There's this wonderful video you have to se *THIS PAGE HAS BEEN DMCA'D, BITCH*

[Fenris]

I'm more surprised they say July 1 is on a Thursday when it's on Sunday...

Also, signed.

[Marc v4.0]

As someone with a major 'inside source' to one of those companies, I have to question the validity of this. My person would be in the know of this sort of thing, and this article was the first they heard of it.

[rpgdemon]

Somewhat related: What was the name of that internet regulation law from the UN that was passed in the US, but was still going on in the EU? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Is this a thing?

[A Zarkin' Frood]

You probably mean ACTA. The thing we're constantly protesting against.

[Magus]

Originally Posted by Marc v4.0

As someone with a major 'inside source' to one of those companies, I have to question the validity of this. My person would be in the know of this sort of thing, and this article was the first they heard of it.

Yeah, I couldn't find anything about this on various sites you would think would talk about.

[Pip Boy]

3 days before Independence Day seems like an appropriate time to put out a piece of invasive legislation in the name of protecting corporate money.

[Menarker]

Another petition link here. Quote below is the content of the email I got that leads to the link just below.

http://www.theinternetvshollywood.com/?

It's us versus THEM again.

Hollywood attorneys are trying to use the courts to circumvent Congress and implement a backdoor SOPA/PIPA scheme.

Fight Back: YOUR FILES ON Google, Dropbox, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, etc. and even your emails are in jeopardy.

We need to make sure the judge understands that his decision will affect millions of people.

Demand Progress is fighting back in the courts and standing up for Internet users. We are taking on the United States and the MPAA. Please click here to support our legal brief -- the court will be hearing the case TOMORROW.

BACKGROUND: One day after the Internet staged a massive blackout to protest Congress's Internet censorship legislation (SOPA/PIPA), the United States responded by seizing millions of ordinary user files hosted on the popular website Megaupload.com.

With an aim of shutting down Megaupload and other Cloud-based hosting services (like Dropbox, YouTube or even your email provider), the government is trying to claim website operators should face decades in prison for the misdeeds of some of their users.

But while they pursue trumped up criminal charges against the companies' founders, they are shutting down dozens of websites, and leaving ordinary Internet users without any way of retrieving their files.

Please click here to sign on as a supporter of our legal brief: The judge will be hearing the case TOMORROW, and we need to make sure he understands that his ruling affects millions of us.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called the case against Megaupload a "threat to innovation". Wozniak likened the Megaupload site to a highway and those who shared pirated movies and songs to speeding motorists.

"You don't just shut down the whole street because somebody is speeding," he said.

Numerous laws on the books already give copyright holders plenty of avenues to stop actual infringement, but that's not enough to satisfy Hollywood's lawyers and lobbyists.

And get this: The prosecutor in the case, Neil MacBride, previously served as the Anti-Piracy Vice President of the Business Software Alliance, where he represented the intellectual property interests of countless multinational corporations.

Now Hollywood's lobbyists, represented by the Motion Picture Association of America, want him to make it nearly impossible for ordinary Internet users to get their property back.

Please click here to sign on to our legal brief, and make sure the courts understand that millions of Internet users will be impacted by the judge's decision.

[rpgdemon]

Yeah, the contents of the spam they send make me question their legitimacy. US versus THEM. THEY'RE SELLING US OUT. Sounds like chain letter nonsense.

[Thadius]

So some good news:

Free speech activists, web site owners, internet users, and even some celebrities, have banded together in support of the Declaration of Internet Freedom. The petition calls for free and open access to the web from around the world. To help get a grasp on what it's all about, we've asked an activist from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (one of the declaration's many supporters) to answer your questions.
You can take a look at the full text of the act right now, and it boils down to five principles:

Expression: Don't censor the Internet.
Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.
Openness: Keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.
Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don't block new technologies, and don't punish innovators for their users' actions.
Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone's ability to control how their data and devices are used.

http://lifehacker.com/5923111/let-th...ternet-freedom

Other people are just as tired of this bullshit as I am.

I'm not sure if this will result in the internet seceding from the US or what.

But I totally support those principles. Were there an easy way for me to sign that declaration without needing to be in an organiza-

...

Well that was an idea I hadn't considered.

*Promptly signs as a member of the organization NPF, status: Poster*