Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Nov 11 - 12:11 AM

so we can mention Rudolph on 19 Nov, but not 19 Dec?

sandra in sydney, australia

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Max
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 11:23 PM

I shit you not, it was a few years ago around this time of season that I got a letter from Character Arts, LLC on behalf of The Rudolph Company, L.P. reminding me that the song AND story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is not public domain even though it, as they said, had become Christmas folklore. I was to cease and desist allowing my users to publicly discuss Rudolph... during Christmas time.

But I looked at the other side of the court order and it didn't say nothin' so...

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Max
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 11:02 PM

They'll come right for us... mudcat.org... you know... if this is passed.

You have no idea how much pressure I get as it is now, publishers telling Google to block individual threads because they contain copyrighted material even though the lyrics we have are from 1906 and someone did a cover of a public domain song and copyrighted the arrangement yet...

The publishing company merely fills out a form online and the thread is blocked by Google.

I get an email (this one just 2 days ago, ON the 16th even, and AFTER I fought it once already in March) that says:

For legal reasons, we've excluded from our search results content located at or under the following URL/directory:

    http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=26799

This content has been removed from all Google search results. Cause: Somone has filed a DMCA complaint against your site. More information. File a counter-complaint.

I need to file an actual legal counterclaim with proof that I have the right to "publish" that material that initiates a legal proceeding which essentially invites the publishing company's lawyers to start digging around the site. The last step of the Google process warns (in bold and red no less):

Be aware that there may be adverse legal consequences in your country... [essentially if I am wrong about the copyright infringement they still have not explained to me].

After we receive your counter-notification, we will forward it to the party who submitted the original claim of copyright infringement.
Please note that when we forward the counter-notification, it includes your personal information. By submitting a counter-notification, you consent to having your information revealed in this way.

My personal info goes right to the person who complained but I still don't know who they are.

This happens about 30 times per year, 4 times I've been in court. I mess with them sometimes just because I have nothing to lose, when they find out that I'm poor and host myself (no cloud or ISP to pressure) they usually quit fighting me. I'm a nut with an excellent philosophy education and way too much free-time. It's expensive to get into litigation with me. I make sure of it.

And SOPA was introduced by democrats, by the way.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 10:08 PM

From the Wikipedia article on SOPA:

Opponents of the bill include Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, AOL, LinkedIn, eBay, Mozilla Corporation, and Wikimedia Foundation, the Brookings Institution and human rights organizations such as Reporters Without Borders, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the ACLU and Human Rights Watch.

The Library Copyright Alliance (including the American Library Association) objects to the broadened definition of "willful infringement" and the introduction of felony penalties for noncommercial streaming infringement, stating that these changes could encourage criminal prosecution of libraries.

On November 16, Tumblr, Mozilla, Reddit, Techdirt, and the Center for Democracy and Technology were among many other Internet companies that protested the Stop Online Piracy Act by participating in a so-called "American Censorship Day". They displayed black banners over their site logos with the words "STOP CENSORSHIP"

They had the banner up on the 16th, Mudcat has it today.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 09:58 PM

It's NOT only this site. Max is making a point with the banner/link that many/all sites 'could' be affected.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 08:47 PM

Think I'm missing something... how come what's only this site?

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 08:11 PM

How come it's only this site?

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 07:43 PM

Good shout, having the link on the logo. Good luck, US friends, stopping this. Remember, there are more of us proles than there are of those people who are temporarily in charge...

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 07:16 PM

We gave up the right to criticize other countries' torture of POWs with Abu Ghraibe. What other high ground, real or believed in, will we give up?

They'd better not pass this. I get tired of complaints of censorship here, and complaints about the lack of it. The right to free speech that we have (and at Mudcat, we have it because Max believes in it) means that people who say what we don't like have the right too. It gets messy sometimes, but I like not having somebody making the decision about what I can read.

...and if I were into conspiracy theories, I'd think a certain faction really wants to stupidify Americans. Well, OK, it might actually be true. Some of these guys would never get into power if the folks who voted for them could competently operate their brains.

Letter from Congressional representatives opposing SOPA (It's a .PDF)

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 05:47 PM

So "UNCLE SAM" has dropped the pretense, and revealed that he is really "BIG BROTHER" in disguise.

And now it seems he's to be frustrated after all, it has left his little toady spies rather exposed.

Cox Communications better keep a sharp eye on their share price, because anybody with half a brain will be getting shot of 'em before the shit hits the fan when their clients head for the exit in droves.

Don T.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: gnu
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 04:38 PM

Max... "They'll sell a 30-day wiretap on you for $3,500."

