Rebels of the Week: Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit, WordPress, The Daily Paul and every other website participating in the SOPA protest blackout Wednesday… including us!

SOPA and the spectre of censorship:

How would you like to open your browser one day to find your favorite websites blocked or censored by an act of the relentlessly growing regulatory regime in Washington? How would you like to find an image like the one above in place of your favorite content or even political commentary? If you haven’t heard about it by now already, SOPA (the “Stop Online Piracy Act”) is a concerted effort by various special interests in Old Media to cope with the rapidly changing world of information and its effects on the distribution and monetization of media, but like many major regulatory reforms pushed by special interest lobbyists, while the key players are fighting over something petty, they are unwittingly working to build the infrastructure for future oppression and tyranny, or as Julian Sanchez of the Cato Institute puts it: the legal and technological architecture for censorship.

 

Julian Sanchez writes at the link above:

“SOPA is a 70 page statute establishing a detailed legal process by which the Justice Department can initiate blocking of supposed pirate domains by ISPs and search engines, and by which private parties can seek orders requiring payment processors and ad networks to sever ties.”

Should you be scared? Yes. Yes you should be…

 

Hand off our Internet, Washington!

SOPA represents an unprecedented intrusion into the largely unregulated world of the Internet. It is the free, unregulated, uncensored flow of information on the Internet that has revolutionized the world we’ve lived in, created an explosion of new wealth, prosperity, and economic opportunities, and given oppressed people throughout the world an outlet to criticize their oppressors and organize their opposition efforts. The very future of our freedom is imperiled by any effort of the government to put its grimy, corrupt little hands on the Internet. For the world to remain free and prosperous, the Internet must remain free. No exceptions. No compromises.

Why should you be scared? As I’ve said before on this website, I’m not suggesting that members of Congress and a group of wild-eyed global puppet masters are sitting around a table smoking stogies and stroking gray cats while cackling about their plan to take control of the Internet. What I am suggesting is that history shows unequivocally that the centralization of power in the hands of a few is a process that seldom reverses course. Every new precedent, every new power that is exercised by an elite few, is seldom ever given back, and typically forms a foothold for the seizure of more power.

Every time the people of this country have given the Washington regime an inch, it has taken a mile. Study the history of any federal tax, regulation, war, agency, or program (especially the ones that were supposed to be only “temporary”), and then try to deny the historical veracity of this claim. Furthermore, history teaches that not only is radically centralized power seldom devolved and inclined to grow (along an exponential curve), but that it is abused, mismanaged, misused, and wielded in favor of the elite and powerful few who pull its strings, against the interests of the many weak, small, humble, and powerless. So why should we stand for Washington to exercise another unprecedented power?

If my suspicion of people with power seems paranoid to you, let me suggest that your trust of people with power is– in the very strongest sense I can possibly use these words– gullible and naive.

 

A day without Internet…

All you need to see just how powerful the Internet can be for emboldening people against oppressive measures by their governments, all you need to see just how important it is that we make Washington leave the Internet alone, is to observe the courage behind some of the Internet’s most successful and world-changing websites, which are banding together to oppose SOPA by “going on strike” and blacking themselves out this Wednesday, January 18th. The Politico reports:

Internet companies and activists are hoping to join the Arab Spring and other online democracy movements by taking an estimated 7,000 websites offline Wednesday to send a message to Washington: Don’t pass a pair of anti-piracy bills.

The websites that have announced plans to go dark include Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit, and WordPress, but some of the most visited websites are conspicuous in their absence.

Because we’ll be joining these websites ourselves tomorrow, blacking out from 8am to 8pm Eastern in protest, we’re announcing this week’s rebel a day early, and we are calling each and every website that goes on strike tomorrow this week’s Rebels of the Week! That includes us, and it even includes you if you do your part to spread awareness on Facebook, which will be sitting out tomorrow’s blackout along with Google, despite both companies’ opposition to SOPA.

It’s good to see the spirit of patriotic rebellion spreading from the rest of the world to individuals and companies right here in the United States. It’s time to own our future. It’s time to fight for our freedom. It’s time to take a lesson from those spirited, young souls in Egypt and send a loud and clear message to the government:

Do not screw with our Internet.

And don’t forget to visit our official website to learn more about the Silver Circle Movie:http://SilverCircleMovie.com