ACTA: Like SOPA 2.0, but even worse!

It seems like SOPA was nothing but a distraction while the real deal was being signed... Ladies and gentlemen, meet ACTA. With internet providers forced to keep a minimun of a year of your browsing history, and webpages censored at will, this looks like SOPA... but it will affect ALL signing countries. We need to protect the internet, or given enough time even the kitten videos on Youtube will be censored...

These seem to be really interesting times ideed.

Information:
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/acta
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/ow1v5/acta_note_from_marietje_schaake_member_o

Sign against ACTA:
https://secure.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet_spread/?slideshow

Megaupload down...

SOPA & PIPA were turned down... and less than 24 hours after that, megaupload and other bunch of sites are taken down by the FBI and other USA "letter soup" agencies. To me, that sounds like bullying, not to mention that Megaupload wasn't based on the USA... Talk about tantrums.

Why I think it's important to face this censorship? I won't talk about how all the money and jobs affected by piracy are bogus (at least in the amounts claimed by the industry and the politicians). Instead I will simply say that modders (working under the "Fair act" rules of not getting any kind of profit from their work of modding parts of comercial games) are afraid of being prosecuted in a "guilty until proven otherwise" policy.

So ask yourselves what would happen if any game from now on would never have any free, non official mod. Imagine Minecraft without Redpower, Buildcraft, Industrialcraft... without Better than Wolves, without the Aether, without Mo's Creatures...
Or imagine more of Bethesda's games (Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout...), Bioware's (Neverwinter Nights, KotOR...), or Valve's (Half Life... that gave birth to Counter Strike, for example) without mods. Imagine how any game you currently have without any mod whatsoever, aside from some DLC crafted only to get more money from a dehydrated lone man in the middle of the desert desperate enough to pay for some drops of hot water...

Depressing? That is what a world without liberty means. Bad things for everybody. Save for those few who control the water.

Censorship day, take two

I received this email, so I thought it would be good to share it with you all.

The Internet Censorship Bill took a massive beating last week (yeah, you did that!) but drug companies, movie studios and the Chamber of Commerce do *not* go down easy.

Now-- get this-- they're telling Congress it's a "jobs" bill.

This is dangerous.  Everyone in Congress is desperate to do something to create jobs.  Now the most powerful lobbies in Washington are banging down their doors, saying "this is your (only) chance to pass a jobs bill."

Since Congress is away for the holiday, there's one priority: sign up  as many people as possible for a massive call-in day when Congress returns.

Click here to join in, by committing to call your Senator

Since the House's "SOPA" has such a bad name (yes, you did that) lobbyists are moving their weight behind the Senate version, PIPA ("The PROTECT IP Act"). The Senate's censorship bill is just as bad; it's only missing a few of SOPA's extra-crazy provisions, like the ones that could send you to jail for singing a pop song on YouTube.  The website blocking provisions are all there.  Still, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thinks that with the attention on SOPA, he can sneak PIPA through quickly when Congress returns.

Reid needs to know this bill won't move forward without a fight.  That's why we're organizing a call-in day for Tuesday, using the same tools that our heroes at Tumblr used last week.  It's kind of perfect.  While Congress rests we've got 5 full days to sign up friends, colleagues, Twitter followers-- everybody.  Then on Tuesday we'll unleash a storm of phone calls.

Click here to sign up, and then get others signed up too.

This weekend, instead of nobly vegging out on the internet, you can fight for the future of the internet and freedom of speech.  Every ounce of time you spend counts.

Signups now, phone calls Tuesday.  Start your engines.

Holmes Wilson
Fight for the Future / AmericanCensorship.org

P.S. Are you a Tumblr user?  We just put up a special section with extra-easy instructions for Tumblr users to add a "Stop Censorship" button to their site:  http://americancensorship.org/#tumblr

I really do hope that this silly idea of censoring the internet won't come to pass. After all, America is a country of freedom, isn't it?

Censorship day (scroll down to see the link)

Most of you visit this blog from America. While I do not reside there, I am a 100% against censorship, and I find quite shaming for a goverment claiming to protect "freedom" to do things like yesterday's police charge in New York. Words like "No right is absolute", as Mr. Bloomberg said, are quite correct: we lose what we don't protect.

I'm not someone who likes to talk about politics (but I tend to think almost all politicians would be better in the bottom of the sea, with weights attached to their knees...), but let me tell you something: a goverment whose only interest is to remain in the power (or to "have turns" with a second block, leaving every other possiblity without any chance of posing a threat to the status quo) fears freedom of speech; and Internet provides that.

Look at this past month's Middle East revolutions. Internet was used as a way to keep people organized against tyranny. Don't let a handfull of modern "Nobles" play everybody like this was the Middle Ages.

No right is absolute. That means that no right can protect itself- so to let our rights to protect us, we need to protect them.

Edit: As asked, I will keep this post until the censorship bill is dead. I ask you to talk with your friends, neighbours, and eveybody you know. After all, democracy is about the power of the people, isn't it?