An OPEN Internet

In response to the continuing debate of proposed law changes and aggressive attacks on freedom of speech and information on the internet, my state Senator is revealing information about her proposed changes to fight piracy and copywrite infringement without sensoring the internet. I’d like your feedback. What do you think of her proposals?

from Senator Maria Cantwell:

Thank you to the thousands of Washingtonians who raised your voices last week to support an open and free Internet. Thanks for your phone calls and emails to our office regarding the PROTECT IP Act.

Like you, I believe that America’s economy thrives on innovation and freedom of speech. The Internet allows entrepreneurs in Washington state and around the world to create ground-breaking companies and fuel economic growth. We cannot afford to rush an Internet policy that could trample on our innovation economy.

That’s why I opposed the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate from the beginning, and have offered an alternative – the OPEN Act. We need to protect creative content on the Internet from piracy by rogue foreign websites, but we must do so in a way that also protects freedom of speech, innovation and security on the Internet. Read more about the OPEN Act here, or read the full bill text here.

A Response from Senator Maria Cantwell Regarding SOPA/PIPA

As many of you know, ÜberSciFiGeek participated in the recent SOPA/PIPA protest by “Going Dark” for a day. All content was blocked and was replaced with information about why we were protesting and how you could learn more. I also took the time to contact my representative via several of the contact forms available through sites like Google and Wikipedia. Today I received a response from my Senator, Maria Cantwell. I felt I should share this with those of you who are following the issue and would like to know where things currently stand.

Thank you for contacting me about the internet streaming of copyrighted material. I appreciate hearing from you on this issue.

On May 12, 2011, Senator Leahy (D-VT) introduced S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act. Under current federal law, U.S. law enforcement officials and holders of copyrights, trademarks, and patents, have limited legal remedies available to combat internet websites that are registered in foreign countries but operate in the United States by selling products, services, and/or content that violates U.S. intellectual property law. If enacted, the proposed legislation would create an expedited process for the Department of Justice and intellectual property rights holders to shut down through a court order these websites by targeting the owners and operators of the Internet site, if known, or the domain name registrant associated with the Internet site.

While I am supportive of the goal of protecting intellectual property, I am deeply concerned that the definitions and the means by which the legislation seeks to accomplish these goals will have unintended consequences and hurt innovation, job creation, and threaten online speech and security. On November 17, 2011, I signed a letter along with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) objecting to the bill as it is currently written.

On December 17, 2011, Senator Wyden introduced the “Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade” (OPEN) Act (S. 2029), of which I am an original co-sponsor. The bill has been referred to the Senate Finance Committee, where it is currently awaiting further review. The OPEN Act is a more effective approach to stop foreign web sites that are found to be primarily and willfully used to infringe intellectual property rights. The OPEN Act builds on the existing legal framework used by the International Trade Commission (ITC) for addressing unfair acts in the importation of articles into the United States, or in their sale for importation, or sale within the United States after importation.

Our trade laws have yet to catch up to deal with the global digital economy. The OPEN Act recognizes that the Internet has created new opportunities for foreign products to reach the U.S. market and that there is little difference between downloading a pirated movie from a foreign website and importing a counterfeit movie DVD from a foreign company. For those foreign web sites that are determined after an investigation to be primarily and willfully infringing, the International Trade Commission will issue a “Cease and Desist” order. The “Cease and Desist” order may also be served on financial intermediaries that provide services to that foreign web site, compelling financial payment processors and online advertising providers to cease doing business with the foreign site in question.  This would cut off financial incentives for this illegal activity and deter these unfair imports from reaching the U.S. market.

The OPEN Act addresses the same challenges as the PROTECT IP Act, while protecting freedom of speech, innovation, and security on the Internet. The challenge of rogue web sites is one that many nations face. The United States has always been seen as a leader on Internet issues. Laws we establish in the United States regarding the Internet are likely to be used as models around the world. And because the Internet is global in nature, it is important that we carefully consider how the laws and policies we adopt in this area may be received and translated by other countries.

The Protect IP Act was scheduled to go to the Senate floor for a procedural vote on January 23, 2011. Due to the effective grassroots advocacy and public outcry against the bill, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has pulled the proposed legislation from the floor calendar.

I appreciate Majority Leader Reid’s decision to postpone a vote on the PROTECT IP Act. America’s economy thrives on innovation and freedom of speech. We can’t afford to rush an Internet policy that could trample on our innovation economy. The American people clearly spoke and their voices were heard. As we move forward, I’ll continue to advocate for a policy that protects both creative content and online freedom of speech.

Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter. You may also be interested in signing up for periodic updates for Washington State residents. If you are interested in subscribing to this update, please visit my website at http://cantwell.senate.gov. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell
United States Senator

For future correspondence with my office, please visit my website at
http://cantwell.senate.gov/contact/

The SOPA Blackout

A lot of people still don’t understand what the big deal is. The media is painting many of the websites that participated in the Blackout as “Pawns” and “Sites that promote Piracy and Illegal Downloads”. That’s not that case at all!

Internet users and websites aren’t against cracking down on digital theft, they are against giving up their freedom of speech and allowing the government to impose the kind of restrictions that are currently in places like China and the Middle East that severely censor what information is available to their citizens. In an article on the LA TIMES website (Read it here), Chinese bloggers express their opinions not only of the blackout but of the freedoms that we have that they lack. Take a look and then ask yourself, “Do I really want to live in a country that has THAT much control over what I am allowed to see, know or even say?” The problem with SOPA and PIPA is the loss of freedom. Under it’s current wording, I could face legal action including jail time for what I’ve just written, including the link back to the LA TIMES. I could have my website taken down and my accounts frozen or deleted. I could be shut down for trying to share information with my readers.

Here’s another scenario: Lets say I created a cute lil bunny character as an online comic strip with intentions to sell t-shirts and eventually toys. I start off with nothing but my wits, paintshop, Cafe Press and/or Zazzle and my own website to feature the comics. I put a couple of years into developing the idea and suddenly, shortly after launching the campaign, some big time toy manufacturer decides that it’s “infringing on their intellectual property” because they have their own bunny toy they are about to launch and decided to use comics as part of their PR campaign. I wake up one morning and my website is gone. My webhosting service has been forced to close my account and all my affiliate and other potential income-making sites have been seized, frozen or closed as well. I’m virtually banned and blocked from trying to promote my homegrown idea because someone with a bigger bank account than me decided to make use of the vague wording in SOPA/PIPA.

While I’m not trying to sell anything illegal, just my own inspiration, my own “intellectual property”, where would someone like me, the startup, the nobody who decided to make use of the wonders of the internet to try to make something of my ideas, get the financial and legal resources to fight something like that?

What happens when one network in your area decides to start blocking content that competes with it’s own content using the same vague language and loopholes in the current version of SOPA/PIPA?

We aren’t criminals. We are all pirates and hackers. We are just people trying to live the American Dream.

Before you start talking around the coffee machine at work about the “pawns” who participated in the Blackout, maybe you should learn a little bit more about the “unintended” consequences of letting these bills pass unchallenged.

While the voting has been delayed, the fight isn’t over yet. Learn more about SOPA, PIPA and other attempts at censoring the internet by doing your own search or check these links:

http://sopablackout.org/

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Also, check out this great explanation from TED:

ARCANA COMICS Announces FCBD, Pre-Orders, and Winter Sale

from Arcana:

Arcana Comics is excited to ring in the new year with a bunch of new books, sales, and an amazing FCBD event! If you haven’t heard, this year, we’re starting a company-wide crossover, kicking off on Free Comic Book Day with INTRINSIC! Read more about that below. Also, our winter sale is still going on, so don’t miss out on that. You can receive 25% off all purchases from our store by entering the code “ARCANAWINTER” at checkout. We’re adding new books all the time, so it’s worth a glance over at our store. Keep reading…

Please remember that all Pre-Orders are Diamond and we’re in the final weeks of ordering from the January 2012 Previews, so if there are any books that pique your interest, be sure to ask you local comic shop to order them. If you’re a store, give Arcana Comics a try!

We’re 175 Graphic Novels and 227 Characters strong and growing every month!

Don’t forget to check out our iPad/iPhone App. It’s a free download in the iStore and gives you access to the Arcana catalog and exclusive downloads! For those Android users out there, there are also Arcana books available through the ComiXology app. DOWNLOAD FROM THE ISTORE.

