Silicon Valley PIPA / SOPA Protest
Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 12:00 PM
Selected By: Jonathan Nelson
Global PIPA / SOPA protests are a go. #NoPIPASF
Websites all over the globe are going Dark to protest radical copyright legislation.
Tech meetup groups around the country are joining forces to rally against PIPA.
Join us for a rally in San Francisco on Wednesday starting at12:00pm
Let's save the internet... really.
***Update ***
Speakers:
Brewster Kahle, Founder of Internet Archive is speaking.
Gideon Lett: VP Policy Governmental Affairs for Technet.org
Jonathan Nelson: Founder Hackers & Founders
*** Update ***
If you are joining in having your site go down, here's a blackout script: https://github.com/SaraJo/SOPA-PIPA-Protest...
In detail:
Tech Startups are one of the few bright spots on the global economy. We were under threat from SOPA, and are still under threat from PIPA, or whatever the media moguls decide to call their protectionist agenda next.
Right now, we're being written off as a loud but unimportant vocal minority.
I feel very strongly that we need to educate the population at large, clearly and succinctly.
Our memes:
We are the job creators
Tech companies are bringing the economy back from the brink
Laws like SOPA and PIPA break the internet
If PIPA gets made into law, startups will die
Radical, protectionist copyright legislation like PIPA is terrible for the economy
We want media moguls to innovate, not legislate
These laws are job killers.
Please join us.
Hackers & Founders is joining forces with tech meetup organizers around the country. We'll be holding rallies in New York, Washington DC, Seattle and Silicon Valley to put a public face to the online protests and blackouts that are still moving forward this Wednesday.
Silicon Valley groups involved:
Hackers & Founders,
106 Miles,
SV NewTech,
SF NewTEch,
Designers and Geeks,
Hacks & Hackers,
Electronic Frontier Foundation,
Internet Archive,
TechNetinvite everyone you can...
The Problem:
Even though the DNS blocking provisions have been removed from the Senate PIPA bill it is still toxic.
Both California Senators, Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein are co sponsors of the PIPA bill in the Senate. We need registered voters to call / email Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer's offices and voice their opposition to these bills and to voice their opposition to radical copyright laws like these.
The goals:
1. Give a human face to the online protests this Wednesday
2. Have a phone call drive to have people call their Senators and representatives right then and there.
3. Focus media attention to the largest legislative threat the internet and startups have ever faced.
4. Educate the public about how toxic this legislation would be to startups.
5. Be calm, respectful, stay off the sidewalks and clean up after ourselves.
To pull this off, we need:
As many people as possible to attend rallies around the country on Wednesday
Attract national media attention.
Convince as many people as possible to call / email their senators their opposition to these bills and the radical copyright agenda of the media moguls of the MPAA and RIAA.
Pro Tip:
What lobbyists do is simply convince as many people as possible to call their Senators and Representatives and register opposition to a bill.
Let's do this.
Senator Barbara Boxer's contact information:
DC: [masked]
District: [masked]or email her via Contact Congress.
Instructions on what to say to register your opposition.
Senator Diane Feinstein's contact information:
DC: [masked]
District: [masked]or email her via Contact Congress.
Instructions on what to say to register your opposition.
Majority Senate leader Harry Reid
[masked] (leave a comment)Judiciary Committee
(ask for them and leave your message)
[masked]
Then, in the next few months, we need to talk about how we can fix these problems long term, rather than just react to these issues all the time.
I believe we need to create a Startup PAC to educate legislators and their staffers on these issues. There's a lot of other issues that a Startup PAC could take on to improve our industry and promote it:
Startup Visa
Immigration reform so people on H1B's can have expect green cards in reasonable time frames
Copyright reform
Crowdfunding
Patent reform
Creation of health care exchanges for small companies, solo founders and contractors to purchase health insurance as a group
Net neutrality
Creation of an early warning system for terrible tech legislation like SOPA/PIPAWorst case scenario... This turns into the largest H&F meetup ever.
Besides, what else are you going to do? Cheezeburger and Reddit will both be down.
And, please with the Twitter, the Social Media-ing, the Social News-ing and the Facebookifying.
Thanks,
Jonathan
DANCING NEBULA
When the gods dance...
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Silicon Valley PIPA / SOPA Protest - Hackers and Founders (Mountain View, CA) - Meetup
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