Showing posts with label Fight for the Future. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fight for the Future. Show all posts

Thursday 23 April 2015

Urgent Call-out, For Net Neutrality.

      Despite the recent victory to keep net-neutrality on the Internet, the big corporations, as usual, don't accept defeat easily, and are trying to get their way, and control the Internet, by other means.
     If we don’t stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) it will do more damage to the Internet than any other deal in history.
That’s why today we’re working with hundreds of websites to flood Congress with calls demanding they oppose putting this secret deal on a Fast Track to approval.
For Team Internet,
Fight for the Future
P.S. Looking for more information about the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Check out this overview.
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Friday 13 March 2015

Comcast And Net Neutrality

     A massive battle to save net neutrality has been won, but the corporate power of Comcast is still attempting to reverse that victory. We won because of the massive response of ordinary people across the globe, their persistence and organisation was a tribute to people power, proving we can change the world, if we all come together. However we have to be ever vigilant and ready to resume the struggle.
Good news. This morning, the FCC released the full text of the historic new net neutrality rules, and now it’s clearer than ever that these rules will protect free speech, and that Comcast and their allies in Congress have been lying to you.
You can read them in full here -- but since it's 313 pages (of fiery, Comcast-slaying justice), we wanted to give you a quick rundown of what the rules do and don't do. But don't stop reading after the summary, because Comcast is already on the attack and there's more to do right now.
  • ISP’s and their friends in government can't block you from visiting a website. So you can visit any site that you want.
  • They can't slow down access to websites. So the sites you want to visit will come to you as quickly as the sites Comcast wishes you were visiting.
  • They can't speed up or make certain websites load faster. This is absolutely critical, because if they could speed up certain sites, that functionally means slowing down other sites.
  • They can’t get between you and any content, application, service, or anything else that you want to access online. That is explicitly one of the rules. Just in case the other rules don’t cover something.
  • There are no new taxes or fees anywhere in the rules, and there’s nothing limiting investment. At all. Period.
All of that is to say two simple, wonderful words: we won. And not only that, we won because of the work of people like you. Activism is mentioned time and again in the rules, and there’s barely an article written that doesn’t talk about it.
But the fight isn't over yet. Comcast has been scheming about how to use a corrupt Congress to kill net neutrality since before the FCC even voted on the rules. Last week, the House introduced a bill to kill the rules. Next week, there are three different hearings about them.
We can't let Comcast’s attacks get any traction -- these new rules do everything that the public fought for. Now we need to defend them and end this fight for good.
These rules are built on almost a decade of groundwork, but the last year is when we really kicked this fight into high gear. Check out our timeline of everything that happened over the last year, from camping out outside of the FCC, to some of the largest Internet protests in history.
Thanks for helping us win net neutrality -- and for helping us protect it.
Charlie, Tiffiniy, Holmes, Evan, Jeff, and everyone at Fight for the Future
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Wednesday 25 February 2015

Net Neutrality, Is Almost There.



       The fight for net neutrality is starting to look like a success story, not quite yet, but it could be in sight. All because of world wide solidarity and mobilisation. Together we can change the world, on many more fronts.
The first thing I read this morning gave me chills.

      The New York Times ran a front page story about how enemies of net neutrality are on the retreat, and that tomorrow, we could see the biggest open Internet victory of our lives. [1]
Bottom line: together, we are on the cusp of an absolutely unbelievably epic victory for net neutrality. Do you want to savor it? Watch this video we made!
      We whipped up this fun little video to mark the “final” moments of the Internet Countdown, and to look back on how we got here, together. It’s so mind blowing to think how all these online protests, real life camp-outs, calls, emails and epic stunts snowballed into what could be the biggest win of our lives. It could be even bigger than defeating SOPA. [2][3]
      Keep an eye on the news tomorrow, and remember: activism works. When tons of people come together with a clear vision, nothing’s impossible. Really! Getting to where we are right now was supposed to be impossible!!
Can’t watch a video right now? Would you rather be scolding some politicians on the phone? Then click here to start making phone calls!
      The House Energy and Commerce subcommittee just had a hearing today whose sole purpose was to kill net neutrality with partisan confusion. That’s what we’re up against now, and we need to smack it down hard if we want to defend any victory. Click here to call these committee members, and stay on the line for as long as you like; we’ll keep connecting you with more of them… until you hang up or your phone runs out of batteries :)

     Thanks for everything you do,
Holmes Wilson, Tiffiniy Cheng, Evan Greer, Vasjen Katro, Jeff Lyons, Laila Murad, and the whole Fight for the Future team.
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/technology/path-clears-for-net-neutrality-ahead-of-fcc-vote.html
2. http://www.forbes.com/sites/marvinammori/2015/02/25/ten-reasons-the-net-neutrality-victory-is-bigger-than-the-sopa-win/
3. http://www.wetmachine.com/tales-of-the-sausage-factory/the-fcc-is-gonna-give-me-an-open-internet-for-my-birthday-best-present-evar/

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Tuesday 3 February 2015

Update On Net Neutrality.


