It seems as though nobody who is reacting to what Twitter has stated about their new censorship policy actually read or thought about what it means, instead parading idiotic headlines like “Social Suicide”. It's easily the most subversive and transparent approach to censorship to date. Twitter is already obliged by law to remove content in the various countries they physically operate, and have done so. The alternative is complete blocking of the service by the country, or greater legal action. Until now, complying required removing content globally. What Twitter has done is made it possible to only remove content in the country that requested the block (reactively, like DMCA takedowns), while still leaving it visible to the rest of the world. This decreases the censorship occurring.

Now countries with screwball notions of free speech, or the lack thereof, cannot affect beyond their borders. Also, those inside the country will be notified that they are seeing blocked content, instead of just an absence, and the censoring will be documented on Chilling Effects. Before, if content were censored, it would be impossible to see it no matter where you are, or where you pretended to be. Now, people's voices can still get out, the oppression of their voices will be more apparent, and it's still possible to get around the censorship if necessary.

This takedown system is available to any authorized entity. This means anyone who has a legitimate claim can file a DMCA — or get a court order if that doesn't apply — to have content blocked after it is posted. Plus, those who are blocked can more easily know it, and take counter action if appropriate. There's no automated filtering, or special abilities for governments, or conspiracy with Saudi investors. Enough with the derpidity.

(Thankfully, there has been some rationality. Unfortunately, not enough.)

The NY Tech Meetup held an emergency meetup today in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills.

Andrew Rasiej kicking things off in front of a surprising number of press cameras…

…and a very large crowd — about 2,000 apparently — that spilled outside of the pens setup by NYPD.

Scott Heiferman, Clay Shirky, John Perry Barlow, Nate Westheimer, Jessica Lawrence, Alexis Ohanian, Antonia Abraham, Andrew McLaughlin, Reshma Saujani, Brad Burnham, Eli Pariser, Sara Chipps, Tim Karr, David Solomonoff, Aaron Swartz, David Segal, Brad Feld:

(Looking up some of these people and their links was not easy, given the SOPA/PIPA Blackout today.)

Ohanian has done a great job being the face of the Internet with this issue, fielding questions left and right for a while now. The questions to him kept up before and after the event.

There was one lone PIPA supporter, who said he works in the movie industry.

Livestream broadcast the event live, and has the whole thing recorded.

(At the end, ~45 min, John and I are visible milling about, deciding what to do next and how to get out of the protest pen.)

Mashable has some more video of the protest, with interviews of several protesters and a writeup of the events. (Spot me taking a shot of Ohanian.) 

Some from the protest continued on to Times Square.

John and his sign:

 

It's disappointing that Facebook and Twitter haven't joined in, but seeing Wikipedia wholesale blacked out (sort of) and Google with a prominent sign on the sacred homepage is pretty cool. Not to mention all of the other sites involved.

The Emergency NY Tech Meetup looks to be pretty interesting as well: http://nytm.org/sos/

Those who make the Internet versus those who are being disrupted by it, as shown by Congressional support of SOPA.

via spatialsituation.com/sopa-map

I'm glad to see my representative, Rep. Mike Doyle, PA-14, is opposed to SOPA. I'd like to think it's soley because of my oh-so-persuasive letter to him, but that was only a drop in the bucket. Still, every drop counts.

Here's what I sent (also to PA's senators):

As an entrepreneur, bona fide "job creator", and content creator, I strongly, strongly oppose the SOPA (HR 3261) and PIPA (S 968) bills.

These bills are the product of the fears of modern day buggy whip makers who cannot understand why this thing called the "Internet" is allowing innovators to run circles around them. There are of course legitimate concerns of copyright infringement and counterfeit goods. However, tackling those problems is better served using much more targeted approaches, as suggested and even attempted by prominent Internet technology companies such as Google. The broad powers that SOPA/PIPA establish will allow for websites to be shut down without due process or even any legitimate claim, potentially killing their business.

Such fears are far from speculative, as the notable blogging site Dajaz1.com found out. Its web domain was seized by ICE for supposed, and demonstrably unfounded, claims of copyright infringement. After being held for over a year without any due process, and continual stonewalling of Dajaz1's lawyers, ICE eventually admitted it had no evidence and returned the domain. What's important to note is that Dajaz1.com is not just some "inconsequential blogger", but is in fact a prominent site in the hip-hop community, often used by major artists to promote their music directly.

SOPA/PIPA expand on the powers of, and the vagaries surrounding, the ability of the US government to seize domains and disrupt the foundation of the Internet which has become an essential asset in our push out of economic recession. I happen to be the founder of a small business that helps startups refine ideas and build prototypes, employing three people and having an annual revenue in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — much of it from overseas even. My company exists because, right out of college a few years ago, the job market was iffy. Yet, there was this wonderful platform that let me make incredible things and connect with amazing people, requiring only hard work and a little know how. (And the things I didn't know, I could easily research because of the nature of the platform and the spirit by which we 'makers' work.) The Internet allowed me to get up and running, using my skills to literally create jobs by offering innovative services. I am also not alone; there are thousands of such businesses, freelancers, and innovators.

I am also a content creator. I design and sell products and services, using the Internet to market and in some cases distribute them. There is a risk of infringement, particularly with the products that I offer as plans for users to make themselves. However, the openness of the Internet has enabled me to just jump in and start offering my products directly, without middlemen. (That's what the MPAA and RIAA are afraid of.) It also provided opportunities for cross-licensing my designs on sites that would be in danger because of SOPA/PIPA. The residuals to me barely cover a few cups of gourmet coffee, but there are those who manage to make a living doing this full time. This kind of fundamental entrepreneurship would not be possible without an open Internet.

These bills would drastically undermine the platform that we are building the future on, and turn the United States, a paragon of democracy and innovation, into a fascist, censorship-ridden state, that at best struggles to move forward into the 21st century. I must have missed the part where I moved to China. That bills like SOPA/PIPA exist is a sad indicator of the regard that Congress has for the Constitution its members have sworn to protect. In many ways, the invaluable resource that is the Internet is an example of what can happen when free exchange of ideas is allowed. Yes, it has its problems. But don't undermine its very foundation, certainly not at the behest of a few special interests who want Feds to be the enforcers of their civil matters.

(I tried to avoid being confrontational, but couldn't help it. Oh well. I also was going to get into all the other issues, like how the very tool we promote to oppressed peoples — Tor — would be threatened, but the letter was getting pretty long already.)

The translation is pretty amusing:

This course a great advantage, or more, and more here. About the soft at times. About the time you reply. But you need your various e-is of no great extent. No more freedom, more from the quiver. Email, development and more convenience, more more more more, as more mass of your items.

Between the G700's internal sensitivity settings and BetterTouchTool, the mousing is smooth and tolerable. The Touch Pad is surprisingly effective on the off-hand, since it doesn't require quite the same dexteriety. I find myself dual-mousing sometimes, using the gestures to scroll and do Exposé, with the regular mouse for pointing. It's kind of like a clutch-pedal for the computer. (I should note this computer is still running Snow Leopard.)

It's a shame that a third-party tool is needed to have a pleasant mousing experience, but at least it's free. (My old setup used to be an excellent MX518 and USB Overdrive, but the MX518 has lost its clicky, and USB Overdrive blocks the gestures of the Touch Pad.)

Fuck you, BBC. All you're doing is getting in the way of fans.

Fortunately, there is a region-free version, though it ridiculously has a 30 second ad for a 1 minute clip that is basically an ad, itself.

Beautiful, and matches my phone to boot. Field Notes: Northerly

Now if only the dot-grid were available again.