Saturday, February 26, 2011

When the Internet Nearly Fractured, and How It Could Happen Again | Atlantic Mobile

Interview regarding RAND corps report on who will be next Supreme Leader #iranelections #freeiran #iranuprising #tcot #irannuclear

Who Will Be Iran’s Next Supreme Leader? - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2011


http://www.rferl.org/content/who_will_be_irans_next_supreme_leader/2321704.html


RRD:The report itself.


The Next Supreme Leader | RAND


http://m.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1052.html

Posted via email from Americans for Freedom in Iran

YouTube - On #Tunisia 's Border, Preparations Begin for #Gadhafi's Fall, Chaos in #Libya #feb17 #tripoli #p2 #tcot

YouTube - #Libya : Officials report mass killings of thousands #feb14 #tripoli

AFP: #Iran opposition websites post calls for new protests #iranelections

#Iran unloading fuel from Bushehr reactor - CNN.com #iranelections #tcot

Friday, February 25, 2011

YouTube - Raw Video: Day 7 of Protests in Bahrain

Bernard Lewis on the Middle-East revolt & #Iran #egypt #iranelections #jan25 #tcot #womensrights

RRD:I am posting this because of Lewis's eminence in the field of Middle-Eastern studies.My posting it should not be taken as a endorsement of everything he says.

Professor Lewis criticizes the equating of elections with freedom.He urges the US to abstain from pushing for elections,which he thinks will benefit Islamist parties.Instead,he advises the Egyptian people to focus on reviving the tradition of "consultation",between the leadership & various sectors of society.He believes the prominent role of women in the Tunisia uprising offers hope for the success of that revolt.
He condemns the Muslim Brotherhood.Finally he offers suggestions on how to help the Iranian people against their regime.
(And before you ask,no I haven't copied the whole thing,it's a very long interview.)

Bernard Lewis on the Middle-East revolt A mass expression of outrage against injustice


http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=209770

....." In the West, we tend to get excessively concerned with elections, regarding the holding of elections as the purest expression of democracy, as the climax of the process of democratization. Well, the second may be true –the climax of the process. But the process can be a long and difficult one. Consider, for example, that democracy was fairly new in Germany in the inter-war period and Hitler came to power in a free and fair election. We, in the Western world particularly, tend to think of democracy in our own terms –that’s natural and normal –to mean periodic elections in our style. But I think it’s a great mistake to try and think of the Middle East in those terms and that can only lead to disastrous results, as you’ve already seen in various places. They are simply not ready for free and fair elections. One of the most moving experiences of my life was in the year 1950, most of which I spent in Turkey. That was the time when the Turkish government held a f
ree
and genuinely fair election –the election of 1950 –in which that government was defeated, and even more remarkably the government then quietly and decently withdrew from power and handed over power to the victorious opposition. What followed I can only describe as catastrophic. Adnan Menderes, the leader of the party which won the election, which came to power by their success in the election, soon made it perfectly clear that he had no intention whatever of leaving by the same route by which he had come, that he regarded this as a change of regime, and that he had no respect at all for the electoral process. And people in Turkey began to realize this. I remember vividly sitting one day in the faculty lounge at the school of political sciences in Ankara. This would have been after several years of the Menderes regime. We were sitting in the faculty lounge with some of the professors discussing the history of different political institutions and forms. And one of them sudd
enly
said, to everyone’s astonishment, “Well, the father of democracy in Turkey is Adnan Menderes.” The others looked around in bewilderment. They said, “Adnan Menderes, the father of Turkish democracy ? What do you mean ?” Well, said this professor, “he raped the mother of democracy.” It sounds much better in Turkish... This happened again and again and again. You win an election because an election is forced on the country. But it is seen as a one-way street. Most of the countries in the region are not yet ready for elections."....

...."If there’s a genuinely free election –assuming that such a thing could happen –the religious parties have an immediate advantage. First, they have a network of communication through the preacher and the mosque which no other political tendency can hope to equal. Second, they use familiar language. The language of Western democracy is for the most part newly translated and not intelligible to the great masses. In genuinely fair and free elections, [the Muslim parties] are very likely to win and I think that would be a disaster. A much better course would be a gradual development of democracy, not through general elections, but rather through local self -governing institutions. For that, there is a real tradition in the region. If you look at the history of the Middle East in the Islamic period, and if you look at their own political literature, it is totally against authoritarian or absolutist rule. The word they always insist on is consultation. This is not just a matter
of theory. There’s a remarkable passage, for example, in the report of a French ambassador to the sultan of Turkey a few years before the French Revolution. The French ambassador was instructed by his government to press the Turkish government in certain negotiations and was making very slow progress. Paris said angrily, “Why don’t you do something ?” The ambassador replied that “you must understand that here things are not as they are in France, where the king is sole master and does as he pleases. Here, the sultan has to consult with the holders of high office. He has to consult with the retired former holders of high office. He has to consult with the merchants, the craft guilds and all sorts of other groups.” This is absolutely true. It’s an extraordinarily revealing and informative passage and the point comes up again and again through the 19th and 20th centuries. You have this traditional system of consultation with groups which are not democratic as we us
e that
word in the Western world, but which have a source of authority other than the state –authority which derives from within the group, whether it be the landed gentry or the civil service, or the scribes or whatever. That’s very important. And that form of consultation could be a much better basis for the development of free and civilized government. "....

RRD:Asked what the US should do:

..." I’d rather take it from the other side and say what signals you should not be sending. And that is not pressing for elections. This idea that a general election, Western-style, is a solution to all these problems, seems to me a dangerous fallacy which can only lead to disaster. I think we should let them do it their way by consultative groups. There are various kinds. There are all sorts of possibilities. It’s happening now in Iraq, for example."....


