"she writes like she’s starving and reads like she’s feasting." --r.d. larson
BUT….. the European Parliament still has to vote about it.
If you haven’t signed the petition against ACTA yet, please do it now, it will be presented to the European Parliament. And they are kind of the last hope we got to stop this. If the parliament votes NO to ACTA, it can still be stopped. SO DO IT.
if you still don’t know why this is important:
“The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which has already been signed by several countries, poses a dangerous threat to the inherent freedom and openess of the Internet. Under ACTA, ISPs and websites will be given more power to track what we do online, while forcing them to turn over our information and reporting our activity to the authorities — all in the name of copyright protection! While we respect the rights of creators, ACTA’s ill-conceived provisions will have chilling effects on free speech everywhere.
The European Parliament still has to approve ACTA for it to go into effect around the world. If they vote NO, then ACTA will be effectively dismantled — even in countries that have already signed it. We helped bring down SOPA and PIPA, now let’s turn the fight to ACTA. Call on the EU Parliament to take a stand and vote “NO” on ACTA!”
MegaUpload - Closed.
FileServe - Closing, does not sell premium.
FileJungle - Deleting files. Locked in the U.S..
UploadStation - Locked in the U.S..
FileSonic - the news is arbitrary (under FBI investigation).
VideoBB - Closed! Will disappear soon.
Uploaded - Banned in the U.S. and the FBI went after the owners who are gone.
FilePost - Deleting all material (will leave executables, pdfs, txts)
Videoz - Closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the USA.
4shared - Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI.
MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days and it will open doors. Pro FBI
Org Torrent - Could vanish with everything within 30 days “he is under criminal investigation”
Network Share mIRC - Awaiting the decision of the case to continue or terminate Torrente everything.
Koshiki - Operating 100% Japan will not join the SOPA / PIPA
Shienko Box - 100% working China / Korea will not join the SOPA / PIPA
ShareX BR - group UOL / BOL / iG say they will join the SOPA / PIPA
“The copyright industries wanted border-searches on anything digital you were carrying that could be used to infringe copyright”
arrestomomentum:scallawag:monkeyknifefight | chocotaur
Five facts:
1. ACTA isn’t the “European” SOPA. It’s nearly GLOBAL, and will apply to every country that signs the treaty.
2. ACTA is far more aggressive. ACTA will not simply affect websites and have them blocked out of the internet - its measures go as far as surveillance of anything you share through private channels.
3. ACTA doesn’t have a campaign against it that is as wide-spread and organized as the SOPA one. This is DANGEROUS, as there’s less time between now and the final signing of ACTA.
4. ACTA has effects on healthcare, trade, and even tourism.
5. ACTA has to be stopped.
Let’s start spreading the word and organizing a good, solid response to it.
More information:
Time to start praying for Mediafire.
ACTA in a Nutshell –
What is ACTA? ACTA is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. A new intellectual property enforcement treaty being negotiated by the United States, the European Community, Switzerland, and Japan, with Australia, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Mexico, Jordan, Morocco, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and Canada recently announcing that they will join in as well.
Why should you care about ACTA? Initial reports indicate that the treaty will have a very broad scope and will involve new tools targeting “Internet distribution and information technology.”
What is the goal of ACTA? Reportedly the goal is to create new legal standards of intellectual property enforcement, as well as increased international cooperation, an example of which would be an increase in information sharing between signatory countries’ law enforcement agencies.
Essential ACTA Resources -
- Read more about ACTA here: ACTA Fact Sheet
- Read the authentic version of the ACTA text as of 15 April 2011, as finalized by participating countries here: ACTA Finalized Text
- Follow the history of the treaty’s formation here: ACTA history
- Read letters from U.S. Senator Ron Wyden wherein he challenges the constitutionality of ACTA: Letter 1 | Letter 2 | Read the Administration’s Response to Wyden’s First Letter here: Response
- Watch a short informative video on ACTA: ACTA Video
- Watch a lulzy video on ACTA: Lulzy Video
Say NO to ACTA. It is essential to spread awareness and get the word out on ACTA.
