Up The People

Stop SOPA

ehouston — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:26:53 +0000

I cannot be the only one who is upset by this new SOPA bill that congress started considering yesterday, November 16th. This is a bill that proports, at least on the surface, to be “targeting the theft of US property by foreign agents”. This is hogwash! The bill sets up a system to punish sites allegedly “dedicated to the theft of US property.” Huh? How do you determine that a site is “dedicated to the theft of US property.”? Hmmmmm…. The criteria listed is as follows.
be directed toward the US, and either
allegedly “engage in, enable or facilitate” infringement or
allegedly be taking or have taken steps to “avoid confirming a high probability” of infringement.

Let’s take a close look at the third line. What the hell does that mean?? The truth is that could mean almost anything. This bill would allow the government to shut down sites at will. It is so loosely worded that almost any site can be judged in violation! All it takes is someone to file a complaint. The bill doesn’t state that the complainant need have an invested interested in the US Property. They just need to file a complaint. And remember, this is the Internet we are talking about, how do you determine what is a “foreign agent”?

To illustrate, I will post a portion of the letter I have sent my congressman. This is not exactly a hypothetical situation. It is my situation, I just have not been judged in “violation” yet, but under the SOPA bill, I could.

I have a domain name which I legally purchased from Go Daddy, a US based registrar. Anyone doing a “who-is” on my domain will see the ownership as a US based address. It just so happens that I am an author who routinely writes under a pseudonym, as many do, for many reasons. My particular reason doesn’t matter here. I have written a story under my pseudonym that I and I want to offer a link to that story on my domain. Ok.. This is a fairly large download so I offer it via magnet link on Pirate Bay. Hmmm…interesting, now we’ve dragged Sweden into the mess. Now, some morally upstanding person with a serious ‘do-gooder’ mentality visits my website and finds the link to the download. They are outraged, incensed! They report that copyrighted intellectual property, belonging to my pseudonym is being offered on Pirate Bay, a “foreign agent”, and the infringement is being enabled through a US site. Let’s see if we have this. We have an (should be) uninterested third party reporting what they think is pirated US property being offered by a foreign agent. What do you think will happen?

We will have a Government bureaucrat who hasn’t a clue which end is up, jumping up and down thinking here is a chance he can make a name for himself and justify yet another agency. You might think the blow will fall on Pirate Bay, and it will, but it will also fall on me. Why? Because I posted a link to the download, thereby facilitating the theft. Do you really think that Government bureaucrat is going to take the time to trace everything and find out the story actually belongs to me? The government isn’t going to go to that much trouble. They may do a dns lookup on the domain to find out whose life they can ruin. The owner of the domain is not going to be the same name as the byline on the story. All they want to know is that we have a US domain (registered to my real name) posting a link (enable or facilitating infringement) to a foreign based site with a “high probability” of enabling infringement. So the Government shuts down my site, takes my domain, charges me a huge fine and sends me to prison for X years for doing what I want with my own property. Can I fight it? Sure…I have a whole five days to do so. They don’t have to prove anything, all they have to have is a “reported infringement” and they can shut down your site and take your domain name and you are given no time to mount a defense. The chances are that, truthfully, mounting a defense won’t make a difference. It will be years before they get around to investigating anything. And once they finish investigating, if they ever do, you wouldn’t get so much as an apology. Truth be told, they will never investigate. They shut you down and that will be it.

One step ahead, two back.

ehouston — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:25:30 +0000

I’m afraid that feeling of powerlessness is creeping in again. The feeling that the average person has some chance a against the “have alls” is fading in the aftermath of the violent actions against the various enclaves of the Occupy movement. There is not a chance in the world that those of us who live on less at 50K a year have say in the way our government is being run. We are vitrual slaves for those 1% who have 99% of the worlds wealth. We have no defense other than to die. Those that have all the money have not bothered to look ahead far enough to realize that when we are all gone, there will be no one left for them to victimize. Yes, they can have all the jobs mechanized to make up for the fact that there are no more workers, but who will buy the products? Where will their wealth come from once no one has any money to buy things? Once the banks have foreclosed on all the homes, who will they sell them to? How many houses can the wealthy live in at the same time? They will have to find something else to satisfy their greed. I think the Mayan prediction of everything ending in 2012 is about right. Only, it will not be a physical ending of the earth, but a collapse of the the worldwide economic structure. If you look at the so-called ‘World Powers’, we are well on our way. Greece and Italy have riots in the street in protest of their economic situation. Most of Europe is in turmoil and now the United States is following.