....." There is a great deal of talk nowadays about consultation. That is very much part of the tradition. The sort of authoritarian, even dictatorial regimes, that rule most of the countries in the modern Islamic Middle East, are a modern creation. They are a result of modernization. The pre -modern regimes were much more open, much more tolerant. You can see this from a number of contemporary descriptions. And the memory of that is still living. It was a British naval officer called Slade who put it very well. He was comparing the old order with the new order, created by modernization. He said that “in the old order, the nobility lived on their estates. In the new order, the state is the estate of the new nobility.” I think that puts it admirably. "....

RRD:On the concepts of Freedom & Justice:


...." In the Western world, we talk all the time about freedom. In the Islamic world, freedom is not a political term. It’s a legal term: Freedom as opposed to slavery. This was a society in which slavery was an accepted institution existing all over the Muslim world. You were free if you were not a slave. It was entirely a legal and social term, with no political connotation whatsoever. You can see in the ongoing debate in Arabic and other languages the puzzlement with which the use of the term freedom was first perceived. They just didn’t understand it. I mean, what does this have to do with politics or government ? Eventually, they got the message. But it’s still alien to them. In Muslim terms, the aim of good government is justice. The major contrast is not between freedom and tyranny, between freedom and servitude, but between justice and oppression. Or if you like, between justice and injustice. If one follows that particular discourse in the Arab and more general
ly the
Muslim world, it would be more illuminating."...
...." Corruption and oppression are corruption and oppression by whichever system you define them. There’s not much difference between their definition of corruption and our definition of corruption. "....


On Women in the Middle-East & Tunisia:


...." There’s one other group of people that I think one should bear in mind when considering the future of the Middle East, and that is women. The case has been made, and I think there is some force in it, that the main reason for the relative backwardness of the Islamic world compared to the West is the treatment of women. As far as I know, it was first made by a Turkish writer called Namik Kemal in about 1880. At that time an agonizing debate had been going on for more than a century: What went wrong? Why did we fall behind the West ? He said, “The answer is very clear. We fell behind the West because of the way we treat our women. By the way we treat our women we deprive ourselves of the talents and services of half the population. And we submit the early education of the other half to ignorant and downtrodden mothers.” It goes further than that. A child who grows up in a traditional Muslim household is accustomed to authoritarian, autocratic rule from the start. I
think
the position of women is of crucial importance. That is why I am looking with great interest at Tunisia. Tunisia is the one Arab country that has really done something about women. In Tunisia there is compulsory education for girls, from primary school, right through. In Tunisia, women are to be found in the professions. There are doctors, lawyers, journalists, politicians and so on. Women play a significant part in public life in Tunisia. I think that is going to have an enormous impact. It’s already having this in Tunisia and you can see that in various ways. But this will certainly spread to other parts of the world. Elsewhere, the question of women and the role of the women is of crucial importance for the future of the Muslim world in general."....

RRD:On the Muslim Brotherhood:


..." To say that they’re secular would show an astonishing ignorance of the English lexicon. I don’t think [the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt] is in any sense benign. I think it is a very dangerous, radical Islamic movement. If they obtain power, the consequences would be disastrous for Egypt. I’m an historian. My business is the past, not the future. But I can imagine a situation in which the Muslim Brotherhood and other organizations of the same kind obtain control of much of the Arab world. It’s not impossible. I wouldn’t say it’s likely, but it’s not unlikely. And if that happens, they would gradually sink back into medieval squalor. Remember that according to their own statistics, the total exports of the entire Arab world other than fossil fuels amount to less than those of Finland, one small European country. Sooner or later the oil age will come to an end. Oil will be either exhausted or superseded as a source of energy and then they have virtually nothing
. In
that case it’s easy to imagine a situation in which Africa north of the Sahara becomes not unlike Africa south of the Sahara."...


...." I don’t know how one could get the impression that the Muslim Brotherhood is relatively benign unless you mean relatively as compared with the Nazi party."...

RRD:On Protesters in Syria & The Green Movement:

..."As far as one can judge, these movements of opposition are very strong, even in Iran for example. Now, as you say, the Iranian regime is very repressive. Nevertheless, there are ways in which people can communicate, notably by telephone, e-mail and the rest, and the messages coming out of Iran are unequivocal. It makes it clear that the regime is extremely unpopular. There are two oppositions, opposition to the regime, and opposition within the regime. I think that with even a little help from outside it would be possible to do something. As the saying goes, “You can’t beat something with nothing.” ....

..."One method is by political warfare, by having some sort of propaganda campaign against the regime. This would not be difficult. There’s a vast Iranian population now in the Western world, particularly in the United States, who I’m sure would be willing to help in this, and thanks to modern communications, it would not be too difficult to get the message across. The messages coming out of Iran make this very clear. You must have heard when the American forces went into Iraq, lots of Iranians wrote e-mails or telephoned, saying, “You should have tackled your problems in alphabetical order.”....

