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.

Reform the CFAA

From Demand Progress:

It's a slap in the face: The whole Internet is clamoring for reform of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act because it stifles innovation and even imprisons activists and innovators like Aaron Swartz. (And could easily have been used against Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and countless others.)

So what are some Republicans in the House thinking about doing? Expanding it, and instituting even harsher penalties.

This is completely unacceptable.

Click here to tell your lawmakers to oppose harsher CFAA penalties.

The new law would heighten penalties -- creating the possibility of up to 30 years in prison for a single broadly-defined offense -- make it easy to be considered a conspirator, and entrench law enforcement's assertions that they should be able to put you in prison for violating terms of serivce agreements!

This is an awful affront to all of the work we've been doing and to the cries for justice in the wake of Aaron's passing. Please help us beat this thing down!

Read more about the CFAA fiasco here

Sign the petition here

This is definitely from "what the fuck" department. I guess Congress fancies themselves to be rulers over the people and that the people better just shut up. I think they should take a civics course because that is NOT how it's done in this country. It's We The People so let's remind them of that. If you agree with us sign the petition. The freedom you preserve may be your own.