousands of websites went DARK in protest of the pending SOPA/CISPA legislation, including well known and practical websites and search engines GOOGLE, WIKEPEDIA, REDDIT, TUMBLR, WORDPRESS, BOING and even ITP V.012.
FROM TECHDIRT:
The public spoke and signed petitions, sent e-mails and called various politicians and KILLED the SOPA and later CISPA/PIPA bill.HAILS to the AMERICAN PUBLIC.
STILL, much work needs to be done, to raise awareness and vigilance against draconian digital and internet laws and to STOP ONLINE CENSORSHIP.
BE AWARE, and BEWARE of pending laws and legislation that suppress the sharing of information and overreaching, draconian prosecution over copy write laws vs. FAIR USE.
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-urges-court-protect-transformative-uses-and-permit-news-search-engine
Check out FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE, ACCESS NOW, EFF, DEMAND PROGRESS, TECH DIRT and more for info on your digital future and concerns.
KEEP THE INTERNET FREE AND OPEN.
VIDEOS BELOW: ARTIST ERIN MCKEOWN:
THE NEEDLE DROP:
SOPA: THE END OF THE INTERNET AS WE KNOW IT:
AARON SWARTZ (11/18/1986-1/11/2013 R.I.P.) : HOW WE STOPPED SOPA:
FROM INTERNET FREEDOM DAY THUNDERCLAP: When SOPA and PIPA were first introduced in Congress, things looked grim for the internet. Widespread censorship seemed imminent, and Internet supporters everywhere were worried about the massive blow that was about to be dealt to freedom.
But then something amazing happened. Internet users around the globe started to fight back. Pro-freedom groups both large and small created ways to show their support for an open and uncensored web. Hundreds of thousands of people participated, and major websites like Google, Reddit, and Tumblr joined the cause. When January 18th, 2012 rolled around, the stage was set.
January 18th was unreal. Tech companies and users teamed up. Over 100 thousand websites blacked themselves out in protest, including major sites like Wikipedia, Wordpress, and Wired Magazine. Geeks took to the streets. Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms. Millions of calls and e-mails were sent to Congress. The network defended itself.
Within 48 hours, SOPA was shelved, and its sister bill PIPA disappeared not soon after.
This year, we celebrate our victory and remind Internet users everywhere that the fight continues by declaring January 18th Internet Freedom Day. Support this Thunderclap so that we can spread the word about our new holiday far and wide.
FROM ACCESS NOW:
Tomorrow, we’re celebrating an anniversary.
One year ago, tens of thousands of websites went dark and thousands of people took to the streets to protest SOPA and PIPA, two pieces of legislation that threatened the free and open internet. That day, we told Congress that we wouldn’t accept censorship; today, we want to remind them we never will.
Click below to send Congress a message: We will defend the internet against any legislation that threatens our freedom of speech, privacy, and other fundamental rights.
A broad-based coalition of activist organizations, communities like Reddit and Wikipedia, and sympathetic lawmakers worked together to stop SOPA and PIPA. People flooded Congress with phone calls and emails demanding that representatives oppose the bills. With the pressure on, dozens of Congressmen and Congresswomen came out against SOPA and PIPA--and the legislation was dropped.
It marked the beginning of a movement that rallied again and again to protect the net--taking down ACTA in Europe, a national firewall in Pakistan, and preventing a government takeover of the internet at the ITU. Read more about the lasting effect of the SOPA fight here.
Tomorrow, Access will join many other organizations in marking this incredibly important milestone. You can follow along at#InternetFreedomDay on Twitter, and be sure to check out www.internetfreedomday.net on Friday to see what other organizations are doing to celebrate.
We’ll continue to count on your support as we fight to defend and extend digital rights in 2013 and beyond. Let’s start with a message to Congress today. Click below to take action:
Happy #InternetFreedomDay,
The Access Team
*On Friday, we’ll remember the remarkable and enduring influence of Aaron Swartz on our community. We encourage you to learn more about his legacy and to carry on his fight for a more just world.
FROM DEMAND PROGRESS:
We spent Tuesday burying and mourning our friend Aaron. We're sad, we're tired, we're frustrated --and we're angry at a system that let this happen to Aaron. Now we want to set upon honoring his life's work and helping to make sure that such a travesty is never repeated.
We and Aaron's friends and family have been in touch with lawmakers to ask for help, and several of them -- who've worked with Aaron and Demand Progress on SOPA and other issues -- are beginning to take action. We're asking them to help rein in a criminal justice system run amok. Authorities are encouraged to bring frivolous charges and hold decades of jail time over the heads of people who are accused of committing victimless crimes. Click here to join us in demanding justice for Aaron and help make sure this never happens to anybody else.The CFAA makes violations of a website's terms of service agreement or user agreement -- that fine print you never read before you check the box next to it -- a FELONY, potentially punishable by many years in prison. That's how over-broad this dangerous statute is, and one way it lets showboating prosecutors file charges against people who've done nothing wrong. Aaron's Law would decriminalize violating these agreements: They're essentially contracts, and as with other contracts, disputes about them should be settled in civil courts rather than in out of control criminal trials under threat of decades of prison time.
As currently written, Aaron's Law alone wouldn't have saved Aaron -- there is still more to do to make sure that victimless computer activities are not charged as felonies -- but this is a solid start that we can pass now and it's a law he wanted to change. Then we'll keep pushing forward.
Click here to join us in demanding justice for our friend Aaron Swartz.
2) Additionally, we asked Congressman Darrell Issa -- who controls the powerful Oversight Committee -- to open an investigation into prosecutorial misconduct in Aaron's case.
Amazingly, he's already responded and is sending an investigator to the office of the U.S. Attorney who was pressing charges against Aaron.
We want the inquiry to proceed, and to be broadened to include a more thorough investigation into rampant over-prosecution of alleged crimes with no victims -- as in the case of what Aaron was accused of. And we want those who abused their power to be held to account.We loved Aaron -- so many people loved Aaron -- and his death is tragic. We and others who were close to him are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support, and the calls for justice. Thank you for joining us in that fight. Click here to join us in demanding justice for Aaron -- let's fix this system.
-Demand Progress and Lawrence Lessig
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Thanks-Stay Metal, Stay Brutal-\m/ -l-
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