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The end of YouTube and others

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The end of YouTube and others

Nov 2011

Dear friends,

Right now, the US Congress is debating a law that would give them the power to censor the world’s Internet — creating a blacklist that could target YouTube, WikiLeaks and even groups like Avaaz!

Under the new law, the US could force Internet providers to block any website on suspicion of violating copyright or trademark legislation, or even failing to sufficiently police their users’ activities. And, because so much of the Internet’s hosts and hardware are located in the US, their blacklist would clamp down on the free web for all of us.

The vote could happen any day now, but we can help stop this — champions in Congress want to preserve free speech and tell us that an international outcry would strengthen their hand. Let’s urgently raise our voices from every corner of the world and build an unprecedented global petition calling on US decision makers to reject the bill and stop Internet censorship. Click below to sign and then forward as widely as possible — our message will be delivered directly to key members of the US Congress ahead of the crucial vote:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet/?cl=1391214899&v=11160

For years, the US government has condemned countries like China and Iran for their clampdown on Internet use. But now, the impact of America’s new censorship laws could be far worse — effectively blocking sites to every Internet user across the globe.

Last year, a similar Internet censorship bill was killed before reaching the US Senate floor, but it’s now back in a different form. Copyright laws already exist and are enforced by courts. But this new law goes much further — granting the government and big corporations enormous powers to force service providers and search engines to block websites based just on allegations of violations — without a trial or being found guilty of any crime!

US free speech advocates have already raised the alarm, and some key Senators are trying to gather enough support to stop this dangerous bill. We have no time to lose. Let’s stand with them to ensure American lawmakers preserve the right to a free and open Internet as an essential way for people around the world to exchange ideas, share communication and work collectively to build the world we want. Sign below to stop US censorship, and save the Internet as we know it:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet/?cl=1391214899&v=11160

In the past months, from the Arab Spring to the global Occupy Movement, we’ve seen first hand how the Internet can galvanize, unify and change the world. Now, if we stand together, we can stop this new attack on Internet freedom. We’ve done it before — in Brazil and Italy, Avaaz members have won major victories in the fight for a free Internet. Let’s take the fight global, and mobilize to defeat the most powerful censorship threat that the Internet has ever seen.

With hope,

Luis, Dalia, Diego, Emma, Ricken, Aaron, Antonia, Benjamin and the rest of the Avaaz team

More information:

Op-Ed: Blacklist Bill allows Feds to remove websites from Internet (Digital Journal)

http://digitaljournal.com/article/313463

Disastrous IP Legislation Is Back – And It’s Worse than Ever (EFF)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/disastrous-ip-legislation-back-%E2%80%93-and-it%E2%80%99s-worse-ever

Silicon Valley legislators oppose online piracy act (SFGate)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/15/BUO81LV0KI.DTL

House Hearing on Stop Online Piracy Act Scheduled (PC World)

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/243659/house_hearing_on_stop_online_piracy_act_scheduled.html

Growing Chorus of Opposition to “Stop Online Piracy Act”

https://www.cdt.org/report/growing-chorus-opposition-stop-online-piracy-act

The stop online piracy act: summary, problems, and implications

https://www.cdt.org/files/pdfs/SOPA%202-pager%20final.pdf

Why Is Justin Bieber So Pissed Off?

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There's a petition opposing this if anyone is interested:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_b?cl=1390518320&v=11160

I was thinking about putting up a thread about it, but I haven't yet had the time to learn enough about it to make an informed choice. One thing I am sure of though is that free internet must be protected - it is possibly our most powerful tool against oppression!

Here is some more info about the two laws (that I have yet to read myself):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_IP_Act

  • Like 1

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I hope the people can rise up against this one, but I feel this will be forced through. Call me a conspiracy nut but Europe and US talking about this at the same time, Bilderberg Group (http://bilderberg2011.com/bilderberg-agenda/interview-with-swiss-banker-reveals-bilderberg-2011-plans-for-internet-censorship-are-coming/)

The fat cats figured out a way to get their money back.

Thanks for the link Jeans.

Edited by tehk

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Battle over Stop Online Piracy Act reaches fever pitch

By Cecilia Kang

The battle over controversial anti-piracy legislation reached fever pitch on Wednesday, as opponents of the House bill launched an advertising blitz ahead of a morning hearing.

Supporters meanwhile brought union leaders, Hollywood, retailers and the law enforcement officials to a hearing during the day to argue for lawmakers to pass the legislation.

Web giants Google, Facebook, eBay and AOL ran full-page advertisements in newspapers, including The Post, asking lawmakers to reconsider the legislation. Internet service providers, including Verizon, are also expressing concern with the bill.

The debate has intensified as opponents characterize the House bill as a sudden push by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex) that could dramatically affect Web giants and Internet service providers, who say they weren’t consulted in the drafting of legislation. Smith has said he hopes to move the House Stop Online Piracy Act to markup before the end of the year.

A similar Senate bill passed the Judiciary Committee in September.

The legislative push heartened supporters that include Hollywood studios, record labels, drug makers and retailers who have for years complained of fighting a losing battle against Internet trade of counterfeit goods and the illegal exchange of copyrighted material.