Posted via email from Americans for Freedom in Iran

YouTube - First live pictures of Benghazi #libya #feb17 #tcot #p2

Sunday, February 20, 2011

YouTube - #Iran #Tehran 20 feb 2011 bassiji bikers in streets #tcot #1esfand

YouTube - CNN: #Iran Protests, 20110220 #tcot #1esfand #iranelections

(royasmusic) There are video circulation on internet from security forces in Mashhad. video is NOT from today #1esfand #tcot

گل سبز (royasmusic):
V @freedommesenger Attn: There are video circulation on internet from security forces in Mashhad. video is NOT from.. http://fb.me/EvL5ARPS

http://twitter.com/royasmusic/status/39340751502573568

Posted via email from Americans for Freedom in Iran

YouTube - #Iran Mashhad 20 feb 2011 riot forces in street #tcot #1esfand

Bangkok Post : #Iran demos under way #tcot #1esfand

YouTube - MUST SEE- 20 Feb 2011- Regime forces chasing protesters in Shiraz city #1esfand #iranelections #tcot

An update about the protesters in Shiraz, Esfahan and Tabriz #iran Freedom Messenger #1esfand #iranelections #tpot

Live report on events of February 20 from RAHANA #1esfand #iranelections

Live report on February 20th prtests in Iran / گزارش لحظه به لحظه از اعتراضات اول اسفند در ایران Street Journalist #1esfand #iranelections

#1Esfand Live Blog Freedom Messenger #iranelections #tcot #p2

liveblog EA WorldView The Latest from #Iran 20 Feb : So What Happens on #1Esfand? #iranelections #tcot

liveblog EA WorldView The Latest from #Iran 20 Feb : So What Happens on #1Esfand? #iranelections #tcot

Internet ‘kill switch’ bill revised, still angers civil rights activists #tcot #ucot #censorship

#Ahmadinejad: #Iran protesters will fail #25bahman #iranelections Times of India

AFP: #Iran 'not like #Egypt': top #Iranian director #1esfand #25bahman #jan25 #tcot

#Iran freeing two jailed German reporters - UPI.com #sakineh #freedomofspeech

#Iranian opposition calls for fresh protests over pair killed during rally guardian.co.uk #tcot #tpot #iranelections #1esfand

YouTube - Iran Martyr Sanne Jale who has been killed in 14 feb 2011 anti regime protest in a movie #25bahman #1esfand #iranelections #tcot

YouTube - FREE #Iran Babak Khoramdin Vision - What will you do without #freedom? Will you fight? #iranelections #1esfand #tcot #p2

YouTube - Solidarity sung from Sweden to #Iran #iranelections #1esfand -Hamrah sho Aziz- همراه شو عزیز

YouTube - Official #Iran Uprising Trailer HD - تریلر قیام مردم ایران #iranelections #1esfand #tcot

(Old but I missed it)YouTube Protest Grows in #Iran! CNN's Reza Sayah Reports! #25bahman #iranelections #tcot #p2

YouTube - Clashes after protest death in #Iran #25bahman #1esfand #iranelections #p2 #tcot

YouTube - #FREEIRAN - 14 February 2011 #25Bahman 1389 #iranelections #tcot #p2

YouTube - 1 ESFAND 89 TRAILER آنچه گذشت ۲۵ بهمن - فراخوان اول اسفند ۸۹

EDITORIAL: Obama's Double standard for #Iran - Washington Times #iranelections

Friday, February 18, 2011

#COICA the most dangerous #censorship bill you've never heard off #s3804

COICA:The Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act is a bill ostensibly intended to combat the piracy of software,& movies,as well as counterfeit physical goods.
COICA,if put into effect,would be both devastating to free speech on the internet,and would wreak havoc on the technology which makes the internet work.

To explain the magnitute of the threat that COICA poses to Freedom of Speech,I will first offer a analogy by way of Swiftian satire.Next,I will present a letter written by legal scholars who argue that the bill is brazenly unconstitutional & will eventually be struck down.
What's more,they hint at the possibility that the passage of the bill will undercut the ability of the United States to protect the Free Speech rights of it's own citizens from foreign despots who wish to use copyright infrigement claims to censor Americans.They further add that it will undercut America's ability to defend the human rights of dissidents in foreign countries,( such as Iran).

To address the threat to posed to the technological structure of the internet by. COICA I have linked to a letter written by the engineers of the internet .The engineers warn of catastrophic harm to the structure of the internet if the bill is put into effect.Finally I conclude with a list of links for more info.

A analogy by way of Swiftian Satire:


Imagine you live in a apartment building with your family.You mind your own business.You harm no one.
Then,one day,you are awakened from your sleep to find your apartment complex being evacuated & bulldozed.
The reason?
The Attorney General has alleged that a pedophile lives in your building;he therefore,quite logically,got a court to order the destruction of the whole building,& the detention of everyone who lives there.
The court order was issued ex parte,(without notification to the other party).

You run outside & see the Congressman who sponsored the bill.He is giving a press conference praising his handiwork.
You demand to know why they are demolishing your apartment.The following conversation ensues:


Congressman:"We are fighting pedophilia.Do you oppose fighting pedophilia?"


You:"No!Of course not!But why are you punishing us for the crimes of this one pedophile?And why weren't we warned that a convicted sex offender lived in the building?"


Congressman:"Oh,he's not been convicted yet,merely accused.He may well be innocent."


You:"THEN WHY ARE WE BEING THROWN OUT OF OUR HOMES WITH NO WARNING?!WHY DON'T YOU JUST ARREST HIM?!"


Congressman:"That would be very inconvient for us.Why,we would have to go to the particular indivdual's apartment and arrest him.We much prefer bulldozing the whole structure."


YOU:WHY?!


Congressman:"I'm not sure myself.But we decided on that for some reason."


YOU:"But why are you punishing us for the crimes of this one man?"


Congressman:"Maybe if you didn't want to be evicted,you should not have moved into a apartment complex where a pedophile resides."