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY

Arcana is proud to be participating in another Free Comic Book Day this year, but this time we’re doing things quite different. We’re kicking off an AMAZING company-wide crossover called INTRINSIC, which will blow you away. We can’t give a lot away now, but we can provide a sneak peak of the cover to INTRINSIC above, plus a description below. Be sure to ask your local comic book shop to get you a copy of INTRINSIC! You won’t want to miss it… trust us! For the price of free, you can’t go wrong.

DIAMOND CODE: JAN120014
FCBD LINK: CLICK HERE

DESCRIPTION: Horrors from different worlds have assembled to bring about a global threat known only as The End. A Philosopher has recognized the signs in time to gather his own forces for Good – including an ordinary, powerless young woman. Only together can they avert disaster on a biblical scale. Every last one of them… is Intrinsic. ‘Intrinsic’ is a company crossover event bringing together characters from hundres of titles beneath Arcana’s library. It is an event of unprecedented ambition, unlike anything that has been before.

To learn more about ARCANA announcements and upcoming titles and sales, check out their webiste at arcana.com

ABOUT ARCANA STUDIOS

Arcana Studios, Inc. is a transmedia company that has aggressively pursued establishing brands through engaging storytelling and compelling art. With a strong foothold in the print publishing world, Arcana continues to be a premier content provider. Arcana owns one of the world’s largest libraries of graphic novels and comics, and has adapted this library into live action feature films, stereoscopic 3D animated features, episodic television series and toys.

Arcana Studios, Inc. remains independent of major entertainment studio affiliation. Arcana Studios is currently in production of the stereoscopic 3D animated feature, The Clockwork Girl. Arcana is also partnered with Gale Ann Hurd (“Terminator”, “Aliens”) on Gearhead, Alexandra Milchan (Sylvestor Stallone’s “Head Shot”) on Blade of Kumori, Hans Rodinoff and Hollywood Media Bridge (“Lost Boys: The Tribe”) on Raise Kane, Scott Milam (“Mother’s Day”) on Gauze, Ben Magid (“Hack/Slash”) on Trout, Jar Productions (“Hidden Howie”) on Philosopher Rex, Terry Dougas (“The Invention of Lying”) on The Tower, Doc Wyatt (“Napoleon Dynamite”) on 100 Girls, JC Spink (“The Hangover”) on Continuum, Adrian Askarieh (“The Hitman”) on Amnesia and also is producing a three slate at Codeblack/Universal for Light’s Out, Ant and Blam!

Unreal

From fightforthefuture.org:

Today was nuts, right?

Google launched a petition.  Wikipedia voted to shut itself off.  Senators’ websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them.   NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks.

You made history today: nothing like this has ever happened before.  Tech companies and users teamed up.  Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms.  The free network defended itself.  Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear: from today forward, it will be much harder to mess up the internet.

The really crazy part?  We might even win.

Approaching Monday’s crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA.  Last week there were 5.   And it just takes just 41 solid “no” votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate.  What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach.

But don’t trust predictions.  The forces behind SOPA & PIPA (mostly movie companies) can make small changes to these bills until they know they have the votes to pass.  Members of Congress know SOPA & PIPA are unpopular, but they don’t understand why–so they’re easily duped by superficial changes.  The Senate returns next week, and the next few days are critical.  Here are two things to think about:

1. Plan on calling your Senator every day next week.  Pick up the phone each morning and call your Senators’ offices, until they vote “no” on cloture.  If your site participated today, consider running a “Call the Senate” link all next week.

2. Tomorrow, drop in at your Senators’ district offices.  We don’t have a cool map widget to show you the offices nearest you (we’re too exhausted! any takers?).  So do it the old fashioned way: use Google, or the phonebook to find the address, and just walk in, say you oppose PIPA, and urge the Senator to vote “no” on cloture.  These drop-in visits make our spectacular online protests more tangible and credible.

That’s it for now. Be proud and stay on it!

–Holmes, Tiffiniy, and the whole Fight for the Future team.

___

P.S. Huge credit goes to participants in the 11/16 American Censorship Day protest: Mozilla, 4chan, BoingBoing, Tumblr, TGWTG, and thousands of others.  That’s what got this ball rolling!  Reddit, both the community and the team behind it, you’re amazing.  And of course, thanks to the Wikimedians whose patient and inexorable pursuit of the right answer brought them to take world-changing action. Thanks to David S, David K, Cory D, and E Stark for bold action at critical times.

