Dear Word Press Editors,
WordPress.org is officially joining the protest against Senate Bill 968: the Protect IP Act that is coming before the U.S. Senate next week. As I wrote in my post a week ago, if this bill is passed it will jeopardize internet freedom and shift the power of the independent web into the hands of corporations. We must stop it.
On January 18, 2012 many sites around the web — from small personal blogs to internet institutions like Mozilla, Wikipedia, reddit, and I Can Has Cheezburger? – will be going dark in protest and to drive their visitors to sites like americancensorship.org to take action and help fight the passage of the Protect IP Act. So will WordPress.org.
While joining the protest in this manner is laudable, please don’t forget to also make those phone calls to U.S. Senators — they’re the ones with the voting power.
Take action at americancensorship.org!
Signed, Jane Wells, WordPress.org SedonaEye.com Editor: SedonaEye.com is a Word Press Site. Sedona Eye LLC and the Sedona Times Publishing LLC support a free and independent global web. We ask that our Arizona U.S. Senators vote no on Senate Bill 968 cloture. To voice an opinion, Arizona U.S. Senators may be contacted as follows: Senator John McCain, 241 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510 and Senator Jon Kyl, 730 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington DC 20510. Both Senate offices may be reached by calling 202-224-2235.
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If you are not freaked out by SOPA/PIPA, please for the next four minutes, instead of checking Facebook statuses, seeing who mentioned you on Twitter, or watching the latest episode of Sherlock*, watch this video http://FightfortheFuture.org.
Dear Sedona Times Publishing,
Can you believe this? After the largest online protest in history, the Obama administration is still voicing support for SOPA.
We promised to ask for your help if SOPA returned. We’re asking now. This kind of backtracking demands a strong, fast response. We’re running a petition to demand that Obama drop all support for internet censorship.
Our goal? Get more signatures than the top petition on whitehouse.gov — 151,000 signatures. Tell Obama to promise: “I will never advance legislation that blocks websites or disconnects Americans’ internet access.”
What is the White House working on exactly? Just the other day, the administration sent a letter to Congress to demonstrate their support for new internet censorship legislation. A few weeks ago, the White House struck a deal to give corporations private powers to shut down your internet connection (after “six strikes” without due process or judicial review), completely in secret.
Obama’s internet would let private companies block sites and turn off our web connections. Blocking websites censors free speech, hurts jobs, and breaks the internet. These are tactics used by totalitarian governments and we believe they’re never ok.
Let’s get more signatures than any petition on whitehouse.gov.
As Wired noted*, “The White House did say that it wouldn’t endorse a bill that endangers freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risks, or negatively affects the DNS system. On the other hand, it says elsewhere that “combating online infringement” — not protecting free speech — is a governmental priority “of the highest order.” What about free speech, Obama?
Sign the petition now, then share it to keep the internet strong. Our friends need to know where the President is currently standing on SOPA.
We couldn’t have stopped SOPA and PIPA without you and all of your friends! And we can’t do it without you now. Let’s make sure SOPA 2.0 never gets written.
Thank you,
Tiffiniy, Zak, Fight for the Future!