YOU:"HOW WERE WE TO KNOW THAT SOMEONE WHO WOULD BE ACCUSED OF BEING A PEDOPHILE WAS LIVING HERE?"


Congressman:"You should have gone door to door conducting background checks.You should have kept a eye on the other apartments for things that are...unusual."


YOU:"I SHOULD HAVE DONE THESE THINGS?!YOU JUST SAID THAT THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO TARGET THIS PARTICULAR INDIVIDUAL ,& HAS TO TEAR DOWN THE WHOLE BUILDING!"


Congressman:Yes,but that's different."


YOU:WHY?!


Congressman:"Because we are the Government,you're only a individual."


RRD:In this case of course we are not talking about fighting pedophiles.We are talking about fighting copyright infringement.And in this case people will not be thrown into the streets in the literal,physical,world,but they may have their blogs evicted,en masse,if they have the misfortune to use any number of domains.
Do you have a blog on Wordpress?Blogger?Typepad?Tumblr?All of these represent Domains,of which your blog is only a subdomain,a example would be theneointellectual.wordpress.com,with wordpress.com being the domain,& theneointellectual the sub-domain.The same holds true for Facebook accounts.
Imagine the power to shut down hundreds of thousands of blogs in one fell swoop.Forget for a moment whether you think a particular Attorney General & a particular Judge will abuse such power;should they have it to begin with?
This is what the Law Professors have to say on the matter.
(Their letter has been released under a Creative Commons Share-Alike with Attribution License,see here:


http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


Summary of the Bill:


The current version of the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act (“COICA,” or “the Act”), S. 3804, would authorize the Attorney General to obtain, upon application to a federal court, injunctions in rem “against the domain name” of any Internet site “dedicated to infringing activities.” An Internet site will be deemed “dedicated to infringing activities” if (a) it is “primarily designed,” has “no demonstrable commercially significant purpose or use other than,” or is “marketed by its operator,” to offer goods and services in violation of the Copyright Act and/or the Lanham Act, and (b) the site “engages in” such infringing activities, and those activities, “taken together,” are “central to the activity” of the site. These injunctions can issue against entities which are not in any way responsible for the unlawful content, but which participate in the global Domain Name System (DNS): (a) the domain name registrar where the
target site’s domain name was registered; (b) the domain name registry responsible for maintaining the authoritative database of names for the target site’s top -level domain; and (c) any of the thousands of “service providers” (i.e., entities “offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online communications”) or “operator of a nonauthoritative domain name server” (a category that includes virtually all service providers, and any operator of network linked to the Internet). Registrars and registries subject to the injunction will be required to “suspend operation of,” or “lock,” the specified domain name. Service providers or domain name server operators will be required to “take technically feasible and reasonable steps designed to prevent [the] domain name from resolving to that domain name’s Internet protocol address.” Objections to the Bill
The Act, if enacted into law, would fundamentally alter U.S. policy towards Internet speech, and would set a dangerous precedent with potentially serious consequences for free expression and global Internet freedom. To begin with, the Act is an unconstitutional abridgment of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment. It directs courts to impose “prior restraints” on speech –the “most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights,” Nebraska Press Ass'n v. Stuart, 427 U.S. 539, 559 (1976), which are constitutionally permissible only in the narrowest range of circumstances. See Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 (1931).; see also Center For Democracy & Technology v. Pappert , 337 F. Supp. 2d 606, 651 (E.D. Pa. 2004) (statute blocking access to particular domain names and IP addresses an unconstitutional prior restraint). The Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that the category of “prior restraints,” while traditionally app
lied to
“orders forbidding certain communications when issued in advance of the time that such communications are to occur,” Alexander v. United States, 509 U.S. 544, 550 (1993) (emphasis added), also encompasses any governmental action suppressing speech taken prior to “a prompt final judicial decision . . . in an adversary proceeding” that the speech is unlawful. Freedman v. Maryland , 380 U.S. 51, 58-60 (U.S. 1965) (statute requiring theater owner to receive a license before exhibiting allegedly obscene film was unconstitutional because the statute did not “assure a prompt final judicial decision” that the film was obscene); see also Bantam Books v. Sullivan, 372 U.S. 58 (1962) (State Commission’s letters suggesting removal of books already in circulation is a “prior administrative restraint” and unconstitutional because there was no procedure for “an almost immediate judicial determination of the validity of the restraint”); Fort Wayne Books, Inc. v. Indiana
, 489
U.S. 46, 51-63 (1989) (procedure allowing courts to order pre -trial seizure of allegedly obscene films based upon a finding of probable cause was an unconstitutional prior restraint; publications “may not be taken out of circulation completely until there has been a determination of obscenity after an adversary hearing.”). These cases “require a court, before the material is completely removed from circulation, . . . to make a final determination that material is [unlawful] after an adversary hearing.” CDT v. Pappert , 337 F.Supp.2d, at 657 (emphasis added). The procedural seps prescribed by the Act do not come close to comporting with this Constitutional requirement. In place of a final determination after an adversary proceeding that the website in question contain infringing material, the Act permits the issuance of speech -suppressing injunctions without any meaningful opportunity for any party to contest the Attorney General’s allegations of unlawful content .
The
domain name registrars, registries, service providers, and domain name server operators against whom injunctions can be issued pursuant to the Act will have, in virtually all cases, no information whatsoever concerning the allegations regarding the presence of infringing content at the target websites because they have no relationship to the operators of those websites; they are therefore in no position, and they have no conceivable incentive, to contest those allegations. The Act contains no provisions designed to ensure that the persons actually responsible for the allegedly infringing content –the operators of the target websites –are even aware of the proceedings against them, let alone have been afforded any meaningful opportunity to contest the allegations in a true, adversarial proceeding. These target websites, by virtue of the Act’s assertion of in rem jurisdiction over domain names, may (and presumably often will) be located in, and/or controlled by citizens o
f,
other countries; the Act specifically permits courts in these actions to exercise jurisdiction provided only that either: (a) the domain name registrar, or the domain name registry , is located within the United States, or (b) the domain has been accessed by users within the United States, and the website “conducts business directed to the United States” and “harms holders of United States intellectual property rights.” Rather than give these foreign website operators a meaningful opportunity to be heard and to contest the allegations of illegality in an adversarial hearing, the Act requires only that the Attorney General notify the domain name registrant –who may, but in many cases will not, be the operator of the website in question –of an intent to proceed against the site. Injunctions may be entered entirely ex parte , without the participation of any other party, and the Act does not provide for any review of a judge’s ex parte determination that the websit
e in
question contains unlawful material. This falls far short of what the Constitution requires before speech can be eliminated from public circulation.

