...Of course it helps to have a link where you can send your letter in opposition:
http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/CISPA_IBM[/quote]It does indeed! (That's why I it right at the start of the post and not as an embedded link in the copied email.)    :tellme:

Quote from: Tinman57 on April 17, 2013, 12:02 AM

...Of course it helps to have a link where you can send your letter in opposition:
http://act.demandprogress.org/letter/CISPA_IBM[/quote]It does indeed! (That's why I it right at the start of the post and not as an embedded link in the copied email.)    :tellme:[/quote]  LOL!  The way it sets at the very top I thought that was part of something else.  That's why I always put links at the end of the article.  Anyhow, I got that same exact email today and wasn't too surprised that it had got posted here already, which is a good thing.  Hopefully people will take it to heart and at least take the time out to make their voice heard by contacting their Representatives.  BTW,  [img]http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/esmileys/gen3/1Small/doh.gif[/img]

Not only is this piece of dirt for government spying, but he also thinks of freedom loving people as, well, read on...

(b) Some people (not me you understand) might say that a senator who would malign in such a vitriolic and despising way any opponents to his proposed legislation to erode citizens' statutory rights would seem to be acting unprofessionally and against the interests of citizens, and that may indicate that he has a vested interest in the proposals getting pushed through - but I couldn't possibly comment.

[–]Selfcommit 4 points 8 hours ago
How is this not front page?

Hmm, I thought that I posted a link to CISPA passing the US House, but now I can't find it.

And, in response to Rep. Mike Rogers' accusation that CISPA opponents are just "14 year-old tweeter(s) in the basement", we thought we'd also challenge Rep. Rogers to get on live national television and debate a 14 year-old in a basement on CISPA. The search for the 14 year-old begins. Are you or do you know a 14 year-old who could totally school a congressman on this issue? Please forward this email to them!

Brickbat: Here, Sir, The People Don't Govern
Charles Oliver|Apr. 23, 2013 7:00 am

"I am the senator, you are the citizen. You need to be quiet."
That was what North Carolina state Sen. Tommy Tucker, R-Waxhaw, said to Hal Tanner. Tanner had just asked for a recorded vote from the State and Local Goverment Committee on a bill that would shift public notification of local government actions to the Internet and away from newspapers. The committee had just had a voice vote on the bill, and Tucker, the committee's co-chairman, said it had passed. Tanner, publisher of the Goldsboro New-Argus, said the bill failed the voice vote and asked for a vote on the record. Tucker denied telling Tanner to shut up, though the remark was confirmed by others at the hearing.
_____________________________

The United States Department of Defense has “claimed ownership” of CAD drawings of a plastic, printable pistol. In doing so, they apparently believe they can stop the files from existing. The result is obviously the complete opposite, which calls into strong question the judgment and ability of United States Government to set Internet policy at all.

When the public received the means of production through 3D printing, it was obvious that you could no longer regulate which objects were allowed to exist and which didn’t, just as you can no longer regulate distribution of information. Well, obvious to anybody but bureaucrats in governments who insist they cannot lose any control.

The think tank Defense Distributed has been developing 3D printer drawings for weapons parts for some time. First, they published drawings for vital parts for the AR-15 rifle (the civilian version of the military Armalite M-16) which could be printed by anybody in their homes, and then moved on to creating an all-plastic weapon which could be printed by anybody without dependence on other manufacturers, the “Liberator” in 17 parts.

This was not a matter of breaking the law of weapons regulations – this was a matter of the law having become unenforceable and obsolete through advancements in technology.

Late yesterday, the United States’ Department of Defense contacted Defense Distributed and told them that the United States government were seizing the drawings and claimed ownership of the files. This move was utterly ridiculous, as the drawings had already been published. The immediate effect was that Defense Distributed complied, and everybody else started seeding the files like wildfire. This is cause for concern – not the fact that the files exist, but that the US Government can be so completely boneheaded to think they can prevent information from existing by saying so.

The pistol drawings exist in the form of a magnet link which picks the file from whoever has them, with no central repository. The other files from Defense Distributed have also been censored by the United States government, which contain vital (printable) parts for an AR-15 and similar things, but these files are similarly available through a simple link. Predictably, their distribution has gone absolutely stratospheric.

We have long seen how the US Government is completely boneheaded and unfit to set and shape Internet policy, due to their simply not understanding of what the Internet is and how it works. This episode underscores that conclusion strongly.

Part of the reason the US doesn’t understand the Internet is because of the country’s vastly substandard infrastructure, since they have allowed cable companies and telcos to dictate what the Internet should look like (and the US is therefore far, far behind countries like Romania and Lithuania – countries that were considered near-developing countries 20 years ago, a timeframe that policymakers in Washington are apparently stuck in. We’ll be returning to that in a separate article.)

In any case, this episode shows that the US government is simply unfit to even have an opinion on shaping the future Internet.

In any case, this episode shows that the US government is simply unfit to even have an opinion on shaping the future Internet.

Quote

This week, New Zealand Commerce Minister Craig Foss bowed to pressure from software ...

"The law is an ass."
- Mr. Bumble, in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist