Today Is ‘The Day We Fight Back’

[BelgianMadCow]

In honor of Aaron Swartz and the billions of us who want to use the Internet for the pursuit of knowledge and not a weapon of surveillance, control and war, Thousands of websites today, 2/11/14, are asking visitors to call on their representatives and demand legislative action against the National Security Agency of the United States.

It’s actually not so simple as all that, but it becomes clearer if you go to this website, where they will tell you what legislation they like, what they don’t and what you can do about it.

Swartz, who is the subject of the new documentary (preview below), “The Internet’s Own Boy,” took his own life after the U.S. government and the justice department hounded him over downloading journal articles. Swartz was a genius who helped create Reddit, RSS and as an activist he sought to make the world and the Internet better and freer for all of us. This day is in his honor.

More at Truthdig. For those of you that don't care about surveillance, you can rest easy.

There is also "NSA Whistleblower: USA Freedom Act Will Not Go Far Enough To Protect Civil Liberties"

Someone find out what boxes Kirk Wiebe has in his garage, please.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[cali]

2. Great. Thanks for posting this with the link.

[sabrina 1]

3. I am really glad they are making a documentary about Schwartz.

It is shameful the way people who support the 'freedoms' we claim to value so much, are hounded and driven to desperation as he was.

Thanks for the OP, BelgianMadCow ....

[BelgianMadCow]

4. My pleasure. Good to see you with so many hearts, sabrina1

You so often take a principled stand alone and are singled out for smear attempts. I hate that. But love trumps hate, if I had stars to give I'd get you & some usual suspects one.

[sabrina 1]

7. You are one of my favorite commenters on DU, BelgianMadCow.

I don't pay much attention to the pro security state attackers, to be honest, I just use them to kick good threads about ISSUES they prefer not to talk about. It's a lost cause to try to convince such people that they are on the wrong side of history, but rather than ignore them, I prefer to use their talking points to get attention for good threads about actual issues that might otherwise sink.

Don't worry about hearts, I have been in the position where I could not give them to people I wanted to give them to also.

But I have to say, I am overwhelmed, WAS overwhelmed by the number of people who have given me hearts. I wish I could return the gift to each and every one of them if I knew who they were. I will do what I can to try to show my appreciation.

And for you, because I have so much respect for your integrity and consistent support for what really matters in this world, I would like to give you some hearts, if you don't mind.

[BelgianMadCow]

5. LINK Democracy Now piece "Activism Sweeps the Internet with Global Action Against Mass Surveillance"

video at http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/11/the_day_we_fight_back_activism?autostart=true

[xiamiam]

6. there was a time when duers would be all over this

different time and certainly a different group of members...

[BelgianMadCow]

8. I couldn't help but think the same

I remember all the "DU this poll" or "ACTION ALERT: sign this petition"-posts. It's like when hootinholler posted about the demo (of thousands) against spying earlier - hardly any reaction.

But still - resistance isn't futile, and it's a moral imperative.

[woo me with science]

9. K&R