The Act would also suppress vast amounts of protected speech containing no infringing content whatsoever, and is unconstitutional on that ground as well. The current architecture of the Internet permits hundreds or even thousands of independent individual websites to operate under a single domain name by the use of unique sub -domains; indeed, many web hosting services operate hundreds of thousands of websites under a single domain name (e.g., www.aol.com, www.terra.es, www.blogspot.com). By requiring suppression of all sub -domains associated with a single offending domain name, the Act “burns down the house to roast the pig,” ACLU v. Reno , 521 U.S. 844, 882 (1997), failing the fundamental requirement imposed by the First Amendment that it implement the “least restrictive means of advancing a compelling state interest.” ACLU v. Ashcroft , 322 F.3d 240, 251 (3d Cir. 2003) (quoting Sable Commun. v. FCC , 492 U.S. at 126 (emphasis added)); cf. O’Brien , 391 U.S. at 3
77
(even the lower “intermediate scrutiny” standard requires that any “incidental restriction on First Amendment freedoms . . . be no greater than is essential to the furtherance of that interest”); see also CDT v Pappert , 337 F.Supp.2d, at 649 (domain name blocking [“DNS filtering”] resulted in unconstitutional “overblocking” of protected speech whenever “the method is used to block a web site on an online community or a Web Hosting Service, or a web host that hosts web sites as sub -pages under a single domain name,” and noting that one service provider “blocked hundreds of thousands of web sites unrelated to” the targeted unlawful conduct); see also id., at 640 (statute resulted in blocking fewer than 400 websites containing unlawful child pornography but in excess of one million websites without any unlawful material). Precisely because of these egregious Constitutional infirmities, the Act, if enacted into law, will not survive judicial scrutiny, an
d will,
therefore, never be used to address the problem (online copyright and trademark infringement) that it is designed to address. Its significance, therefore, is entirely symbolic –and the symbolism it presents is ugly and insidious. For the first time, the United States would be requiring Internet Service Providers to block speech because of its content –a dramatic retreat from the US’s long-standing policy, implemented in §230 of the Communications Decency Act, §512 of the Copyright Act, and elsewhere, of allowing ISPs to focus on empowering communications by and among users free from the need to monitor, supervise, or play any other gatekeeping or policing role with respect to those communications. It is a policy that has not only helped make the United States the world leader in a wide range of Internet -related industries, but it has also enabled the Internet's uniquely decentralized structure to serve as a global platform for innovation, speech, collaboration, civic
engagement, and economic growth. Even more significant and more troubling, the Act represents a retreat from the United States’ historical position as a bulwark and beacon against censorship and other threats to freedom of expression, freedom of thought, and the free exchange of information and ideas around the globe. At a time when dozens of foreign governments have dramatically stepped up their efforts to censor Internet communications in order to suppress legitimate dissent, to marginalize religious minorities, and to prevent citizens from obtaining information about the world outside their borders,2 the United States has always been a voice –often the only voice –opposing these efforts. Our ability to defend the principle of the single global Internet –the Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas, the that looks the same to, and allows free and unfettered communication between, users located in Shanghai and Seattle and Santiago, free of
locally -imposed censorship regimes –will be deeply compromised by enactment of S. 3804, which would enshrine in U.S. law for the first time the contrary principle: that all countries have a right to insist on the removal of content, wherever located, from the global Internet in service of the exigencies of local law. Nothing limits the application of this principle to copyright or trademark infringement, and nothing limits the application of this principle to actions by the United States; when all countries exercise this prerogative in support of their local legal regimes, as they surely will, we will have lost –or, more properly speaking, we will have destroyed –the single global inter-connected communications platform that we have built over the past several decades and that holds out so much promise for the improvement of human society across the globe."

The PDF of the letter:


http://www.publicknowledge.org/files/docs/LawProfCOICA.pdf

The letter of the internet engineers:


..."We, the undersigned, have played various parts in building a network called the Internet. We wrote and debugged the software; we defined the standards and protocols that talk over that network. Many of us invented parts of it. We're just a little proud of the social and economic benefits that our project, the Internet, has brought with it. We are writing to oppose the Committee's proposed new Internet censorship and copyright bill. If enacted, this legislation will risk fragmenting the Internet's global domain name system (DNS), create an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure. In exchange for this, the bill will introduce censorship that will simultaneously be circumvented by deliberate infringers while hampering innocent parties' ability to communicate. All censorship schemes impact speech beyond the category they were int
ended
to restrict, but this bill will be particularly egregious in that regard because it causes entire domains to vanish from the Web, not just infringing pages or files. Worse, an incredible range of useful, law-abiding sites can be blacklisted under this bill. These problems will be enough to ensure that alternative name-lookup infrastructures will come into widespread use, outside the control of US service providers but easily used by American citizens. Errors and divergences will appear between these new services and the current global DNS, and contradictory addresses will confuse browsers and frustrate the people using them. These problems will be widespread and will affect sites other than those blacklisted by the American government. "....


