A thank you from Demand Progress

From Demand Progress:

Some updates, and a request: The House passed CISPA, but that's as far as the bill will go, at least in its present, privacy-obliterating form:

HUFFINGTON POST: Senate Won't Vote On CISPA, Deals Blow To Controversial Cyber Bill.

We played a huge part in this, with Demand Progress members sending more that 200,000 emails to Congress in opposition to CISPA.

But the fight isn't over yet. There's a good chance the Senate will take up some sort of cyber security legislation later this year -- but we've cultivated strong relationships with several senators who really do care about privacy rights, so we'll have real standing there when the time comes. And, of course, we won't hesitate to ask you to weigh in.

And as a reminder for those of you who missed the successful conclusion of our week of action earlier this month: We told you about that frightening new proposal that actually would have expanded and harshened the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act -- the law that makes it a potential federal crime to violate a website's fine-print terms of service agreement.

We asked you to help us stop it in its tracks.

Well, here's the big headline:

HUFFINGTON POST: Internet Activists Win First-Round Victory In Fight Over Anti-Hacking Law

It required a mad (exhausting) fury of activism and lobbying, but it looks like we've won this battle.

This rally capped off a couple of weeks of activism in opposition to that expansion proposal and in support of CFAA reform -- which included 150,000 or so emails to Congress, thousands of tweets and phone calls, and a dozen meetings on Capitol Hill with key Congressional offices.

As the Huffington Post reported:

Internet activists won a major victory this week when House Republicans put the brakes on an effort to vote on reforms to federal anti-hacking laws. The reforms had become a legislative flashpoint in the wake of the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who was facing a bevy of charges under the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) before committing suicide in January.

So as you can see, our work together is having a concrete impact. The ground has shifted in our favor, on the CFAA, CISPA, and on Internet freedom in general.

We shocked the political establishment by responding to the new CFAA proposal so quickly, and we have ever-growing credibility and clout with policymakers and the media as we make our case about these issues that we all hold so dear.

But we'll of course need to keep pressing forward. We still want to achieve positive reform of the CFAA. We still need to watchdog the Senate as they consider taking up cyber security legislation of their own. We're expecting movement in the Net Neutrality fight in coming months.

And we'll keep working to defend our civil liberties more broadly, as reactionaries try to exploit fear to constrain our freedom and undermine constitutional protections.

Thanks.

Demand Progress

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It looks like our activism is paying off. We let the statists know we mean business,that will rise up and protect our rights and that they better take their crap somewhere else like outside our borders.