And THAT is legal?

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: BTNG
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 03:53 PM

sorry, forgot to add this link

The Realist Archive Project

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: BTNG
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 03:51 PM

(If you are old enough to remember The Realist magazine, this needs no comment.)

errr...it doesn't need any comment whether you remember the a fore mentioned periodical or not

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: GUEST,999
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 03:40 PM

I had one of those shirts.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 03:37 PM

F**K Censorship!

(If you are old enough to remember The Realist magazine, this needs no comment.)

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 03:12 PM

"Whatever about the semantics"

yeah whatever

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: DebC
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 03:12 PM

One of our media critics here in Boston, Dan Kennedy has a BLOG POST about this.

I agree with max. This un-f%^$ing believable, but I am not surprised.

Deb Cowan

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: bobad
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 03:02 PM

We Are Winning: Pelosi Comes Out Against Internet Censorship Bill

Nobody thought it could be done, but it looks like we've turned the tide against the Internet Blacklist Bill. Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi just spoke out against it, and Republican Darrell Issa says it now stands "no chance of passage"!

It's been a show of force like no other: More than 700k anti-censorship contacts have been delivered to Congress so far this week, as the Blacklsit Bill gets heard in committee.

https://act.demandprogress.org/act/pelosi/

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 02:50 PM

I couldn't put my finger on what was giving me such an awful sense of deja-vu. Then I remembered a thread I started nearly two years ago

BS: Blasphemy law in Ireland
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=126211#2802095

in which I wrote:

Happy new year. When I drank my auld-lang-syne toast, I raised a silent glass to the founding fathers of the US Bill Of Rights. [#ironyalert]  

Tonight, on another website, a friend put up a YouTube link to something that was very funny, and HARMLESS, but could certainly be interpreted as sacrilegious. He's now taken it down. Whether or not he would have been prosecuted, that is intimidation. He censored himself, voluntarily, because he didn't feel safe otherwise. How Orwellian is that?

Never knowing whether you're on safe ground or not is intimidating - and there are no fear-police like the ones in your head.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 02:26 PM

Maybe they're Just Following Orders...

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: GUEST,999
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 02:23 PM

I'm waiting for someone to say, "If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear." That was the war cry when some of us objected to the little green cameras springing up all over everywhere. This is simply the logical extension. Yes, it sucks. And yes, I hope it can be fought. But bit by bit it has crept into the culture of so-called security. It ain't new, just more invasive. I suppose that next we can look forward to tags much like those used to track caribou or various birds.

I mad as hell about it, too.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 02:17 PM

Whatever about the semantics (or diplomacy?) of the above statement, if that bill passes there ain't gonna be no freedom to fight FOR.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: BTNG
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 02:09 PM

The only problem I have with this statement is that the United States (at least the governments) have never even been soldiers, let alone leaders, in internet freedom fight.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 02:05 PM


International Community Rallies Against SOPA [Stop Online Piracy Act]

This week the House of Representatives opens hearings on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill that EFF - along with a number of prominent organizations and other actors - has opposed loudly and vigorously.

Though the bill would have grave implications on free expression for American Internet users, website owners, and intermediaries, its effects on the international community are even worse.  In light of that fact, a coalition of international civil society and human rights groups have penned a letter expressing their opposition to the bill.  The letter - whose signatories include prominent groups like French groups La Quadrature du Net and Reporters Without Borders, UK-based Index on Censorship, and global consortium the Association for Progressive Communications - states:

"...by institutionalizing the use of internet censorship tools to enforce domestic law in the United States creates a paradox that undermines its moral authority to criticize repressive regimes.  We urge the United States to uphold its proclaimed responsibility as a leader in internet freedom and reject bills that will censor or fragment the web."

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Max
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 02:05 PM

I am livid over this shit.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 01:50 PM

Tim Berners Lee's baby is growing up. It's changing from a Little Orphan Annie, into a Damien.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Max
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 01:43 PM

Anyone use Cox Communications for phone or internet? They're eager to turn you in. They have a helpful FAQ for subpoena seekers and even a fucking price list. http://mudc.at/vSrFix They'll sell a 30-day wiretap on you for $3,500.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 01:41 PM

I did

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: GUEST,999
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 01:30 PM

Click it, John.

Subject: RE: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP
From: Max
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 01:14 PM

Subject: Tech: STOP CENSORSHIP>
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 19 Nov 11 - 01:13 PM

I get this on a black strip superimposed over the Mudcat Café logo.
Is it just me>