An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee | Electronic Frontier Foundation


http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/09/open-letter

Also see Tim Berners-Lee,(the creator of the World Wide Web)


Tim Berners-Lee Comes Out Against COICA Censorship Bill; Shouldn't You? | Techdirt


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100927/10290611182/tim-berners-lee-comes-o...

Further Links on this issue:

These two are my previous posts on this issue & contain contact info:


Stop the #COICA internet #censorship bill (Corrected) #tcot #tlot #s3804 | theneointellectual

http://theneointellectual.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/stop-the-coica-internet-ce...


Why #COICA a Internet Censorship bill must be stopped,& what you can do about it. | theneointellectual


http://theneointellectual.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/why-coica-a-internet-censo...


Can Senator Patrick Leahy Actually Provide The Proof That The COICA Censorship Law Is Needed? | Techdirt


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110217/01092913147/can-senator-patrick-lea...


Groups Urge Hearing On Online IP Bill - Tech Daily Dose


http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2010/09/groups-urge-hearing-on-onlin...


The Return Of COICA; Because Censorship Is Cool Again | Techdirt


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110216/03082713127/return-coica-because-ce...


What Congress Can Learn from the Recent ICE Seizures | Electronic Frontier Foundation


https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/02/what-congress-can-learn-recent-ice-seiz...


Censorship of the Internet Takes Center Stage in "Online Infringement" Bill | Electronic Frontier Foundation


http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/09/censorship-internet-takes-center-stage-o...


Carrying Water for Hollywood | The Weekly Standard


http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/carrying-water-hollywood-and-giving-cover...


Ron Wyden Speaks Out Against COICA: We Shouldn't Toss Out The First Amendment Just To Go After A Few Bad Actors | Techdirt


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110216/11305113129/ron-wyden-speaks-out-ag...


This is a online web petition,it is still up.


Don't Censor the Net » Stop the COICA Internet Censorship Bill in the Lame Duck Session of Congress!


http://www.dontcensorthenet.com/


The Volokh Conspiracy » Once Again, the Copyright/Trademark Tail Tries to Wag the Internet Dog


http://volokh.com/2010/11/13/once-again-the-copyrighttrademark-tail-tries-to-...


Google criticised in Senate hearing on web blocking - Managing Intellectual Property - February 2011


http://www.managingip.com/Article/2770565/Internet-IP-Archive/Google-criticis...

Senate Needs to Rein in Copyright Bill | Center for Democracy & Technology


http://www.cdt.org/blogs/andrew-mcdiarmid/senate-needs-rein-copyright-bill

US Senators Propose Bill To Censor Any Sites The Justice Depatement Declares 'Pirate' Sites, Worldwide | Techdirt


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100920/12460811083/us-senators-propose-bil...

Senators say bill targeting rogue websites will pass this year - The Hill's Hillicon Valley


http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/144575-senators-say-rogue...


COICA and the Internet "Ecosystem" | Center for Democracy & Technology


http://www.cdt.org/blogs/david-sohn/coica-and-internet-ecosystem


CDT Protests Bill Requiring Registrars to Enforce Copyright - PCWorld Business Center


http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/206459/cdt_protests_bill_requir...


American University Intellectual Property Brief » U.S. Senators Continue War On Internet with “Online Infringement” Bill


http://www.ipbrief.net/2010/09/26/u-s-senators-continue-war-on-internet-with-...


BitTorrent is to movies what "bolt-cutters are to stealing bicycles"


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/bittorrent-is-to-movies-what-...


Make Sure “Rogue Websites” Legislation Doesn’t Target Legitimate Companies, Says CEA | Business Wire


http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110216007134/en/%E2%80%9CRogue-Websit...


This individual post,(not the other contents of this blog),is released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Share-Alike with attribution License.

See here:


http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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Thursday, February 17, 2011

#COICA Internet #censorship bill RETURNS Links below #freespeech

Background on COICA:

Stop the #COICA internet #censorship bill (Corrected) #tcot #tlot #s3804 | theneointellectual


http://theneointellectual.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/stop-the-coica-internet-ce...


Why #COICA a Internet Censorship bill must be stopped,& what you can do about it. | theneointellectual


http://theneointellectual.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/why-coica-a-internet-censo...


The Return Of COICA; Because Censorship Is Cool Again | Techdirt


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110216/03082713127/return-coica-because-ce...


What Congress Can Learn from the Recent ICE Seizures | Electronic Frontier Foundation

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/02/what-congress-can-learn-recent-ice-seiz...


Carrying Water for Hollywood | The Weekly Standard


http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/carrying-water-hollywood-and-giving-cover...


Ron Wyden Speaks Out Against COICA: We Shouldn't Toss Out The First Amendment Just To Go After A Few Bad Actors | Techdirt

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110216/11305113129/ron-wyden-speaks-out-ag...


COICA and the Internet "Ecosystem" | Center for Democracy & Technology


http://www.cdt.org/blogs/david-sohn/coica-and-internet-ecosystem


BitTorrent is to movies what "bolt-cutters are to stealing bicycles"


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/02/bittorrent-is-to-movies-what-...


