*Written by Rob Rimes.

Today is a great day for liberty. As I write this it is January 18^th, 2012 and the Internet is ablaze with anger towards SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). Not only was The Swash down in protest of these dastardly bills but Internet giants Wikipedia and Reddit were down as well. Shit, even Google participated in this blackout with a unique graphic on their page that lead to information about these two horrible laws and what you can do to fight them.

I was more than ecstatic today when I signed into my Facebook account and was overwhelmed by all the people who blacked out their own photos and had status updates and links protesting SOPA and PIPA plastered all over the home page. The impact of this protest is literally reaching further than any other online protest I’ve ever witnessed or been a part of. In fact, in just a few short hours, the tide has turned and the pimps pushing this law are now starting to run like the two-faced pandering bastards they are. I guess when you shine a little light the cockroaches scatter.

One of my favorite punching bags, Marco Rubio – the Republican senator form my home state of Florida, was a co-sponsor on one of these evil bills but he has now come out against it. This is because Rubio is a dickbag, a panderer and a wolf in Tea Party clothing. This “noble” act doesn’t excuse the fact that he co-sponsored PIPA and was also a champion for the insanely tyrannical NDAA bill, which just passed recently. Don’t get excited and let Rubio fool you, when this dies down, he’ll help reintroduce the bill with a few modifications and continue on his fascist path.

Conservative darling Paul Ryan just wrote this status update on his Facebook:

The Internet is one of the most magnificent expressions of freedom and free enterprise in history. It should stay that way. While H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, attempts to address a legitimate problem, I believe it creates the precedent and possibility for undue regulation, censorship and legal abuse. I do not support H.R. 3261 in its current form and will oppose the legislation should it come before the full House.

While that sounds all fine and dandy, Mr. Ryan doesn’t fully oppose the idea of the bill and chances are, if it was tweaked and the opposition towards it died down, he may just very well vote for it.

Senators Jim DeMint, Robert Menendez and others have come out against this tyranny. Another co-sponsor, Arizona congressman Ben Quayle has withdrawn his support. Freedom fighter and libertarian leaning Michigan congressman Justin Amash continues to speak out against this, as does Kentucky senator Rand Paul and his father, Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul.

The opposition to these bills has grown so quickly in the last several hours that six Republican senators wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The letter states:

We have increasingly heard from a large number of constituents and other stakeholders with vocal concerns about possible unintended consequences of the proposed legislation, including breaches in cybersecurity, damaging the integrity of the Internet, costly and burdensome litigation, and dilution of First Amendment rights.

For those of you who have been in the dark, I’ll break down what these bills are. In a nutshell, what they are supposed to do is to protect copyrighted material and eliminate piracy. What they actually do is a different story.

Basically, these bills give the entertainment industry the power to censor the Internet and breed a whole new type of crony capitalism while forcing us into a digital police state. You see, private corporations want to be able to choose what can and cannot be censored on the Internet. These corporations are trying to protect their property, which is understandable, and since the Internet is a bastion for downloading music and movies, they want to be able to tighten their grip and control how the whole system works. Considering that many of the sources for this copyrighted material exists outside of United States jurisdiction, these laws are being put in place to give the government and their corporate buddies an easier way at stopping copyright infringement. Again, that is understandable but the methods about doing this are just awful.

The first thing that this does is it gives the power to United States based ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to have special access at blocking infringing domain names. This also gives companies the power to sue websites, bloggers or whoever until they remove links or information directing Internet users to anything that they deem as infringed upon property.

Secondly, the government and their corporate pals would also be given the power to cut off funds to any websites that they believe are infringing on copyrights. Essentially, they can forcibly cancel infringing websites accounts with financial services and advertisers.

Now even though this all may seem somewhat proactive, one has to look at what actually constitutes copyright infringement. The description that they provide is so broad that if you technically upload a video to YouTube and there happens to be a piece of a song playing in the background, even if it’s just on the radio while you’re talking to the camera unaware of it, you have just infringed on copyrighted material and could face some serious penalties. This is just a small example but think of all the things you come across on the Internet on a daily basis that could technically be considered as copyright infringement. Violations are pretty much fucking everywhere! Hell, the whole Internet is a violation!

Besides all that, if there is a will there is a way. These laws won’t stop Internet users from finding music and movies to download illegally. In fact, even if a URL is blocked, an Internet user can still access the site via its IP address. Hell, this might start a revolution in web browsing and millions of digital pirates will be navigating the Net with IPs as opposed to typical URLs.

