Manning, a 22 year old intelligence analyst with the U.S. military stationed in Iraq, stands accused of leaking a video depicting American troops shooting civilians to Wikileaks. The video can be seen at www.collateralmurder.com among other places online now. It’s been speculated in hte media that Manning may also be involveed in a another leak of 92,000 secret documents posted on Wikileaks, called the Afghanistan War Logs.
Courage to Resist, which supports military objectors, is assiting in the fundraising project for Manning.
The short appeal features John and Hank Green of the vlogbrothers; actor and blogger Wil Wheaton; Maureen Johnson, New York Times bestselling author for young adults and “Mashable’s Most Interesting Twitter User to Follow” (@maureenjohnson); Shawn Ahmed from the UnculturedProject, one of the most viewed and most subscribed to YouTube channels on global poverty; vloggers and musicians Kristina Horner (italktosnakes) and Luke Conard (lukeconard); and Adam Savage from Mythbusters.
“While the Internet allows people to create and share their work with the world without anyone’s permission, phone and cable companies like Comcast and AT&T want to control the Internet – deciding which content loads fast, and which doesn’t load at all. They could effectively silence artists and media makers everywhere, and you, too. ” — Megan Tady, Campaign Coordinator for Free Press.
People should be able to delete ALL their personal information and content from any website with the simple push of a button, but many social network websites including Facebook are making it more difficult to do. Read the rest of this entry…
EFA is the only independent Australian organisation with a longstanding tradition of promoting online civil liberties. EFA was established in January 1994 and incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act SA in May 1994. EFA is independent of government and commerce and is solely funded by membership subscriptions and donations from individuals and organisations with an altruistic interest in promoting online civil liberties.
Lee Griffith has a great post at Liberal Conspiracy on the Digital Economy Bill. While well worth the read for the what-if scenareo alone, it’s also got some solid tips on what to include when you write your MP about this disasterous policy shift toward totalitarianism.
Imagine a world in which you’re home repairs could land you in court because it was robbing handy workers of their right to redo your kitchen, or one in which Top Shop could sue you for making your own jumper. The Digital Economy Bill assumes criminality of anyone who is online and leaves it up to them to prove their innocence.
From Lee:
For those that are writing to your MPs, specifically point them to the areas of the bill that are problematic (and do so in your own words, it has more impact!):
If you dislike the idea of OFCOM becoming a UK internet regulation body of any “editorially controlled” content “service” – see Clause 1
If you dislike vague law that would allow unscrupulous ministers to restrict your internet access without warning after ZERO warnings, if they so chose – see Clause 6
If you dislike the idea of being cut off from your internet because someone in your house/university/workplace allegedly broke the law – see Clauses 10 and 11.
If you a) Don’t want the BPI to draft law for us or b) don’t want websites blocked by ISPs because the ISPs are blackmailed with threats of legal costs if they don’t block access to the site – see Clause 18
If you don’t want the government to have the power to take ownership of uk domain names on a vague concept of “fairness” – see Clause 19
If you dislike leaving the door open to require online games to be regulated – see Clause 41
If you’re concerned about new law being made (re: Orphan Works) that is weakened by old law not being enforced – see Clause 43
Join the Libel Reform Campaign and come to the House of Commons for a mass lobby meeting at 2pm Tuesday 23rd March. We will be joined by high profile supporters of the campaign at what will be our last chance to get commitment for libel law reform from politicians and policy makers before the election is called. Read the rest of this entry…