     The latest on net neutrality, keep up the pressure, this from Fight for the Future:

Hey,
     I know Evan emailed you earlier today, but this is urgent. Media reports are coming out about FCC's forthcoming rules, and for the most part they sound really, really good. But, there’s one important detail, a loophole that might still let Comcast mess with services like Netflix. Can you send the FCC an email right now?
We need you. Click here to tell the FCC: "Don't mess with Netflix"
         (In most email apps–including gmail–this will start a new email to a list of key FCC employees. Then just click send. If it doesn’t work, reply to let us know.)
Things are moving really fast right now, and we’ll know more soon. But journalists at the Wall Street Journal have been briefed on the FCC’s latest plans, and it looks like the FCC will be giving cable companies like Comcast some ability to charge “interconnection fees.”
These fees are the reason Comcast forced broken and “buffering” video on millions of its own customers, just to extort money from Netflix.

      We still don’t know the details of the rules yet. Probably even the Wall Street Journal hasn’t seen the exact text. And, if early reports are true, we could be looking at a huge victory for net neutrality. The rules look better than anybody ever thought the y’d be.
      But we wanted to sound the alarm. As we move into the end game, we need the FCC to know we’re watching, and that we’re dead serious about getting net neutrality done right, with no loopholes for the cable companies to exploit. If there’s a big loophole (and it looks like there might be) let’s do everything we can to fix it right now. Are you with us?
We need you. Click here to tell the FCC: "Don't mess with Netflix"

Thanks for doing this.
Sincerely,
Holmes Wilson and the Fight for the Future team.
      If the links above don't work for you, here's the text of the email and who to send it to:

Subject: Don’t mess with Netflix
To: wheeler@fcc.gov
BCC:jonathan.sallet@fcc.gov,debra.weiner@fcc.gov,jacob.lewis@fcc.gov,
michele.ellison@fcc.gov,mignon.clyburn@fcc.gov,adonis.hoffman@fcc.gov,
rebekah.goodheart@fcc.gov,louis.peraertz@fcc.gov,daniel.alvarez@fcc.gov,
ruth.milkman@fcc.gov,gigi.sohn@fcc.gov,philip.verveer@fcc.gov,
maria.kirby@fcc.gov,diane.cornell@fcc.gov,renee.gregory@fcc.gov,
matthew.berry@fcc.gov,nicholas.degani@fcc.gov,ajit.pai@fcc.gov,
mike.orielly@fcc.gov,amy.bender@fcc.gov,shannon.gilson@fcc.gov,
mark.wigfield@fcc.gov,kim.hart@fcc.gov,jonathan.chambers@fcc.gov,
jon.wilkins@fcc.gov,julie.veach@fcc.gov,matthew.delnero@fcc.gov,
roger.sherman@fcc.gov,kris.monteith@fcc.gov,team@fightforthefuture.org

Dear FCC,
          I don't want Youtube, Netflix, Vimeo or *any* online video to look like this: http://gph.to/1D7oxY7
        If you let cable companies charge interconnection fees, Comcast will keep slowing sites down until they cough up more cash.
        Every American Internet user will suffer, and they’ll blame the FCC (and, likely, Obama) for not closing this loophole when they had the chance. I sincerely hope that the Wall Street Journal is wrong, and that your rules will ban these shakedown tactics outright.

Sincerely,
Everyone who watches video online.

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 Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Monday 2 February 2015

Internet Neutrality.







     The internet is an important part of our day to day life, making net neutrality a very critical issue for us all.
Here is the latest update on this issue from, Fight for the Future:
 Dear Fight for the Future member,
     To put it bluntly, it’s time to get serious. If you care about the Internet, click here to join the Internet Countdown.
     The FCC’s proposed net neutrality rules are expected to drop this week. What matters most right now is that we keep up a constant and sustained barrage of online protest between now and the vote calling for the best possible protections for a free and open web.
     The Internet is awesome at defending itself. As always, we’ve built the tools to make it easy for *EVERYONE* to maximize their potential as an Internet defending hero.
      Participating is easy. If you have a website, blog, or Tumblr, you can grab a snippet of code to display this awesome countdown timer on your site, and help drive phone calls and emails to lawmakers in DC. If not, you can join with Twitter, and sign up to tweet the countdown, like this, either once a day, once a week, or just once before the vote on Feb 26th, it’s your choice.
     Thousands have already signed up, helping us reach more than 3.4 million people every day already. If even just half the people on our list did this, we’ll be louder than anything Comcast can dish out.
    The atmosphere here at Fight for the Future is electric right now. We’re on the cusp of a victory that no one thought was possible, and we owe it all to supporters like you.
With gratitude and hope,
-Evan at FFTF
    P.S. Exciting news! CREDO selected us to receive donations from their customers this month! The more votes we get, the more funds we’ll receive to fight for Internet freedom. To be clear: this is a way you can fund our work, even if you have no money to give. Tens of thousands of dollars are at stake.  Please click here and vote for Fight for the Future! It could make a huge difference. Thanks!
     P.P.S There’s an excellent article in The Guardian today that tells the saga of how a scrappy band of Internet freedom activists managed to beat Big Cable on net neutrality against all odds. We’re quoted in it. Check it out and share..
Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk