(Source: inothernews)

knowyourmeme:

True story: Polish Parliament members who oppose ACTA are awesome.

KYMdb - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

hnmt:

There will be no such thing as privacy if this passes. Watch the whole thing, then go research on the new censorship acts!

Sign the petition here!

This is an excellent video.  In an Internet operating under ACTA, sharing this or any other content would be greatly altered.

sirlestrange:

(Source: dancingpurge)

realemotionx:

hostilities:

bellafaim:

In a radical privacy policy shift, Google announced today that it will begin tracking users across all services—email, Search, YouTube and more—sharing information with no option to opt out. The change was announced in a blog post today, and will go into effect March 1.

For what little it’s worth (and not entirely related to this particular privacy issue), you can install a target-ad opt-out extension for your browser here.  We shouldn’t have to opt out of information tracking in the first place, but this is a start.  Perhaps we should all start surfing in Anonymous mode?

Can someone please explain to me why this is evil? What are we doing that is soooo important or bad that Google shouldn’t know about it. I really appreciate targeted ads, it means less “PENIS ENLARGEMENT” in ad boxes around the web.

Google is just mediocre at this point.  

From an information retrieval standpoint, this means Google will start tailoring what it offers you in searches and suggestions to what it thinks you seek.  Understanding a user’s information need is a tricky business.  In reference service, librarians (like me!) are trained to promote access to resources through a reference interview and make sure a user has a wide array of options to fulfill that information need without hindering their search or available resources.  Knowledge is power, as they say.  

A set of algorithms set by a corporation shouldn’t be doing that job for us based on our web history; it’s a conflict of interest.  My Google search shouldn’t be modified by the fact that some company has a sponsored result that I once happened to click on, for example.

This, you guys, is why Google does not replace libraries.

bellafaim:

In a radical privacy policy shift, Google announced today that it will begin tracking users across all services—email, Search, YouTube and more—sharing information with no option to opt out. The change was announced in a blog post today, and will go into effect March 1.

For what little it’s worth (and not entirely related to this particular privacy issue), you can install a target-ad opt-out extension for your browser here.  We shouldn’t have to opt out of information tracking in the first place, but this is a start.  Perhaps we should all start surfing in Anonymous mode?

This way, when OPEN or perhaps a non-NDS-version of SOPA is passed, if you break the rules, you will be hunted down, regardless of where you live or operate since this also includes international domain names.

(Well, what I’ve sent Snowe so far because Collins’ website is broken.  If you would like to borrow some bits of this to contact your senators, go for it.  I am not claiming intellectual property rights here.)

I am writing to voice opposition to S. 968, the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA).  This act will do little to impede piracy or intellectual property theft, but will hinder communications and the free flow of information on the Internet.  As a library science student, I believe in the importance of open access to information as vital to freedom and democracy.  Censoring the Internet through PIPA draws parallels between the United States and countries like China and Iran, which limit their citizens’ access to information via staunch Internet controls.  

Please vote against PIPA to protect Internet freedom.  Thank you for your time and service to our state and nation.

Keep pressure on your senators regarding PIPA.

(Source: flamboyantgentleman)

wilwheaton:

According to a report by the Knight-Batten Award-winning nonprofit MAPLight, the 32 sponsors of the bill received just under $2 million in campaign contributions from the movie, music, and TV entertainment industries.

To put that in perspective, this weekend’s box office take for Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (you can’t make this stuff up) took in $23 million in just one weekend. So, for less than a tenth of the take from Alvin and the Chipmunks, our congress-critters have let themselves be influenced by a historically and unendingly regressive group of trade organizations.

By the way, if you calculate up the contributions the tech industry has made to these same 32 “lawmakers,” you’ll find the total to be $524,977 — one fourth the amount contributed by the entertainment industry.

Despite all the cries from tech experts throughout the United States, Congress is still doing its best to pass SOPA. Is there a correlation? Are our elected representatives paying four times more attention to the entertainment industry compared to us in technology? You be the judge.

tl;dr: A handful of congress-critters (Lamar Smith, Joe Baca, Howard Berman, Marsha Blackburn, Mary Bono Mack, John Carter, Steven Chabot, John Conyers, Jim Cooper, Elton Gallegly, Robert Goodlatte, Tim Holden, Peter King, John Larson, Adam Schiff, Brad Sherman, Lee Terry, Melvin Watt, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, John Barrow, Steve Scalise, Ben Luján, Judy Chu, William Owens, Karen Bass, Ted Deutch, Ben Quayle, Tim Griffin, Dennis Ross, Alan Nunnelee, Thomas Marino, and Mark Amodei.) took an average of $524,977 each from lobbyists to sponsor SOPA. Even though the people they represent overwhelmingly oppose SOPA and don’t want it to become law, they’re still doing everything they can to pass it, against the wishes of their constituents — who they supposedly represent — because it’s what they were paid off to do.

This is yet another reason we need a revolution in America. We need to burn it to the ground and start over, eliminating corporate money and lobbyists from the political process entirely.

The job of our elected officials is to represent the wishes of their constituents.  If they can’t do that, then we need to elect new representatives.  Furthermore, YES we need to keep corporate money out of politics!

these are actual people you are talking about

living their lives

occasionally making funny videos

you don’t know them

get a grip

journo-geekery:

US judge orders hundreds of sites “de-indexed” from Google, Facebook

After a series of one-sided hearings, luxury goods maker Chanel has won recent court orders against hundreds of websites trafficking in counterfeit luxury goods. A federal judge in Nevada has agreed that Chanel can seize the domain names in question and transfer them all to US-based registrar GoDaddy. The judge also ordered “all Internet search engines” and “all social media websites”—explicitly naming Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Bing, Yahoo, and Google—to “de-index” the domain names and to remove them from any search results.

The case has been a remarkable one. Concerned about counterfeiting, Chanel has filed a joint suit in Nevada against nearly 700 domain names that appear to have nothing in common. When Chanel finds more names, it simply uses the same case and files new requests for more seizures. (A recent November 14 order went after an additional 228 sites; none had a chance to contest the request until after it was approved and the names had been seized.)

Via Hillary Hartley on G+, where she adds, “Why wait for SOPA?”

You may want to write to your Congresspeople now.

bbbrad:

shortformblog:

Tumblr just put up this site warning people about the dangers of PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Read up, kids. This is important.

Wow! This is great work.

Take the five minutes to make a call to your representative. This is a big deal ya’ll!

You can also write to your representatives by going here, if you’re like me and can’t make a phone call from work right now.  Personalize your e-mail!  I told my representatives (Sens. Snowe and Collins and Rep. Michaud) that I’m a library science student and that the free flow of information is vital to ensuring freedom and promoting democracy.  This is what it looks like to have your liberty trampled upon, kids.

As a side note, I really wish Congress would work on prosecuting the crooks in big business, creating jobs, protecting the most vulnerable populations, and promoting sustainability, don’t you?  That might be a more valuable use of their time.