Not my words - this comes directly off Craigslist and has some good links if you vist your local Criagslist too - they also made it color coded which didn't translate here.
My words - freedom of the internet needs to continue, or we will end up like other countries with blackouts and we will only be fed the information our government wants us to know, it may not happen overnight, that would be obvious, it will happen slowly, rallying us to protect ourselves, spreading fear and claiming this is the answer and it will protect us. Before we know it we will not have freedoms we have today (which are already muted by laws we don't need, for the same reasons as above). End of rant...
Please remember at election time to VOTE AGAINST anti-Internet politicians, and VOTE FOR pro-Internet politicians.
SOPA and PIPA aside here are the next two grievous affronts to your privacy - HR 1981 and ACTA - http://techdiem.com/2012/01/23/sopa...he-next-two-grievous-affronts-to-your-privacy
HR 1981, cynically and misleadingly misnamed "Protect Children Against Internet Pornographers Act" (PCFIPA) requires ISPs to record your every click because you may be a child pornographer. This "turd wrapped in cotton candy" is another fine bill from Lamar Smith (R-TX, 13% approval rating on OpenCongress), the author of SOPA.
Under PCFIPA, your personal history of each web page you have clicked on, or file you have downloaded, would be available to the RIAA for suing music downloaders, to corporations retaliating against critics and whisteblowers, to divorce lawyers looking for dirty laundry, to insurance companies refusing coverage for prior conditions, to blackmailers, to hackers, etc, etc.
Texas Hill Country, Austin, and San Antonio -- do you value your online privacy? Your free and open Internet? Please DUMP Lamar Smith (R-TX) at election time. Recall action would be even better.
Thanks to the unprecedented collective efforts of craigslist users and other concerned citizens this week, movement on PIPA and SOPA has been indefinitely postponed! Word has it that Congress had never before received so many calls and emails regarding any issue whatsoever. Bravo!
This is altogether a new effect, said former Senator Chris Dodd, now head of MPAA and key PIPA/SOPA promoter, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He had not seen in his 40 years in politics an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically.
Ron Paul (R-TX 92% approval on OpenCongress), PIPA applauded the Internet Blackout, saying "Sometimes you need a two-by-four to get them to listen." We're happy to report that craigslist users logged over 30,000 two-by-fours phone calls to Members of Congress Wednesday, and they did not go unnoticed.
These bills WILL return, and both are so deeply flawed they must die entirely, so the fight is not over.
As of end of day Thursday, and before the postponement announcements, 19 Senators had dropped their support for PIPA, at least 6 of whom had been co-sponsors of the bill (!) Check it out on PIPA Roll Call.
Californians please note: among the remaining PIPA co-sponsors are craigslist's and the SF Bay Area's own Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 202-224-3841, and SoCal's Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 202-224-3553
Boxer/Feinstein PIPA Sponsorship demoralizes Daily Kos, Ready To Dump Dems
Feinstein: "Filtering the Internet Does Not Violate Free Speech"
Raging Grannies Open Letter to Diane Feinstein
Say Nopa to Sopa (Robert X Cringley)
Corporate supporters of Senate 968 (PIPA) and HR 3261 (SOPA) demand the ability to take down any web site (including craigslist, Wikipedia, or Google) that hurts their profits -- without prior judicial oversight or due process -- in the name of combating "online piracy."
PIPA and SOPA authors and supporters insist they'd only go after foreign piracy sites, but Internet Engineers understand this is an attempt to impose "Big Brother" controls on our Internet, complete with DNS hijacking and censoring search results. Incredibly, many Congress Members favor this idea.
<RANT>Try to imagine jack-booted thugs throttling free speech, poisoning the Internet (greatest of American inventions, the very pillar of modern democracy), and devastating one of the our most successful industries. Totalitarian, anti-American, massively-job-killing nonsense.</RANT>
Tell Congress you OPPOSE Senate 968 "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) and H.R. 3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA):
Phone your Member of Congress via nifty Progressive Change app
Contact Senators who are refusing to meet with constituents about PIPA.
Reverse Robocall pro-PIPA & pro-SOPA MOC + Lobbyists (More at Ars Technica)
EFF Action Center - Strike Against Censorship - Congressional Emailer
ECA Congressional Emailer - Don't Censor Our Internet!