Another thing to mention is that these laws are incredibly bad for business. Essentially, they will cripple and stifle startups as corporations will have the power to sue any company that they feel isn’t properly protecting their interests. In a classic case of crony capitalism or corporatism, this allows the giants to stay on top, where they can look down and crush any growing company that may become a viable competitor for their business. Basically, these bills will create and perpetuate monopolies. When large corporations have the power to bankrupt new search engines and social networking sites, there really isn’t room for growth or innovation. We might as well just go back to the days of dark dingy uninspiring chat rooms.

The scariest thing that these laws will do is tamper with the Internet as a whole from the backend. By messing around with the Internet’s vast registry of domain names we could very well end up with a World Wide Web that is less stable and less secure. At the end of the day, these laws won’t stop piracy, as they claim and they will just create an environment for a new type of corporatism while leaving the Internet less secure and less reliable than it has ever been.

The Internet has already become a playground for government and corporate meddling. Hell, they already have laws in place to protect copyright infringement yet they want to push the envelope as far as they can. As of right now, the government and corporations already have the power to block any site just off of one infringing link. Social media giants like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and others are now forced to censor their users because if they don’t, they become liable for the material their users upload and could be forced to shut down. On top of that, an ordinary Internet user could already be sentenced to prison for up to five years just for posting any copyrighted material – this includes someone like Tay Zonday who became an Internet sensation for singing pop song covers.

This situation is incredibly fucked up and it is just one more battle in a long line or tyrannous laws that the government is trying to impose on us. Just add this ingredient to the same bowl of tyranny punch that already consists of the PATRIOT Act, NDAA, indefinite detention, Homeland Security, the TSA, previous Internet censorship, FEMA, etc. The list goes on and on and hopefully people’s distrust in government has grown to the point that all future legislation the tyrants bring forth will be scrutinized and passionately opposed as much as SOPA and PIPA.

In the end, we’ve got to chain these bastards’ feet to the grill and turn up the fire until they do what we say because frankly, that’s their damn job.

Just when you thought Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow was down; like a phoenix, he rises from the ashes.

Tebow and the Broncos were last seen Saturday night walking off the field after getting shellacked by Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.

The former Florida Gators quarterback couldn’t muster any offense in the game and was outclassed on the field by Brady.

But, Tebow has been a ratings draw for CBS and now, the network wants to get Tebow in the studio this Sunday for the AFC Championship game.

According to USAToday.com, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said CBS has had conversations with Tebow’s people and are waiting to hear back from the popular quarterback.

McManus said CBS is hoping to hear from Tebow by midweek.

Source: CBS Miami.

It’s on — at least partially: Reddit has announced that it will be going dark for 12 hours to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has said that he hopes to coordinate with the site so that Wikipedia does the same. Will other sites join in? Should we prepare for the Great Internet Strike of 2012?

Writing that it’s “not taking this action lightly,” Reddit announced on Tuesday that it will blackout its site on Wednesday, January 18 for 12 hours, starting at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time. During that period, the site’s content will be replaced with “a simple message about how the PIPA/SOPA legislation would shut down sites like reddit, link to resources to learn more, and suggest ways to take action.” The company will also run a live video stream of that day’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on Internet security, intellectual property and economic growth.

On the site’s blog, the Reddit team admitted that “We’re as addicted to reddit as the rest of you,” but explained that “We wouldn’t do this if we didn’t believe this legislation and the forces behind it were a serious threat to reddit and the Internet as we know it. Blacking out reddit is a hard choice, but we feel focusing on a day of action is the best way we can amplify the voice of the community.” The company admits that support for a blackout isn’t unanimous among the Reddit community and it’s asking for the community’s input as it decides what to do next.

(MORE: At the Top of Congress’ New Year Agenda? Regulate the Net)

If support isn’t unanimous within Reddit’s community, it’ll be interesting to see how things go for Wikipedia if that site follows suit. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales writes ”it would be great if we could act quickly to coordinate with Reddit,” thought adding the community needs a “thumbs up/thumbs down vote” on whether or not to participate, and “we don’t have the luxury of time that we usually have, in terms of negotiating with each other for weeks about what’s exactly the best possible thing to do.” I suspect the ratio of those in favor of a blackout to those opposed would be greater for a more activist site like Reddit than one that’s more mainstream (and let’s be honest, passive) like Wikipedia.

Something I appreciate about Reddit’s announcement is that they’ve factored in the importance of educating would-be visitors to the site about why they’ve decided to go dark, what SOPA is and why it’s so important. I can only assume Wikipedia would do the same thing, should the site community decide to go dark on the same day. After all, protests only work when people understand why they’re happening.

