We take back the internet

From Demand Progress:

In January 2012 we defeated the SOPA and PIPA censorship legislation with the largest Internet protest in history. A year ago this Saturday one of that movement's leaders, Demand Progress's cofounder Aaron Swartz, tragically passed away.
Today we face a different threat, one that undermines the Internet, and the notion that any of us live in a genuinely free society: mass surveillance.

We miss Aaron dearly. If he were alive, he'd be on the front lines, fighting against a world in which governments observe, collect, and analyze our every digital action.

Now, in honor of Aaron on the eve of the anniversary of his passing, and in celebration of the win against SOPA and PIPA that he helped make possible, we are announcing a day of protest against mass surveillance, to take place this February 11th.

We can think of no way that he'd rather be honored than one that might have such a positive impact on the world.

We're calling it, simply, The Day We Fight Back.

You can visit the hub website we're building to support this effort at TheDayWeFightBack.org. It'll let you know how to help.

Meanwhile, right now: Aaron's friend Cory Doctorow, the filmmaker Brian Knappenberger -- whose film about Aaron will premiere at Sundance this month -- and representatives from Demand Progress and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are on reddit to talk about Aaron and the work we will do to honor him -- and push back against the NSA -- over the next month.

Click here to join the chat, and vote it up to make sure it's seen by as many people as possible.

As was often the case, Aaron said it best: “[We defeated SOPA] because everyone made themselves the hero of their own story. Everyone took it as their job to save this crucial freedom. They threw themselves into it. They did whatever they could think of to do.”

In the last 6 months we’ve seen that government agencies, namely the NSA and GCHQ and others, have broken laws and twisted legal interpretations to create an infrastructure of mass surveillance of all of us online.

This creates a dark form of censorship, of course, as people become afraid to speak freely-- and it’s one that undermines our security and our right to privacy as well. As users of the Internet, we have a responsibility to defend its freedom.

With SOPA, we had a clear goal: defeat a specific bill. In this case, we have to take a first step. We have some promising bills (like the USA Freedom Act) and terrible ones (the FISA Improvements Act). But we need our legislators to hear from people who love the Internet that we won’t stand by and let it be turned into a giant tool for mass surveillance. We need to push them to have the courage to support comprehensive reform. The kind of courage Aaron showed us all.

So today, on the eve of the anniversary of Aaron’s passing, we’d like to ask you to join us in stepping up to the plate once again in defense of a free, open and secure internet, where no one has to watch over their shoulder for big brother.

In memory of Aaron, and looking back to the successes of the SOPA campaign, we’d like to ask you to join us in a month of action, culminating in a day of action on February 11th. Here's what we need you to do today:

1) Visit TheDayWeFightBack.org to join in the activism.

2) And click here to join us, Cory Doctorow, Brian Knappenberger, and EFF to talk about Aaron and the activism we're going to undertake to honor him.

In solidarity,

Demand Progress

A father's plea

From Demand Progress:

Over the past five months, I have been heartened to see the memory of my son galvanizing such a powerful movement for change. I can tell you, it's what Aaron would have wanted.

It has been your efforts that have led some lawmakers to pursue an investigation of Aaron's vindictive, cruel and disproportionate prosecution. When the Justice Department appeared before the Judiciary Committee to discuss Aaron's case, Senators Patrick Leahy, John Cornyn, and Al Franken all pushed for answers. And for that they deserve thanks.

Click here to join me in thanking these Senators for their efforts and urge them to keep pushing for answers about Aaron's unjust prosecution.

At the request of these senators, the Department of Justice recently briefed Senate Judiciary Committee staffers on their prosecution of Aaron -- but more questions remain.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: my son was destroyed by a system and prosecutors that still don’t understand the nature of what they did.

They destroyed my son by their callousness and inflexibility.

Click here to thank those lawmakers who've aided our effort to expose the absurd and abusive nature of Aaron's prosecution.

The work of changing that system -- of getting answers to our unanswered questions about Aaron's prosectution -- remains before us.

For now, it's important that those lawmakers who've already joined our cause know that we are thankful, and that we will continue to stand with them as they use their power to hold the DOJ to account and seek justice for Aaron.

Click here to join me in thanking them for pursuing the investigation, and let them know that we'll stand with them as they keep pressing forward.