From Jerry Goldberg:
Victory in Detroit. As a result of a demonstration today at her home, Citibank stopped the eviction of Detroiter Kyra Williams. After backing down on an agreement to let Ms Willimas purchase the home she had leased before her landord was foreclosed, upon learning of today’s demonstration Citibank reversed themselves on the eve of Ms. Williams’ eviction and allowed her to purchase the home for less than the previous agreement. They directly expressed fear of the Occupy movement. The demonstraton was organized by the Moratorium Now! Coalition and Occupy Detroit. A press conference was also held at another family’s home in metro Detroit, the Henrys, to announce plans to stop their evictiion by Fannie Mae (the federal government) scheduled for January 2.
I have a lot of issues with the Occupy movements, but this is something I can totally get behind.
Word. This is awesome.
This is the kind of local, grounded, thoughtful action I am into.
After playing the bastard Jon Snow on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” Kit Harington looks ready to display his sword-wielding skills yet again, as Warner Bros. has tapped him for the role of King Arthur in “Arthur and Lancelot.”
In the wake of that 1000+ note post linking this engadget article:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/10/senate-to-vote-on-net-neutrality-repeal-today-obama-counters-wi/
Net Neutrality and the SOPA/ProtectIP Bills are different entities.
Net Neutrality deals with the issue of several large companies - namely Comcast and Verizon wanting to become “gatekeepers” of the Internet; slowing traffic to sites they (as Internet Service Providers) don’t like. And creating a “Fast Lane” for sites that pay them money.
Net Neutrality is important because, without it, the Internet as a free market is dead. Small start-up siites will not be able to survive, because they can’t pay the “toll” to get into this “fast lane.”
The SOPA/ProtectIP Bills are the bills that create an Internet censorship power within the Government.
The Net Neutrality debates have been raging for months now, and they’ve finally come to a conclusion. This is good. But it’s NOT a decision on SOPA and ProtectIP. They are different. Completely.
Please reblog this to spread the word and inform everyone.
Keep posts like THESE going-not that link.
good president, best friend
By far two of the most dangerous and harmful bills introduced today, not only to US citizens but to the entire world, are Protect-IP and SOPA, proposed censorship systems for the internet based on the interests of the entertainment industry. It sounds ridiculous, especially because you probably haven’t heard of it before, but they’re very real.
The MPAA, RIAA, Hollywood knows that they have been flying in CEOs of as many companies as possible, recruiting people to get petition signups at malls in California, and here’s the big point— they know they have gotten their message through to Congress — the worst bill in Internet history, the one where government and their corporations get unbelievable power to take down sites, threaten payment processors into stopping payment to sites on a blacklist, and throw people in jail for posting ordinary content is about to pass before the end of this year. The only thing that is going to stop Hollywood from owning the Internet and everything we do, is if there is a big surprise Internet backlash starting right now.
PROTECT IP (S. 968)/SOPA (HR. 3261) creates the first system for Internet censorship - this bill has sweeping provisions that give the government and corporations leeway and legal cover for taking down sites “by accident,” mistakenly, or for NOT doing “enough” to protect the interests of Hollywood. These bills that are moving very quickly through Congress and can pass before Christmas aim to give the US government and corporations the ability to block sites over infringing links posted by their users and give ISPs the release to take any means to block peoples’ sites, including slowing down your connection. That’s right, some say this bill is a workaround to net neutrality and is bigger than net neutrality.
And this is how it will affect you:
Let’s make one thing clear from the get-go: despite all the talk about this bill being directed only toward “rogue” foreign sites, there is no question that it targets US companies as well. The bill sets up a system to punish sites allegedly “dedicated to the theft of US property.” How do you get that label? Doesn’t take much: Some portion of your site (even a single page) must
- be directed toward the US, and either
- allegedly “engage in, enable or facilitate” infringement or
- allegedly be taking or have taken steps to “avoid confirming a high probability” of infringement.
If an IP rightsholder (vaguely defined – could be Justin Bieber worried about his publicity rights) thinks you meet the criteria and that it is in some way harmed, it can send a notice claiming as much to the payment processors (Visa, Mastercard, Paypal etc.) and ad services you rely on.
Once they get it, they have 5 days to choke off your financial support. Of course, the payment processors and ad networks won’t be able to fine-tune their response so that only the allegedly infringing portion of your site is affected, which means your whole site will be under assault. And, it makes no difference that no judge has found you guilty of anything or that the DMCA safe harbors would shelter your conduct if the matter ever went to court. Indeed, services that have been specifically found legal, like Rapidshare, could be economically strangled via SOPA. You can file a counter-notice, but you’ve only got 5 days to do it (good luck getting solid legal advice in time) and the payment processors and ad networks have no obligation to respect it in any event. That’s because there are vigilante provisions that grant them immunity for choking off a site if they have a “reasonable belief” that some portion of the site enables infringement.
