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F2C2012: Aaron Swartz keynote - "How we stopped SOPA"

F2C2012

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  • Recommended by 2 people: 2 on Hacker News.
  • Presented by Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit and activist
  • An opinion. It argues one side of a question engineers disagree on.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

500K views14 years ago2 recommendations

History and cultureHistory of computingPrivacy and surveillance

Aaron Swartz delivers a keynote address detailing the grassroots campaign and political maneuvering that successfully stopped the SOPA censorship bill.

Aaron Swartz keynote - "How we stopped SOPA" at F2C:Freedom to Connect 2012, Washington DC on May 21 2012. freedom-to-connect.net/

Why it's here

2 people recommend this, 1 disputes it

What people say. Widely shared as an inspiring and historic talk on internet activism, civil disobedience, and the power of collective action.

kamjamon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Petition To Fire Aaron Swartz’ Prosecutor Reaches Goal”

So the alternative is to do nothing? Which is better? At least this gets some momentum going, hopefully being picked up by press, maybe even them questioning the president about it at some later interview. Doing nothing means nothing will get done. This is probably exactly what the government would like you to do. "The people rose up and caused a sea change in Washington" ~ Aaron Swartz This last part of his speech is so powerful. link to this video
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bguthrieon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Tesla: almost at 100000 votes”

I agree, though other petitions can be effective. If you care about a cause, place your signature on a petition hosted with an organization that will tirelessly advocate for that cause. Organizations in turn live and die by their ability to gather and show support for the causes they fight. If there's anything techies should've learned from the SOPA battle, it's that it is possible to make political change when enough people speak out. If you haven't watched aaronsw's talk on stopping SOPA, it's well worth your time. link to this video
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rz2kon Hacker News • Disputes

On “Join the largest online protest since SOPA to stop NSA spying”

I have a difficult time accepting that as a narrative for what happened to prevent SOPA from becoming law, and am not sure what the implications are for the constellation of topics surrounding privacy and secretive agencies compelling cooperation. To start of with, (1) I don't think that Google et al were intimidated by users' potential wrath in the face of SOPA passing, and (2) do not think that lobbyists countering those in favor of the legislation had any notable effect. To the first part, few people said they were threatening to boycott Google or Facebook, and their threats would not have been credible. Additionally, the list of companies who eventually came out against SOPA do not spend…
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lhnzon Hacker News • Mentions

On “We Need to Have Sympathy for Those With Depression. It is an Illness”

…e world 1? The term 'chemical imbalance' sometimes gets thrown around, and honestly it's probably wrong but there is a truth to it -- often the people that say they have a chemical imbalance are thinking quite rationally but facing terrible emotions that they know they shouldn't have to (from trauma, or an unhealthy subconscious.) 0 link 1 link to this video edit; If you're going to downvote me…
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dansoon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Civil Disobedience”

> But back to civil disobedience. Swartz stole the material, pure and simple, and he seems to feel that he and others have, in this case, the right to steal because they are beholden to a higher moral standard. I am sort of fine with this if he’s willing to accept the consequences, as Ellsberg and the Civil Rights activists were. This argument has been used to discredit Aaron as an activist, and at worst, to paint him as a spoiled sissy. But I'm not so sure that Aaron should be judged as a civil rights activist because I don't think he intended to promote his cause with civil disobedience. Instead, I think Aaron seemed to care more about the successful dissemination of the information, with…
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andreyfon Hacker News • Mentions

On “DOJ Admits Aaron's Prosecution Was Political”

…to happene ... somehow, and the kind of thing you never see in Washington, the senators had all managed to put their personal differences aside, and come together to support one bill they were persuaded they could all live with, a bill that would censor the internet, and when I saw this, I realized, whoever behind this was good i.e. powerful". link to this video…
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jancsikaon Hacker News • Mentions

On “All EFF’d Up”

> Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Mozilla, Reddit, PayPal, Twitter, and scores of smaller tech companies went into battle mode to oppose SOPA and PIPA. This author is getting some basic points wrong in this section that force me to reserve judgment on the entire article. (Unfortunate, since I think it's a great idea for journalists to do the hard work of checking up on orgs like EFF in a broad critique like this.) Aaron Swartz was the one who went into battle mode to oppose these bills, starting with COICA in September 2010. Aaron's own speech on the subject: "Now if you've been reading the press you probably didn't hear this part of the story. As Hollywood has been telling it, the 'Great Goo…
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rgloveron Hacker News • Mentions

On “The TikTok ban is a betrayal of the open internet”

…he commission of an unlawful act described in subsection (a) shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $1,000,000, or if a natural person, may be imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both. I do view TikTok as a covert military campaign (ideological subversion) and do think it should be limited in the West, however, not via this bill. 1 link to this video 2 link…
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