OpenCongress Congressional Emailer - Oppose SOPA
Generic Congressional Emailer (You'll need your Zip+4)
Petition Congress - Protect Innovation, Dump SOPA (Progressive Change )
Outside the US? Sign Petition Opposing US Censorship of Global Sites (EFF)
Supporters of PIPA and SOPA: RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, TimeWarner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters, Rupert Murdoch, Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI)
Opponents of PIPA and SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX)
Where does your Member of Congress stand on PIPA and SOPA? (Project SOPA Opera)
PIPA and SOPA Are Too Dangerous To Revise, They Must Be Killed Entirely
Congress needs to hear from you, or these dangerous bills will pass - they have tremendous lobbying dollars behind them, from corporations experts say are attempting to prop up outdated, anti-consumer business models at the expense of the very fabric of the Internet -- recklessly unleashing a tsunami of take-down notices and litigation, and a Pandora's jar of "chilling effects" and other unintended (or perhaps intended?) consequences.
For example, in a post about Monster Cable lobbying for PIPA, Techdirt points out Monster has blacklisted craigslist as a "rogue site" -- resale of stereo cables by CL users has apparently cut into Monster's profits. (reddit).
There is still time to be heard. Congress is starting to backpedal on this job-killing, anti-American nonsense, and the Obama administration has weighed in against these bills as drafted, but SOPA/PIPA cannot be fixed or revised -- they must be killed altogether.
Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) are championing an alternative to SOPA/PIPA called Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) that addresses foreign sites dedicated to piracy, without disrupting basic Internet protocols, or threatening mainstream US sites like craigslist.
Tim O'Reilly, a publisher who is himself subject to piracy, asks whether piracy is even a problem, and whether there is even a legitimate need for any of these bills.
Please see your local Craigslist for the links in this story, they did a good article.
My words - freedom of the internet needs to continue, or we will end up like other countries with blackouts and we will only be fed the information our government wants us to know, it may not happen overnight, that would be obvious, it will happen slowly, rallying us to protect ourselves, spreading fear and claiming this is the answer and it will protect us. Before we know it we will not have freedoms we have today (which are already muted by laws we don't need, for the same reasons as above). End of rant...
Please remember at election time to VOTE AGAINST anti-Internet politicians, and VOTE FOR pro-Internet politicians.
SOPA and PIPA aside here are the next two grievous affronts to your privacy - HR 1981 and ACTA - http://techdiem.com/2012/01/23/sopa...he-next-two-grievous-affronts-to-your-privacy
HR 1981, cynically and misleadingly misnamed "Protect Children Against Internet Pornographers Act" (PCFIPA) requires ISPs to record your every click because you may be a child pornographer. This "turd wrapped in cotton candy" is another fine bill from Lamar Smith (R-TX, 13% approval rating on OpenCongress), the author of SOPA.
Under PCFIPA, your personal history of each web page you have clicked on, or file you have downloaded, would be available to the RIAA for suing music downloaders, to corporations retaliating against critics and whisteblowers, to divorce lawyers looking for dirty laundry, to insurance companies refusing coverage for prior conditions, to blackmailers, to hackers, etc, etc.
Texas Hill Country, Austin, and San Antonio -- do you value your online privacy? Your free and open Internet? Please DUMP Lamar Smith (R-TX) at election time. Recall action would be even better.
Thanks to the unprecedented collective efforts of craigslist users and other concerned citizens this week, movement on PIPA and SOPA has been indefinitely postponed! Word has it that Congress had never before received so many calls and emails regarding any issue whatsoever. Bravo!
This is altogether a new effect, said former Senator Chris Dodd, now head of MPAA and key PIPA/SOPA promoter, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He had not seen in his 40 years in politics an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically.
Ron Paul (R-TX 92% approval on OpenCongress), PIPA applauded the Internet Blackout, saying "Sometimes you need a two-by-four to get them to listen." We're happy to report that craigslist users logged over 30,000 two-by-fours phone calls to Members of Congress Wednesday, and they did not go unnoticed.
These bills WILL return, and both are so deeply flawed they must die entirely, so the fight is not over.