That said, now that we have a date for a potential shutdown, the question becomes “Who else will join in?” Google, Twitter and Facebook have all been rumored as contenders, in part because of comments made by NetCoalition’s Markham Erickson (when I asked, Google and Twitter declined to comment on their support for an Internet blackout). But with a real strike looming and despite attempts to push the issue onto agendas, support for this kind of action may be shifting in favor of alternative methods. Finding other ways to protest may be ineluctable — after all, we’re talking about the Internet’s most popular sites going dark for 24 hours.

Sure, there may be some disappointment that we’re not days from Temporary Internet Apocalypse To Prove a Point, but I suspect there’s relief as well. The idea of a multi-pronged attack on pro-SOPA arguments — of different flavors of activism and discussion for different people — feels like the more mature response on behalf of tech companies (who after all may not agree on what’s wrong with SOPA as it stands). Let Wikipedia close for the day and generate headlines, while others like Google and Facebook pursue alternative forms of protest that engage their respective audiences. In the end, the more people paying attention, the better.

MORE: SOPA: What if Google, Facebook and Twitter Went Offline in Protest?
Source: Tech Land.

NBC has reached an agreement to broadcast news content provided by a media organisation run by a team that has ploughed millions of dollars into campaigning for Barack Obama and donated large cash amounts to organisations such as the George Soros affiliated MoveOn.org and the now defunct ACORN.

The LA Times reports that NBC has opened up the newsrooms of all its affiliates across the country to ProPublica, which describes itself as an “independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.”

NBC affiliated and Comcast owned radio stations will also broadcast ProPublica content under the agreement.

“The arrangement comes as Comcast moves to fulfill its commitment to federal regulators to strengthen local, public-interest programming in the wake of its purchase of NBCUniversal earlier this year.” the Times report states.

NBC stations will also produce their own stories based upon ProPublica’s output.

“We put the reporting at their fingertips and they can do terrific local stories with it,” said Richard Tofel, general manager for ProPublica.

The development represents yet another infiltration of corporate news media by special interests with their own political agenda.

ProPublica already delivers content to more than 50 different news organizations, including 60 Minutes, CNN, ABC World News, USA Today, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Politico, Salon.com, Slate, MSN Money, MSNBC.com, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Business Week, This American Life, and NPR among many others.

The organisation operates with a bounty of $10 million per year from married billionaires Herbert and Marion Sandler, who are the former chief executives of the Golden West Financial Corporation, formerly one of the largest mortgage lenders in the US.

CONTINUED at Prison Planet.

*Taken from Reuters.

Former President Al Gore will renew his 30-year campaign to convince skeptics of the link between climate change and extreme weather events this week in a 24-hour global multi-media event.

“24 Hours of Reality” will broadcast a presentation by Al Gore every hour for 24 hours across 24 different time zones from Wednesday to Thursday, with the aim of convincing climate change deniers and driving action against global warming among households, schools and businesses.

The campaign also asks people to hand over control of their social networking accounts on Facebook and Twitter to it for 24 hours to deliver Gore’s message.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from Yahoo News.

A student accused of secretly playing the sexual tryst online of a roommate who later committed suicide pleaded not guilty on Monday to hate crime charges in the case that drew national attention to issues of gay-bashing and bullying.

Dharun Ravi, 19, did not speak at his appearance in Middlesex, New Jersey County Court, where he faces 15 charges including invasion of privacy, evidence tampering and bias intimidation.

Ravi’s roommate Tyler Clementi leaped off the George Washington Bridge last fall after learning his encounter with another man had been spied upon. Clementi, 18, was a freshman at Rutgers University and a promising violinist.

Ravi is accused of secretly using a webcam to watch Clementi’s tryst with another man and put it live online.

If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

CONTINUED..

My Two Cents: Ten bucks says we’re still here in ten days. End Two Cents.

*Taken from DigTriad.

Winston-Salem, NC — You may have seen them in the Triad, across North Carolina, and throughout the United States.  Billboards stating that the end of the world in May 21, 2011.

It’s part of a world-wide publicity blitz by a broadcast ministry called Family Radio, based in Oakland, Calif. The short version: Founder Harold Camping believes through a complex set of numerological calculations, one can date the creation of the world, Noah’s flood and other events described in the Bible, then extrapolate when the Bible “guarantees” the world will end.

Camping contends that God warned Noah that global judgment would occur in seven days. From that he concludes that this refers not only to the Genesis account of the flood but also another day of judgment seven “days” (millennia) later. And to top it off, he concludes that this decree can be dated back exactly 7,000 years from May 21 (based on the Hebrew calendar.)

“The Bible has given us absolute proof that the year 2011 is the end of the world during the Day of Judgment, which will come on the last day of the Day of Judgment,” said his website.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from BBC News.

A former Rutgers University student faces 15 charges after allegedly using a webcam to spy on a homosexual encounter involving his roommate, who committed suicide afterwards.

