[act-ma] Tuesday, Dec. 6th Boston Rally to tell the Congress: Don’t Censor the Internet!

[James O'Keefe]

Congress is considering several bills that would censor the Internet and
emulate China by creating a Great Firewall of the US.

*Join us on Dec. 6th to tell the Congress: Don’t Censor the Internet!*


Noon, Tuesday, December 6th.
JFK Federal Building, Cambridge St. entrance
Next to Boston City Hall Plaza

We will bring our fight against the censoring the Internet directly to
Senator Brown’s Boston office on Tuesday, December 6th. We will meet at
noon in front of the JFK Federal Building near the Cambridge St. entrance
next to Boston City Hall Plaza. Please join us in telling Senator Brown and
the Massachusetts Congressional delegation that they must oppose efforts to
censor the Internet.

*NOTE: *Check http://www.masspirates.org/blog/dontcensorthenet/ for updated
information on this rally and efforts to stop Congress from censoring the
net.
*Posters*

We need your help to spread the word about this rally by telling your
friends, sharing this web page and putting up posters in your community.
Jeanne, Clay and Henry have put together these eye catching posters that
you can print out and put up on your own with a staple gun or clear packing
tape. Thanks!

[image: Internet Censor
Poster]<http://www.masspirates.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/InternetCensorPoster.pdf>
 [image: Seized Domain
Poster]<http://www.masspirates.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/SeizedDomain.pdf>
 [image: Internet Censorship 8 1/2 x 11
Poster]<http://www.masspirates.us/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/InternetCensorship8x11.pdf>

*Why we oppose censoring the Internet*


Our Information Packet for Senators Regarding PIPA and CFSA
<http://www.masspirates.org/blog/dontcensorthenet/information-packet-for-senators-regarding-pipa-and-cfsa/>
is available.  We hope you will find it a useful reference
when considering the implications of these harmful bills.

If passed, these laws would create a variety of ways for corporations
and the US government to censor the Internet. The Senate’s PROTECT-IP Act
(PIPA) and the House’s Stop On-line Piracy Act (SOPA) would:

   - make simply linking to an infringing website a crime;
   - allow the US to blacklist an infringing website without due process,
   by forcing third-parties to censor the website or stop doing business with
   the website;
   - extend most of these tools the US has to private copyright holders;
   - not penalize a private copyright holder if they blacklist a site in
   error;
   - not penalize a payment provider if they ignore the counterclaim of a
   blacklisted website;
   - additionally the bill’s definition of what is infringing is very loose
   and will be abused.

Also, SOPA goes farther than the PROTECT-IP bill and would also:

   - criminalize streaming of copyrighted material (potentially a 2-5 year
   jail sentence), even if it was a kid singing a song on Youtube;
   - criminalize tools that could be used to circumvent SOPA including VPNs
   and the TOR network<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111111/17543116729/sopa-its-broad-regulation-vpns-proxies-other-important-tools.shtml>
   ;
   - decrease the security of the domain name system every computer uses to
   look up host names.

This rally is being organized by the Massachusetts Pirate Party.
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