Friday, February 3, 2012

THEANTJACK SUPPORTS INTERNET FREEDOM (BLACK MARCH-STOP SOPAPIPA)

http://www.gamezone.com/editorials/gaming-sites-vs-sopa-pipa http://stlouis.craigslist.org/about/SOPA https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-March-Fight-For-Internet-Freedom/1471000... Please remember at election time to VOTE AGAINST anti-Internet politicians (color coded below), and VOTE FOR pro-Internet politicians.

SOPA and PIPA aside here are the next two grievous affronts to your privacy - HR 1981 and ACTA

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.