A Middlesex County grand jury charged Dharun Ravi with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and other charges.

Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped to his death from a bridge on 22 September.

Molly Wei, another student allegedly involved in the incident, was not named in the indictment in New Jersey.

Mr Clementi leapt from the George Washington Bridge in New York City last autumn after Mr Ravi and Ms Wei allegedly used a webcam to spy on him during a romantic encounter with a man.

Mr Ravi and Ms Wei both withdrew from Rutgers University in New Jersey following the incident.

‘Calculated acts’

Mr Ravi was charged on Wednesday with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering and other offences.

The indictment said charges would not be presented to Ms Wei “at this time”.

Mr Ravi’s legal team has said the footage caught on the webcam was streamed to only one computer and that it did not capture the men having sex.

The charges came after Mr Clementi’s family called for a criminal investigation into the case.

“The grand jury indictment spells out cold and calculated acts against our son Tyler by his former college roommate,” the Clementi family said in a statement released after the indictment was returned.

“We are eager to have the process move forward for justice in this case and to reinforce the standards of acceptable conduct in our society.”

Mr Ravi was already facing invasion of privacy charges, as is Ms Wei.

Gay rights organisations have said Mr Clementi’s suicide is an example of a nationwide problem – young people killing themselves after being bullied over their sexuality.

*Taken from ComputerWorld.

An anonymous hacker who calls himself “V” hijacked the projector systems in more than two dozen classrooms at Washington State University (WSU) last week. The hacker asked students to stand up to administrators and then invited them to meet on November Fifth, in one year, to take action on campus.

By hacking into the university’s media services, V projected the video via the school’s distance-learning technology to WSU’s Todd and Sloan Halls. The video replicated a scene from the 2006 film V for Vendetta and called for students to break out of apathy and the “comforts of the everyday routine, the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition” and to rise up against squirrels on campus.

The Chronicle reported, IT officials had to unplug some computer hard drives to stop the hack. Darin Watkins, executive director of WSU external communications, stated, “It was a rather sophisticated program. Traditional ways of shutting down the software wouldn’t work.” Watkins also said no students’ personal or financial information was attached to the infected media system and the threat to the larger university system “was not very serious.”

According to WSU 1812, the blog where hackers and disgruntled students posted, the video’s intended message was, “University officials, it’s time to clean up your act. Listen to your students once in a while. Some of them know what they’re talking about. And students, stop being so apathetic. When you hear or see something that troubles you make your opinion known. Do something about it. Don’t just sit around and play video games or check your Facebook status.”

Although many students allegedly took the video as a prank, the event was labeled by some as a possible prelude to terrorism. The hacker emailed the Daily Evergreen to say, “Some officials seem to be taking what should be interpreted as a simple prank out of context. I have been told that the police are after me. I am and was aware of this possibility; they’re only trying to do their job. If I did my job, they will have a very difficult time finding me. I just hope they realize I’m not worth the effort. There are real criminals out there; they deserve far more attention than I.”

In a statement [PDF] released by WSU, Tom Ambrosi, WSU’s chief information security officer, said, “We see this as a serious breach of our systems and we are dealing with it as such.”

In the same statement, Watkins stated, “The biggest issue with the hack, was that there was system damage. Information Technology Services will be working all weekend to make repairs and ensure classroom technologies are fully functioning by Monday. Some students taking online classes through the distance learning program were also affected.”

System damage that requires all weekend to repair? While it might have caused limited/minor software damage, I emailed Ambrosi to see if it might have been missed patches. I asked if that was what IT had to work on all weekend, patching exploits? If not, what kind of system damage did it cause? Ambrosi did not reply with a comment.

On WSU 1812, the hacker said it caused no damage. “One final note to the AMS people: We didn’t break your computers. They will be back to normal at 5:01 PM. Don’t worry about it. (Unless you tampered with them, in which case you should run the script “c:vuninstall.bat” as Administrator. This script will cleanly remove and reverse all modifications made to the systems.)”

The Daily Evergreen Online reported that V said in an email, “I was hoping that everyone would generate their own list of problems which they are passionate about. If everyone only realized we are all surrounded by the same small common problems, we might just be able to solve them. From there, who knows where we could go.”

In V for Vendetta, V broadcasts a video message calling the British public to take action on November 5. “Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November.”  According to Wikipedia, November Fifth commemorates the anniversary of when Guy Fawkes’s tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament and assassinate King James I.

According to WSU 1812 on Facebook, Google offered the hacker a job. Will the hacker’s video have any lasting impact at the university or be remembered as only a prank? We’ll find out what happens next November Fifth.