Thank you,

Bob Swartz

Petition:click here

We won the first round against the CFAA

From Demand Progress:

Alright. This email should serve as a pick-me-up.

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.

And we're fresh off of our rally in Boston this afternoon -- we went offline and took to the streets. And as you can see from this photo, it was a great success.

We rallied downtown and marched to the court house where Aaron's trial would've been coming to a close this week, and demanded criminal justice reform and accountability for the prosecutors.

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 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. In addition to the CFAA, we need to return our focus fighting the privacy-obliterating cyber-snooping CISPA bill this week, and there's much more on the horizon.

Thanks.

Demand Progress

Good news indeed. This shows activism pays off. Now only if MRA's did the same thing.

CFAA: fix don't expand

From Demand Progress:

1. Tell Congress:
Don't Expand the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Fix It!

And scroll down to join the Internet-wide week of action by embedding our contact-Congress widget on your site.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is the law under which Aaron Swartz and other innovators and activists have been threatened with decades in prison. The CFAA is so broad that law enforcement says it criminalizes all sorts of mundane Internet use: Potentially even breaking a website's fine print terms of service agreement. Don't set up a Myspace page for your cat. Don't fudge your height on a dating site. Don't share your Facebook password with anybody: You could be committing a federal crime. (Read more here.)

It's the vagueness and over breadth of this law that allows prosecutors to go after people like Aaron Swartz, who tragically committed suicide earlier this year. The government threatened to jail him for decades for downloading academic articles from the website JSTOR.

Since Aaron's death, activists have cried out for reform of the CFAA. But members of the House Judiciary Committee are actually floating a proposal to expand and strengthen it -- that could come up for a vote as soon as April 10th! (Read more here.)

Add your name at right to join us in telling Congress to defeat the bill to expand the CFAA, and to pass a law to reform it to protect innovators and ordinary Internet users. If you have a website, please consider embedding our banner or widget on your site to encourage your visitors to join the cause.

2. Use Our Widgets To Encourage Your Site's Visitors To Join The Cause
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Starting on Monday, April 8th, we're asking sites across the web to join in a week of action, led by the Internet Defense League (the same groups that helped lead the fight against SOPA).

Please consider using our widgets to spread the word. They're easy to embed on your site and will help us drive thousands of constituent contacts to Congress.

We're asking sites to put them up on Monday, April 8th, and keep them up for as long as possible.

3. Help Spread The Word: Put Yourself "In Jail" On Facebook
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We've built a playful way for you to spread word about the CFAA and ask your friends to get involved.

In solidarity with those who've been threatened with prison under the CFAA, we're asking you to "jail" yourself on Facebook. We'll grab your profile photo, overlay prison bars on top of it, and repost it to your wall so your friends can see it. We'll include information about how the CFAA threatens ordinary Internet users -- and how your friends can join our fight.

The CFAA makes it a potential federal crime to violate a website's terms of service. Help make sure your friends know how ridiculous this law is, and how it jeopardizes us all.

To sign petition click here

It seems like everytime I turn around the government is playing little fucking statists games. It is a bipartisan effort so no one is innocent. That is why watchdog groups are needed to keep the government honest. The best way we can keep the government honest is by signing that petition.

Let's demand answers in the death of Aaron Swartz

Tens of thousands of people have used the White House's petition site to demand that President Obama fire Aaron Swartz's prosecutor Carmen Ortiz -- easily surpassing the 25,000 signature threshold that's supposed to guarantee a response.

Aaron died more than two weeks ago, but the White House still hasn't even issued a statement.

We've been waiting far too long. Help us demand answers from the White House. It's enough already: They need to respond to our calls and fire Ortiz.

Just click here to tell the White House to stop stonewalling and fire Ortiz.

There's actually some good news to report: The House Oversight Committee has responded to our requests and is calling for a briefing on Aaron's prosecution from the Department of Justice.

That's because what happened to Aaron looks far more like a persecution than a prosecution: Ortiz wanted him to serve upwards of 35 years in federal prison for downloading too many ACADEMIC ARTICLES.

We've demanded answers, Congress is demanding answers. It's time for the White House to stop ignoring us.

Click here to tell the White House to stop stonewalling and fire Ortiz already!

To sign the petitions click here

35+ simply for downloading academic articles? If he wasn't doing anything illegal why the heavy-handed methods? The government did what it could to silence him. There are some that are saying Swartz was the recipient of an assisted suicide.