BYC Is Against SOPA & PIPA

[kathyinmo]

I got another email. It's not over yet!

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And here's Carl Franzen at Talking Points Memo:

"Behind the scenes, Hill staffers from both sides of the aisle confirmed to TPM that the entire piracy debate had become so 'toxic' that virtually no lawmakers were likely to be ready to re-engage it anytime soon."​

Experienced Congress-watchers are telling us they've never seen anything like this.
Internet users, tech companies, and non-profits joined together to defend fundamental rights on the internet. To a lot of elites in Congress and the corporate world, the internet is just something that lazy teenagers use to spam people with pictures of photoshopped unicorns. The blackout showed that the peer-to-peer internet is about empowerment, and that when we work together we can defeat the corrupt politics of Washington D.C.
The New York Times and Talking Points Memo have both published good articles on how the web blackout was organized.
For months, four senators were the only force blocking passage of PIPA/SOPA. They even promised to filibuster the bill back when most politicians were against them. We need to make sure we support and vote for leaders like them who are willing to going to go out on a limb and oppose SOPA before it was popular to do so. It's great that we pressured all those other shlubs into opposing web censorship, but these guys deserve the real cred and our support: Click here to donate (scroll down).
What's next? The Fight is not over, already new threats to web freedom are starting to emerge (particularly in Europe) and we're getting ready. Stay tuned, and for more updates, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Thank you again for standing up for a free and open internet!
- Donny and Fight for the Future

 

[OldGuy43]

Making forum operators responsible for the content that other people post is kinda like making the Post Office responsible for what is sent through the mail. Hey, there's a idea. Contact your congressman and suggest a bill that would do that.

 

[Arielle]

Who are the original 4 that stood against SOPA??? Just curious who these brave few are.

 

[Lothiriel]

ACTA is worse than SOPA, here's what you need to know

Sunday, January 29, 2012 by: J. D. Heyes

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(NaturalNews) As a warrior for Internet freedom, you helped defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA by supporting Web black outs by sites like Wikipedia and by contacting your lawmaker to voice your displeasure. So loud was your voice that even the president of the United States sided with you in opposing it.

But don't take a deep sigh of relief because, after all, we're talking about a merger of Washington, D.C., and Hollywood here, as well as global interests. After the motion picture industry, its subsidiaries and all "interested parties" have spent nearly $150 million lobbying for some sort of Internet-centric "anti-piracy" bill, you should have known the powers that be would return.

And they have, only this time they are pushing something far more onerous: ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

"Although the proposed treaty's title might suggest that the agreement deals only with counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines) what little information has been made available publicly by negotiating governments about the content of the treaty makes it clear that it will have a far broader scope and in particular will deal with new tools targeting 'Internet distribution and information technology'", says an assessment of ACTA by the watchdogs at the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

"ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers' privacy and civil liberties for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet [regarding] legitimate commerce and for developing countries' ability to choose policy options that best suit their domestic priorities and level of economic development," says EFF's assessment.

As is usually the case with dubious, rights-stripping legislation, ACTA - which Forbes.com reports was signed by the U.S. in 2011 and has already been sanctioned as well by Japan, Switzerland and many European Union nations - has largely been negotiated in the shadows and, thus, has largely been devoid of scrutiny... until now.

While the Obama administration was shying away from SOPA, it has been aggressively pursuing ACTA (full disclosure: the process was started under the Bush administration). Critics say it is much more far-reaching than SOPA, bypassing "the sovereign laws of participating nations" and "forcing ISP's across the globe to act as internet police," Forbes said.

But ACTA isn't limited just to the Internet. In fact, the agreement would crack down things like generic drugs and would make food patents more difficult to obtain "by enforcing a global standard on seed patents that threatens local farmers and food independence across the developed world," Forbes says.

The good thing is, there is not universal acceptance of ACTA and its onerous, liberty-stealing provisions. Emerging nations like Brazil and India are adamantly opposed to it for rightfully fearing its provisions would harm their economies.

But Internet freedom is also under attack from other quarters as well. The EFF also notes that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which is a separate measure, would "rewrite the global rules on IP enforcement".

"All signatory countries will be required to conform their domestic laws and policies to the provisions of the Agreement," said the EFF assessment. "In the U.S. this is likely to further entrench controversial aspects of U.S. copyright law. The recently leaked U.S. IP chapter also includes provisions that appear to go beyond current U.S. law. This raises significant concerns for citizens' due process, privacy and freedom of expression rights."

SOPA may be history but that doesn't mean Internet freedom does not remain under assault. Tyrants never stop trying to enforce tyranny.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/23/if-you-thought-sopa-was-bad-just-wait-until-you-meet-acta

https://www.eff.org/pages/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/01/16/obama-says-so-long-sopa-killing-controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/​

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034802_ACTA_counterfeiting_piracy.html#ixzz1kp4kHWad​

 

[OldGuy43]

I hear see so many folks throw up their hands and say, "The little guy doesn't have a chance against the paid lobbyists!" WE, THE PEOPLE have now proven that to be a false statement. Certainly, it means that we all need to keep a close eye on what they are doing in our name, but no one said it was easy.

The one thing that all politicians fear is a popular uprising. On the other hand, they love an apathetic electorate. They know that all that money in their "war chest" means nothing if they don't get the votes. To quote Mel Brooks, "We've gotta protect our phoney-baloney jobs gentleman!" (from the movie Blazing Saddles) Do not vote for someone because of his party affiliations, his race, his religious creed or because someone else says you should. Look at his voting record. Ask yourself, "Does this person's stance on all matters truly reflect my wishes?"

Never accept mediocre performance. "Well, he voted the way I would have most of the time." should not be an acceptable reason to send him back to represent you again. Seek perfection in all of your elected representatives. By so doing our country will truly become once again, "a government of the people, by the people and for the people". (A. Lincoln) It will function as a democracy was meant to function, by the will of the majority(!) of the people.

As for ACTA specifically;

The United States Constitution, Section 2, Clause 2:
[The President] shall have Power, by and with Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur...

Thus ends today's sermonette.

 

[EweSheep]

Well said, OldGuy!

 

[Arielle]

x 2

 

[krys2000]

Totally against

 

[hemet dennis]

Can anyone tell me why the government should keep me from playing online poker ?

 

[OldGuy43]

Can anyone tell me why the government should keep me from playing online poker ?

Only if we the people allow "them" to. Don't complain here. Call your congressman. Be blunt. Remember, he works for you.