Make Sure “Rogue Websites” Legislation Doesn’t Target Legitimate Companies, Says CEA | Business Wire

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110216007134/en/%E2%80%9CRogue-Websit...

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YouTube - MUST SEE- Iran 14 Feb.2011. Regime forces attack peoples car, Randomly!! #25bahman #iranelections

The Mechanics of #Egypt's Internet Kill Switch - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic #egypt #jan25 #freeweb #freedomofspeech

#Hezbollah threatens #Israelis 'anytime, anywhere' #jcot #iran

#Israel: #Iran Sending Warships Through Canal - WSJ.com #tcot #israel #jcot #iran

RealClearPolitics - Video - WH's Carney Deflects Question on #Iranian Warships In Suez #tcot #israel #egypt #jan25

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

School objects to "Freedom for Iran" on school benches but not profanity? #iranelections #freeiran #25bahman

RRD:While Iranians are being raped,tortured & murdered in Iran,the Principal of La Jolla High School worries about students expressing solidarity with them by painting "Freedom for Iran",& "Death to Dictator" on school benches.
Yet,according to one of the students the school seems to have no problem with profanity.

...."Concrete “senior benches” at La Jolla High School have been painted and repainted for decades with colorful student messages that typically include celebrations of teenage love, birthday wishes or football victories."....

...."“These senior benches are for displays of school spirit , celebration of La Jolla High School activities and, on rare occasions, to commemorate the death of a student,” Shelburne [The Principal]said. “Usually it’s, ‘Go Vikings.’”....

RRD:At least she has her priorities straight.The Principal suggested that students post to a bulletin board instead.Yet:

..."Most students are unaware of the designated political bulletin board, said Elahi who learned of the space this week.[ Elahi is president of the school's Persian Club,she painted the messages with her classmates.] What’s more, she said the senior benches are the forum of choice for twelfth-graders. However, sometimes the comments painted on the benches include profanities and vulgar references to sex that go untouched by the school. “I think it’s odd that the school removed our message that is about educating people about a global issue,” said Elahi, 18. “I have never seen the school remove anyone’s message before —and some of them are pretty bad or juvenile.”

RRD:For the record I am not a lawyer & don't know whether the school is within their rights,but I find their stance absurd.

Bench statement squelched by school - SignOnSanDiego.com


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/16/bench-statement-squelched-by-s...

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School objects to "Freedom for Iran" on school benches but not profanity? #iranelections #freeiran #25bahman

RRD:While Iranians are being raped,tortured & murdered in Iran,the Principal of La Jolla High School worries about students expressing solidarity with them by painting "Freedom for Iran",& "Death to Dictator" on school benches.
Yet,according to one of the students the school seems to have no problem with profanity.

...."Concrete “senior benches” at La Jolla High School have been painted and repainted for decades with colorful student messages that typically include celebrations of teenage love, birthday wishes or football victories."....

...."“These senior benches are for displays of school spirit , celebration of La Jolla High School activities and, on rare occasions, to commemorate the death of a student,” Shelburne [The Principal]said. “Usually it’s, ‘Go Vikings.’”....

RRD:At least she has her priorities straight.The Principal suggested that students post to a bulletin board instead.Yet:

..."Most students are unaware of the designated political bulletin board, said Elahi who learned of the space this week.[ Elahi is president of the school's Persian Club,she painted the messages with her classmates.] What’s more, she said the senior benches are the forum of choice for twelfth-graders. However, sometimes the comments painted on the benches include profanities and vulgar references to sex that go untouched by the school. “I think it’s odd that the school removed our message that is about educating people about a global issue,” said Elahi, 18. “I have never seen the school remove anyone’s message before —and some of them are pretty bad or juvenile.”

RRD:For the record I am not a lawyer & don't know whether the school is within their rights,but I find their stance absurd.

Bench statement squelched by school - SignOnSanDiego.com


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/16/bench-statement-squelched-by-s...

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Senators Explore New Website Seizure Options - PCWorld Business Center #coica #freeweb #tcot #p2 #tlot #freedomofspeech

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman:We will stone adulters,require the veil,& kill apostates #jan25 #egypt #no2sharia

RRD:I do not believe he represents the protesters,but I do believe that the secular demostrators must guard against them.

Ideology shadows fight to rule the new Egypt - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-02-14-1Aegypt14_CV_N.htm


....."The Brotherhood would seek "the preservation of honor" by stoning adulterers, punishing gays, requiring Muslim women to cover their heads and shoulders in public and killing Muslims who leave their faith, said Abdel Fattah, whose forehead bore the calluses of those who prostrate themselves five times a day in prayer. As he spoke late Saturday, the "thump thump" of a cleaver could be heard just outside the unadorned office. A man was hacking up a calf on a wood stump, arranging the meat on a plastic sheet on the patio floor. A bright puddle of blood ran into the street as the animal was slaughtered for a feast celebrating the Brotherhood's hopes for the future. FAITH: Egypt, freedom and Mohammed's birthday "We basically want a government that will take on the demands of the people that were clear in the revolution of Tahrir Square," Abdel Fattah said. "Sharia law does not differ from the demands of the people." Leaders of political parties that dominated the protest move
ment
disagree."..

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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The American Spectator : Mohamed Atta and the #MuslimBrotherhood #egypt #jan25

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman:we oppose violence..except against #Israel #jan25 #egypt #tcot

CNN Shows Muslim Brotherhood Member Defending Violence Against Israel | NewsBusters.org


http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2011/02/14/cnn-shows-muslim-brothe...