P.P.S. If you haven’t already, show this video to as many people as you can. It works! http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/

Darth Maul Me

From Star Wars:

Join the dark side and become Darth Maul using the free Darth Maul Me mobile app from Star Wars: Episode I in 3D.  Whether you want to turn your face completely into one of Star Wars’ greatest villains, use the partial Darth Maul tattoos, or only give yourself the Sith eyes, Darth Maul Me has an option for you.  Simply take a photo with your camera or use an existing photo to quickly and easily turn yourself into Darth Maul.  Share your creation with your friends and encourage them to join you on the dark side.

 

See Star Wars: Episode I in 3D on the big screen; only in cinemas!

Supported Devices:

iPhone 3GS / 4 / 4S and iPod Touch

Supported OS:

iOS 5 and above.

FAIREST #1

From TFAW:

This March, New York Times best-selling, award-winning creator Bill Willingham presents Fairest, a new series starring the female characters from his Fables series. Balancing horror, humor and adventure, Fairest explores the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red, and many more.
The first 6-issue arc follows the misadventures of Briar Rose after she is stolen away by the goblin army in Fables #107. Fan-favorite artist Phil Jimenez (Wonder Woman, The Invisibles) returns to Vertigo to pencil the opening storyline. Award-winning cover artist Adam Hughes (Wonder Woman, Batgirl) provides covers, starting with a wraparound cover on issue #1.

Each issue will carry a $2.99 cover price, but you’ll save 35% off the first issue when you subscribe to the series or pre-order your copy at TFAW by 1/31! That’s just $1.94. Are you game?

ORDER FAIREST #1 TODAY FOR JUST $1.94
SUBSCRIBE TO FAIREST TODAY & GET ISSUE #1 FOR $1.94

 

Coming March 7: Beyond The Fringe #1

From the mind of Fringe star Joshua Jackson (Peter Bishop), jump Beyond the Fringe with this never-before collected story, previously only available online! In this, his first comics writing gig, Jackson explores key events that take place between seasons three and four of the show.

The stakes are high as Peter undertakes a desperate, time-traveling adventure that Walter believes might save the world.

 

Preorder at TFAW.COM or get the digital version from DC.COM

New Teaser for Detention of the Dead

A new zombie flick from actor-turned-filmmaker Alex Craig Mann is currently in post production with an early 2012 release slated. Even if it wasn’t a zombie film, I’d be interested as it was filmed in Michigan. My home state has turned out some great films and filmmakers over the years – we trolls have talent! Due to the wide variety of scenery including sandy white beaches, mountains, fields, forests and large lakes that can double as oceans, Michigan has been a draw not only for local born talent to build a resume (Such as the Raimi brothers, Bruce Campbell, Jerry Bruckheimer, Francis Ford Coppola, Roger Corman, Albert and Allen Hughes just to name a few)  but other productions seeking to avoid higher taxes and even industry strikes in Hollywood.

Detention of the Dead is a zombie comedy tribute to Michigan native and film Icon John Hughes who gave us such films as Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and dozens of other films that defined a generation of youth. Detention of the Dead is basically a send-up of The Breakfast Club but instead of fighting the over-zealous Principal, they must fight for their lives as the student body becomes zombified.

Detention of the Dead stars Max Adler (Glee), Justin Chon (Twilight), Jayson Blair (The Hard Times of RJ Berger), Christa B. Allen (Revenge, 13 going on 30), Alexa Nikolas (Red State, Zoey 101), and Jacob Zachar (Greek)

 

When there’s no more room in Hell, the dead will go to DETENTION!!!!

It was bound to happen. If you put large group of conformity driven pubescences, aka your average teenager, together for long enough, you can’t be surprised when one day they decide to eat each other…

Comedy and Horror unite in this “The Breakfast Club” meets “Shaun of the Dead” tale about a group of oddball high school students who find themselves trapped in detention during a Zombie Apocalypse. Can they put their differences aside and work together to survive the night? Fat chance! This is High School after all.

 

You can follow updates on Detention of the Dead at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and on their Blog