So, yeah WTH happened to the Internet yesterday...?

Hello all, it's been a while, but finally people are freaking the hell out over attacks on the fundamental infrastructure of the Internet. Personally, I've been freaking out for a while, you might have read my previous post ( http://zhir0w.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/how-much-are-you-willing-to-pay/ ) but if not feel free to click the link and check it out.

Anyway the Internet was in an uproar yesterday and still today (sorta) when alot of sites (Google, Wikipedia,Reddit, BoingBoing, etc...) went Black, to demonstrate what the world would be like without their presence because of this upcoming bill that may become law of the land. Many people took it upon themselves to find workarounds to bypass the blackouts and go directly to the sites... But, that's kinda the point.... sure yesterday was a little inconvenient, but imagine if that was the "new normal" as they say. You might not care now, but the majority of things the average person does or shares has some form of copyrighted material, be it a picture, a movie, a song or a funny video. Under this new legislation all of that would be outlawed, sites would be afraid to host anything and all that sharing you like to do, yeah, it'd be gone. You can help discourage our idiotic 'elected' officials understand your displeasure by contacting them after a little research on your part. I've gathered a list of informative links (though note, if this law goes into effect they'll all be broken shortly thereafter) that have:

Infographics ( http://www.vizworld.com/2012/01/sopa-infographic/ ) because a picture speaks a thousand words

synopsis ( http://www.techie-gurus.com/off-topic-discussions-71/all-about-sopa-bill-wants-cripple-your-internet-very-soon-5913/ )

and some sites that offer encouragement about your part in all this ( http://wordpress.org/news/2012/01/help-stop-sopa-pipa/ ).

There are bullet points ( http://www.craigslist.org/about/SOPA ) Everyone loves those!

And a Lifehacker article ( http://lifehacker.com/5860205/all-about-sopa-the-bill-thats-going-to-cripple-your-internet ) because it's Lifehacker, Duh....

I'm kinda a paranoid digital rights wonk about these things since the Internet is one of the few future things I find useful. I love information, especially free information (I especially love free information relating to cat videos...) and I hope you do too. The sites listed in this post have links to petitions and digital messages to your congressional representative, it's actually easy to voice your unhappiness, if you ARE unhappy about it that is, if you aren't feel free to respond and elucidate us on why, I know I'd like to hear.

How much are you willing to pay?

A while ago I was perusing one of about a dozen sites I… peruse… when I
found another story about the corporations planning to strip you of your current
rights. Yes '”the” Corporations, like Hollywood and the Movie Industry, and the
Record Labels. In a world where alot of wingnuts fear “the government”, usually
without good reason, there is an issue where we should all be concerned, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement (aka
ACTA). What is ACTA you might be wondering? Well let’s look at wikipedia’s
first paragraph “a proposed plurilateral trade agreement which is
claimed by its proponents to be in response "to the increase in global trade of
counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works."^[1]
The scope of ACTA is broad, including counterfeit physical goods,
as well as "internet distribution and information technology".^[2]”
What’s that? It’s a secret internet treaty being negotiated in secret. If you
read through it, which you can’t because it’s negotiated in secret you’d see
the push for a global set of copyright rules that would have ISP’s respond to DMCA-style takedown notices under a 3 strikes rule. In
essence your ISP would be required to terminate your internet connection after
receiving 3 complaints against your IP address. Someone have a beef with you,
they complain 3 times and poof your gone, disconnected from the internet. Not
just you, but everyone in your household because they’re all at the same IP
address.

Safe Harbor? Forget about it. Due process? Gone. And ISPs would lose their
safe harbor status, so they’d be responsible for everything posted from users.
Now think about it, a company would complain against you, demand your user
information and your ISP would hand it over, why wouldn’t they? What’s the
reason to hold out for you and disrupt their business? So YouTube,
Photobucket, Flickr, MySpace, Google/BING/Yahoo… anything with user generated
content… gone. That just leaves “The Corporations” and their product. You
should be worried, you should be concerned. With most people now using the
Internet for fun, communication, sharing, and work it could all come to a
grinding halt. What goods a wifi connection when you can only watch what the
corporations want you to see? You hate ads? You like free software of any kind?
Be prepared for seismic changes if this goes through. Alot of people fear a one
world government, maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong, what they should
fear is a One World Corporation with the powers of a government. How much is
your freedom of expression worth? You may find out soon and you might not be
able to afford it.

Want to find out more? http://www.eff.org/issues/acta

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