“Fundamentally, this is about jobs,” said Michael O’Leary, a hearing witness representing the Motion Picture Association of America. He argued that not just actresses and directors are affected; piracy has a ripple effect across thousands of businesses that are associated with the movie business.

Critics of the House bill say it goes too far. They say a Senate bill authored by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) is more moderate. Ideally, they would want an amendment to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, that gives companies shelter from enforcement if they demonstrate best efforts to stop piracy.

A Verizon executive said in an interview Wednesday that language in Smith’s bill could force telecom companies to block Web sites that are dedicated to pirated copy.

“We worked with the Senate on the bill and that is reflected in the language of that bill,” the Verizon executive said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the company’s hopes to be included in revisions of Smith’s bill. “But the House bill, the way it is written, could mean we would have to take down domain names, use deep packet inspection technology and a range of technically difficult things to enforce this legislation.”

Smith said in a statement that current law doesn’t adequately help media and other firms that are seeing rampant stealing of their content.

He said his bill is aimed at foreign rogue sites and would only apply to sites that are “dedicated” to pirated copy.

“The problem of rogue Web sites is real, immediate and wide-spread. It harms all sectors of the economy,” he said.

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new ways will be found to get what we want!!!

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ncredible -- 800,000 signers in days, Congress is hesitating, and one Senator will block the vote by reading out our petition for hours!! Let's get to 1 million - sign below and forward this email to everyone --

Right now, the US Congress is debating a law that would give them the power to censor the world's Internet -- creating a blacklist that could target YouTube, WikiLeaks and even Avaaz! Free speech champions in Congress say our outcry will help, and one Senator is even going to block the vote by reading out our petition names for hours! Click here to build an unprecedented global petition for a free and open Internet:

Dear Friends,

Right now, Congress is debating a law that would give them the power to censor the world's Internet -- creating a blacklist that could target YouTube, WikiLeaks and even groups like Avaaz!

Under the new law, the US could force Internet providers to block any website on suspicion of violating copyright or trademark legislation, or even failing to sufficiently police their users' activities. And, because so much of the Internet's hosts and hardware are located in the US, their blacklist would clamp down on the free web for all of us.

The vote could happen at any time now, but we can help stop this -- champions in Congress want to preserve free speech and tell us that a global outcry would strengthen their hand, and one of them -- Senator Wyden -- says he will "filibuster" or block any vote on the bill by reading out our petition names until the clock runs out! Let's urgently raise our voices from every corner of the world to build an unprecedented global petition. Click below to sign and then forward to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet/?vl

For years, the US has condemned countries like China and Iran for their clampdown on Internet use. But now, the impact of these new censorship laws could be far worse -- effectively blocking sites to every Internet user across the globe.

Last year, a similar Internet censorship bill was killed before reaching the US Senate floor, but it's now back in a different form. Copyright laws already exist and are enforced by courts. But this new law goes much further -- granting the US government and big corporations enormous powers to force service providers and search engines to block websites based just on allegations of violations -- without a trial or being found guilty of any crime!

Free speech advocates have already raised the alarm, and some key senators are trying to gather enough support to stop this dangerous bill. We have no time to lose. Let's stand with them to ensure that American lawmakers preserve the right to a free and open Internet as an essential way for people around the world to exchange ideas, share communication and work collectively to build the world we want. Sign below to stop censorship, and save the Internet as we know it:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet/?vl

In the past months, from the Arab Spring to the global Occupy Movement, we've seen first hand how the Internet can galvanize, unify and change society. Now, if we stand together, we can stop this new attack on Internet freedom. We've done it before -- in Brazil and Italy, Avaaz members have won major victories in the fight for a free Internet. Let's galvanize our global web community to crush the most powerful censorship threat that the Internet has ever seen.

With hope,

Luis, Dalia, Diego, Emma, Ricken, Aaron, Antonia, Benjamin and the rest of the Avaaz team

Sources Op-Ed: Blacklist Bill allows Feds to remove websites from Internet (Digital Journal)

http://digitaljournal.com/article/313463

Disastrous IP Legislation Is Back – And It's Worse than Ever (EFF)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/disastrous-ip-legislation-back-%E2%80%93-and-it%E2%80%99s-worse-ever

Silicon Valley legislators oppose online piracy act (SFGate)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/15/BUO81LV0KI.DTL

House Hearing on Stop Online Piracy Act Scheduled (PC World)

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/243659/house_hearing_on_stop_online_piracy_act_scheduled.html

Growing Chorus of Opposition to "Stop Online Piracy Act"

https://www.cdt.org/report/growing-chorus-opposition-stop-online-piracy-act

The stop online piracy act: summary, problems, and implications

https://www.cdt.org/files/pdfs/SOPA%202-pager%20final.pdf

Why Is Justin Bieber So Pissed Off?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/why-is-justin-bieber-so-p_b_1071055.html

Stop Online Piracy Act

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-112hr3261ih/pdf/BILLS-112hr3261ih.pdf

PROTECT IP Act

http://leahy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/BillText-PROTECTIPAct.pdf

 

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