Our so-called “elected officials” have essentially told us that what we wish no longer matters to them. You look at the current situation and it is patently ridiculous! If you have been watching some of the discussion panels that have been going on, you can see that the economic authorities have got it figured out. Our current president can’t take any action to better our situation about it because the House and Senate are more concerned with voting along party lines than with doing what is best for our country. That means the Republicans in Congress are going to automatically veto his every idea, no matter how good, because he is a Democrat. Professional politicians don’t care what the people want. They are in the business of securing their political contributions even if it is contrary to the welfare of those they are supposed to represent. They don’t care what is expressed in the election. They care about the wants of those who can pad their pocketbooks. At least the republican candidates are honest enough to tell us they don’t care. They are absolutely honest about saying they want to make sure the wealthy get even wealthier, and the middle class needs to die off. Their attitude is if you can’t afford to see a doctor, you should just die. If you can’t afford to send your child to a private school, then you have no need of education. They like the uneducated, they can be manipulated and tricked into doing anything and won’t give them any trouble. Right now, they see the average person as uneducated, unable to understand what is going on. Right now that is not the case, but if Rick Perry has his way, in a few years it will be.

We have let ourselves be put in this position. The design of our government provides for a system of checks and balances so no one faction can take over. We are out of balance because no one is willing to sacrifice their own interests for the good of the country as a whole. You can bet our ‘founding fathers’ would be totally disgusted. They were willing to give up their lives for the good of the country. Today’s politicians aren’t willing to give up their third swimming pool, much less their lives.

Probably what we need in the country is a new start. I would say we could just fire this current crop of congressmen via the ballot box, but we have already seen that the popular vote no longer counts in this country. The political machine just puts whoever they want in office. We certainly don’t elect the Electoral College, they are appointed by the people currently in office, who are, of course, determined to stay in office.

We should start looking ahead to what we want to have happen after the collapse, which, according to the Mayan calendar is only a year away. More on that tomorrow.

A death at Occupy Oakland

ehouston — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:49:33 +0000

This evening a young man was shot and killed near the Occupy Oakland site shortly before 5pm. A short time late, Mayor Jean Quan, who has been under fire from every quarter, made an appearance claiming that this was proof that it was time for the occupation to end. The man was not a part of the actual occupation and no further details on the perpetrators was available.

Am I the only one who wonders at how convenient this is? Jean Quan, whose public approval rating has dipped to less than 20% and t against who a recall movement is building, needs an excuse to shut down the occupy movement. Then, just as the media is getting set for their broadcast, someone is conveniently shot and killed just in time to prove her point. Is it possible that the assailants were off duty police? Or better yet, undercover police? Back in the 60′s, it was a popular police tactic to place undercover police in the crowds to incite disobedience. Then they would point to the protestors as the culprits. It was used very effectively by the FBI and the CIA. It was was later revealed that the police had actually incited the Kent State massacre. We all knew they were there and we even knew who some of them were. We knew to be careful of them. Remember that Law Enforcement has nothing to do with justice. It is all about power. And that is a direct quote from someone in a high position in law enforcement.

Shame on you, Jean Quan. Is it really worth a young man’s life to try to prove that you know what your’re doing? I think it’s too late for that.

A ray of hope in troubled times!

ehouston — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:25:32 +0000

After feeling powerless against the big corporations for so many years, it is wonderful to see the solidarity in the Occupy Wall Street movement. There is strength in numbers. For years, corporate America has run roughshod over the public believing that, because they had the money they also had the power. They seem to have forgotten that it was the American Public that gave them the money and the American public can take it away..It is time we stood together to take back our country

You can only push people so far before they will turn and fight and that is what is happening now. Our government officials have forgotten that they are supposed to be working for us, not the other way around. They serve at our pleasure. Now the people are fighting back. I say Yippee!!