Join the Internet Vote on April 23!

A Message from Fight for the Future:

“Congress is trying to make sure the public doesn’t have a voice in negotiations around the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They’re trying to “Fast Track” the secret deal, threatening our Internet and our democracy. Fight back by joining the Internet Vote on April 23rd. Together we will use the power of the Web to demand transparency and give people everywhere a voice against censorship.

Twitter is one of our most powerful platforms for making sure decision makers know we’re paying attention. Join our campaign on Twitter and help keep the Internet free of censorship.
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The TPP would be a nightmare for Internet users everywhere — here are a few articles about the worst parts.

  • Force sites to remove allegedly infringing content from the web without a court order — similar to SOPA.
  • Create harsh criminal penalties for journalists and whistleblowers.
  • Punish Internet users who share copyrighted material, even without any personal gain.
  • Limit Fair Use to make copyright even more restrictive on creative innovation.

There are a lot of other reasons groups oppose the TPP beyond its impact on the free and open Internet. You can find out more information about those reasons at StopFastTrack.com.

We need to be as big and visible as possible to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership — that’s the only way we can win this fight. We all need to get as many people in our audiences, readerships, and communities motivated to do something. We can make this powerfully epic, but only if you help. Companies need to be the frontrunners, leaders, and heroes on this because we’ve seen time and time again with SOPA, Reset The Net, and net neutrality that it’s the key ingredient to raising the bar and making sure everyone goes big.

Time is short — Congress is introducing a bill to Fast Track the TPP in the coming weeks, so we need to act now.

The TPP is the kind of bad legislation that only comes along once every 10 or 20 years. It has pieces of every bad Internet policy we’ve fought against, and if it passes now we’ll be kicking ourselves for decades, fighting uphill battle after uphill battle on copyright reform, whistleblower protections, and so much more. Doing the most we can right now is the only rational step to protecting the open Internet.”

To join the fight go to: www.fightforthefuture.org

February 11 – The Day We Fought Back

Yesterday we fought back against mass surveillance! Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, the ACLU, Reddit, Credo, Greenpeace, Fight for the Future, Roots Action, Mozilla, Tumblr, and many, many other organizations banded together for a day to deluge the Congress with phone calls and emails letting them know that we WILL NOT tolerate being spied upon by our government, nor by major corporations seeking to exploit us.

This is an ongoing fight that we must win! You can still take action at: https://thedaywefightback.org/

Wikileaks Publishes Intellectual Property Chapter of TPP!

Yesterday Wikileaks published the chapter on intellectual property of the secretively negotiated Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty, an agreement that would usher in global corporate rule.  Probably the most controversial of all the TPP texts that have been leaked, it would impact medicine, Internet freedom, and more.  See the DemocracyNow! coverage in the video above and the following links for the text on both the IP chapter and the chapter on investment as well as analyses of both.

It is vital that anyone and everyone who cares about Internet freedom, civil liberties, and democracy post this information and call, email, and tweet your representatives in Congress to demand that they VOTE NO ON FAST TRACK, a Nixon-era relic that Obama is trying to resurrect in order to override Congressional oversight on this virulently elitist document that would enrich the few at the expense of the many worldwide and erect a global corporate state unanswerable to the people in the signatory countries.

Here is the link to the intellectual property chapter: http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/TransPacificIP1.pdf

Analysis of the TPP intellectual property chapter on access to medicines:
MSF/Doctors Without Borders’ Release and Memo on How the Trans-Pacific FTA Undermines Access to Medicines

Public Citizen’s Memo on Obama Administration Backtracking from Bush Era Access to Medicine Commitments

MSF/Doctors Without Borders’ White Paper “Trading Away Health”

Public Citizen’s Access to Medicine Analyses Comparing TPP Proposals with Existing Laws and Trade Pacts

The Global Treatment Access Group Paper on the TPP and Access to Medicines

Analysis of the updated TPP intellectual property chapter:
Public Citizen Memo “What’s New in the Wikileaks TPP Text?”

The TPP investment chapter can be found online here

Analysis of the TPP investment chapter:

Global Trade Watch Analysis of Leaked TPP Investment Text

Gordon Campbell on the Trans-Pacific Partnership leaks

Professor Jane Kelsey on the TPP Investment Chapter

Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network Statement on the TPP Investment Chapter

Health GAP Analysis of the TPP Investment Chapter

Flush The TPP Action at U.S. Trade Representative’s Office 9-23-13

The TPP is a toxic, corporate profit-driven agreement that is anti-consumer, anti-environment, anti-worker, and anti-Internet freedom.  Among other things, the TPP will CENSOR THE INTERNET!  They are winding up the secret negotiations: Click here now to send a powerful message to the 12 political leaders who are about to make a decision that will affect generations.

It is crucial to call your representatives in Congress and tell them to oppose Fast Tracking the TPP.  Go to: www.house.gov/representatives to find your representative. Tell him or her to vote NO ON FAST TRACK!!

http://www.flushthetpp.org/letter-to-congress-on-fast-track-and-the-tpp/

http://www.flushthetpp.org/reasons-to-vote-no-on-fast-track/

Also, please sign the petition: http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/congress-dont-renew-fast

Internet Freedom

The Internet is vital to our freedom and to our democracy.  One of the most luminous, gifted individuals who contributed to it was Aaron Swartz, devoted to transparency and open communication.  We honor his memory and we dedicate ourselves to the fight to preserve our First Amendment by resisting SOPA, PIPA, CISPA I and now CISPA II.  For more information on the latest incarnation of CISPA, see:  HR 3523 – CISPA