Prime targets, eff.org says, are sites like twitter and tumblr.
But for now, we still have the power we’ve always had to stimulate change and speak up against this censorship, using exactly what these bills will try to stifle. ANYONE who uses tumblr should sign this petition and get the word out. Part of the strength of Protect-IP and SOPA is that they’re so under the radar right now. It’s our job to change this. Don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP PROTECT-IP AND SOPA:
- Sign the petition at change.org.
- Write a letter to your congressperson.
- Sign up for updates at fightforthefuture.org.
PLEASE DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN AND REBLOG THIS POST TO GET THE WORD OUT!!!
Reblogging this again because it’s so important.
You guys, you know I’m not usually the type to reblog those “OMG UR A BAD PERSON IF U SCROLL PAST THIS” things, let alone POST them, so this is serious fucking business, okay?
You’ll notice there’s a big black censor bar on my blog today.
That bill is going down tomorrow. It’s essentially going to make the US as bad as Communist China in terms of Internet censorship. I’m not. Fucking. Kidding. They will literally have the power to block any site from being visited by any US user. They’re going to systematically destroy basically every freedom we have, to protect the entertainment industry’s profits. They’re getting away with it because they’re sneaky and no one is freaking out about it and the mainstream media is hiding it.
Do this - http://americancensorship.org/
Participate in this. Everyone just, do this, and spread this like it’s wildfire, please.
If this passes, we could very well be cut off from Tumblr, Youtube, deviantArt, and all the other sites we’re used to using. So like… if I suddenly disappear, FOREVER, you’ll know why. I’m sorry this is so sudden. D:
But really. We need to fight this. Really hard.
Also, I’m sorry if the censor bar is covering stuff up but that’s kind of the point - click it!
I don’t tend to make or reblog more than one post about a certain subject in the news, but as a designer I have to have this one on my blog. It’s not only powerful in the thematic sense of what has direly happened, but it’s a brilliant play on the now classic design. Kudos to the creator of this image.
I’ve never been so proud to work for someone as much as I am right now. He was an amazing person and a great leader. The rest of my career won’t be the same without him in it. Thank you for the two best years of my life, Steve.
A new group of police officers arrives in white shirts, as opposed to dark blue. These guys are completely undiscerning in their aggression. If someone gets in their way, they shove them headfirst into the nearest parked car, at which point the officers are immediately surrounded by camera phones and shouts of “Shame! Shame!”
Up until this point, Frank and I have managed to stay ahead of the nets, but as we hit what I think is 12th Street, they’ve caught up. The blue-shirts aren’t being too forceful, so we manage to run free, but stay behind to see what happens. Then things go nuts.
The white-shirted cops are shouting at us to get off the street as they corral us onto the sidewalk. One African American man gets on the curb but refuses to be pushed up against the wall of the building; they throw him into the street, and five cops tackle him. As he’s being cuffed, a white kid with a video camera asks him “What’s your name?! What’s your name?!” One of the blue-shirted cops thinks he’s too close and gives him a little shove. A white-shirt sees this, grabs the kid and without hesitation billy-clubs him in the stomach.
At this point, the crowd of twenty or so caught in the orange fence is shouting “Shame! Shame! Who are you protecting?! YOU are the 99 percent! You’re fighting your own people!” A white-shirt, now known to be NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, comes from the left, walks straight up to the three young girls at the front of the crowd, and pepper-sprays them in the face for a few seconds, continuing as they scream “No! Why are you doing that?!” The rest of us in the crowd turn away to avoid the spray, but it’s unavoidable. My left eye burns and goes blind and tears start streaming down my face. Frank grabs my arm and shoves us through the small gap between the orange fence and the brick wall while everyone stares in shock and horror at the two girls on the ground and two more doubled over screaming as their eyes ooze. In the street I shout for water to rinse my eyes or give to the girls on the ground. But no one responds. One of the blue-shirts, tall and bald, stares in disbelief and says, “I can’t believe he just fuckin’ maced her.” And it becomes clear that the white-shirts are a different species. We need to get out of there.
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