..."SPITZER: Will you right now condemn the attacks by al-Qaeda both in, on the United States and elsewhere in the world as acts that violate-MORSY: We did before. We are against whoever did this[Whoever did this?!!!] to the civilian people. We are against this act and we said we want a fair trial, not just an accused, and if you prove by a fair trial, you Americans, if you prove by a fair trial who did this, we are against that whoever did it with you. We stand with you against whoever did this if you can prove really who did this.[KSM is on record taking credit for the attack] SPITZER: One, Mr. Morsy, one last question, can you then right now also disavow -MORSY: This is the, this is the last question after the last question. Go ahead.

SPITZER: Yes, you’re right. You’re catching on to our style. Let me ask you one last question. I promise this is the last one. Will you then right now disavow the use of violence against the state of Israel? MORSY: We do not use violence against anyone. What’s going on on the Palestinian land is resistance.

SPITZER: All right.

MORSY: The resistance is acceptable by all mankind and it’s the right of people to resist imperialism. SPITZER: All right, Mr. Morsy, I appreciate your time and I’ve asked 10 last questions and we will, I hope have an opportunity to continue this conversation down the road.

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YouTube - Obama Calls Out #Iran on Suppressing Protests #25bahman #iranelections

Why was there no concern that Obama's speaking out on Egypt would be used against the protesters? #25bahman #iranelections #freeiran

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/15/AR20110215036...

RRD:Why was there no concern that Obama's speaking out on Egypt would be used against the protesters?

..."stopping short of calling for a change in government. Obama's careful formulation, outlined during a morning news conference , highlighted the sharp differences between the political dynamic that his administration faces in Iran and the one that shaped the recent revolt in Egypt . Obama faced a secular, allied government in Egypt that had lost broad popular support. But in Iran he confronts an Islamist regime hostile to American interests and eager to turn any opposition movement into a proxy for the United States and Israel. In the final days of Egypt's unrest, Obama aligned himself with the demonstrators' demand for a new government. With Iran he has not been so bold. His call Tuesday for Iran's Islamic government to allow peaceful protest echoed the one he made after the opposition Green Movement emerged on Tehran's streets in June 2009 following a disputed presidential election, a response many conservatives criticized as tepid. "....


Obama cautious on Iran protests
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/15/AR20110215036...

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Egypt: Islamist judge to head new constitution committee - Telegraph #jan25 #egypt #no2sharia

YouTube - Obama Calls Out #Iran on Suppressing Protests #25bahman #iranelections #freeiran

Those who read this blog who are interested in keeping up to date on Iran should see the twitter link below

(39) Twitter / Search - #25Bahman

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%2325Bahman

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YouTube - Protesters ripping poster with Khamenei apart in #Tehran - Iran 14 Feb. 2011 #iranelections #freeiran #25bahman

YouTube - #Iran 14 Feb 2011 a Bsijis is being beaten by protestor #25bahman #iranelections #freeiran

Nukes agency head says #Iran ‘steadily’ enriching uranium JTA #irannuclear #iranelections

YouTube - 'Listen to the people', says Turkish leader in #Iran visit #iranelections #freeiran #25bahman

YouTube - Protests broken up in #Iran #iranelections #freeiran #25bahman

Fresh Protests in #Iran Hit the Streets — and Facebook Danger Room Wired.com #25bahman #iranelections

YouTube - #Ahmadinejad reconfirms nuclear commitment #iranelections #irannuclear #freeiran

#Iran protests see reinvigorated activists take to the streets in thousands The Guardian #25bahman #iranelections #freeiran

#Iran opposition returns to streets, energized by #Egypt - CSMonitor.com #freeiran #iranelections

YouTube - Opposition marches in #Iran #iranelections #freeiran

Secular Democracy for #Iran دموکراسی سکولار برای ایران: کریم خان سر ویلا Karimkhan in #Tehran ##25bahman #iranelections

Secular Democracy for #Iran دموکراسی سکولار برای ایران: کریم خان سر ویلا Karimkhan in #Tehran #

http://seculardemocracyiran.blogspot.com/2011/02/karimkhan-in-tehran.html

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YouTube - 25. Bahman - #Iranians say no to Vilayat-e Faqqih and Khamenei #freeiran #iranelections

Monday, February 14, 2011

YouTube - 'Listen to the people', says Turkish leader in #Iran visit #iranelections #25bahman

YouTube - Protests broken up in #Iran #25bahman #iranelections

Mr.Ghonim please speak out on behalf of the #Iranian people who are protesting in Solidarity with the Egyptian people. #freeiran #iranelections

Mr.Ghonim please speak out on behalf of the Iranian people who are protesting in Solidarity with the Egyptian people.

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#Iran Cheers #Egypt, Tunisia Revolts as #Ahmadinejad Stifles Domestic Dissent Bloomberg #jan25 #25bahman

#Tehran Bureau: #Iran Live Blog: #25Bahman / 14 February | FRONTLINE | PBS

#Tehran Bureau: #Iran Live Blog: #25Bahman 14 February FRONTLINE PBS #iranelections #freeiran

AIUK : #Iran: Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and rights groups demand moratorium on executions #freeiran #iranelections #humanrights

#Iranian dissidents combine protest of IRI w/ celebration of Valentines Day :) #25bahman #iranelections

RRD:Defy IRI's ban on Valentine's by combining Valentine's Day celebrations with protests of the regime

EA WorldView - Home - Iran Love, Protest, and Sacrifice: 7 Special Posters for 25 Bahman

http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2011/2/12/iran-love-protest-and-sacrifice...

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