As of end of day Thursday, and before the postponement announcements, 19 Senators had dropped their support for PIPA, at least 6 of whom had been co-sponsors of the bill (!) Check it out on PIPA Roll Call.
Californians please note: among the remaining PIPA co-sponsors are craigslist's and the SF Bay Area's own Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 202-224-3841, and SoCal's Barbara Boxer (D-CA) 202-224-3553
Boxer/Feinstein PIPA Sponsorship demoralizes Daily Kos, Ready To Dump Dems
Feinstein: "Filtering the Internet Does Not Violate Free Speech"
Raging Grannies Open Letter to Diane Feinstein
Say Nopa to Sopa (Robert X Cringley)
Corporate supporters of Senate 968 (PIPA) and HR 3261 (SOPA) demand the ability to take down any web site (including craigslist, Wikipedia, or Google) that hurts their profits -- without prior judicial oversight or due process -- in the name of combating "online piracy."
PIPA and SOPA authors and supporters insist they'd only go after foreign piracy sites, but Internet Engineers understand this is an attempt to impose "Big Brother" controls on our Internet, complete with DNS hijacking and censoring search results. Incredibly, many Congress Members favor this idea.
<RANT>Try to imagine jack-booted thugs throttling free speech, poisoning the Internet (greatest of American inventions, the very pillar of modern democracy), and devastating one of the our most successful industries. Totalitarian, anti-American, massively-job-killing nonsense.</RANT>
Tell Congress you OPPOSE Senate 968 "Protect IP Act" (PIPA) and H.R. 3261 "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA):
Phone your Member of Congress via nifty Progressive Change app
Contact Senators who are refusing to meet with constituents about PIPA.
Reverse Robocall pro-PIPA & pro-SOPA MOC + Lobbyists (More at Ars Technica)
EFF Action Center - Strike Against Censorship - Congressional Emailer
ECA Congressional Emailer - Don't Censor Our Internet!
OpenCongress Congressional Emailer - Oppose SOPA
Generic Congressional Emailer (You'll need your Zip+4)
Petition Congress - Protect Innovation, Dump SOPA (Progressive Change )
Outside the US? Sign Petition Opposing US Censorship of Global Sites (EFF)
Supporters of PIPA and SOPA: RIAA, MPAA, News Corp, TimeWarner, Walmart, Nike, Tiffany, Chanel, Rolex, Sony, Juicy Couture, Ralph Lauren, VISA, Mastercard, Comcast, ABC, Dow Chemical, Monster Cable, Teamsters, Rupert Murdoch, Lamar Smith (R-TX), John Conyers (D-MI)
Opponents of PIPA and SOPA: Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, AOL, Mozilla, Reddit, Tumblr, Etsy, Zynga, EFF, ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Darrell Issa (R-CA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX)
Where does your Member of Congress stand on PIPA and SOPA? (Project SOPA Opera)
PIPA and SOPA Are Too Dangerous To Revise, They Must Be Killed Entirely
Congress needs to hear from you, or these dangerous bills will pass - they have tremendous lobbying dollars behind them, from corporations experts say are attempting to prop up outdated, anti-consumer business models at the expense of the very fabric of the Internet -- recklessly unleashing a tsunami of take-down notices and litigation, and a Pandora's jar of "chilling effects" and other unintended (or perhaps intended?) consequences.
For example, in a post about Monster Cable lobbying for PIPA, Techdirt points out Monster has blacklisted craigslist as a "rogue site" -- resale of stereo cables by CL users has apparently cut into Monster's profits. (reddit).
There is still time to be heard. Congress is starting to backpedal on this job-killing, anti-American nonsense, and the Obama administration has weighed in against these bills as drafted, but SOPA/PIPA cannot be fixed or revised -- they must be killed altogether.
Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) are championing an alternative to SOPA/PIPA called Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) that addresses foreign sites dedicated to piracy, without disrupting basic Internet protocols, or threatening mainstream US sites like craigslist.
Tim O'Reilly, a publisher who is himself subject to piracy, asks whether piracy is even a problem, and whether there is even a legitimate need for any of these bills.
Please see your local Craigslist for the links in this story, they did a good article.
