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

What Hacker News said

Strong rec kamjam · 2013-01 · 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. [this video]

Recommends bguthrie · 2013-07 · 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. [this video]

Cites lhnz · 2013-01 · on “We Need to Have Sympathy for Those With Depression. It is an Illness”

A lot of uniformed people in this thread. You can't generalise as much as you all do. You have to understand that people experience life in very different ways. I have experienced depression [0] but I can't speak for anybody else other than to say I know it's hard and keep on . The real problem with depression is that everybody wants to wash their hands of it. "There are doctors that we can pass these sick people to. The system will sort everything out. That guy's a real downer, I hope he get's help... from somebody else..." I understand that it can be a mood-ruiner and people feel ashamed of it even by association but where is the strength in ignoring things? Compassion would truly be helpf

Cites danso · 2013-02 · 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

Cites andreyf · 2013-02 · on “DOJ Admits Aaron's Prosecution Was Political”

Many people speculated throughout the whole ordeal that this was a political prosecution [...] but Aaron actually didn't believe it was Aaron was an idealist that had some idealistic misconceptions about reality. Being an intelligent and nationally famous activist, which he was well on his way to becoming, is not something you can do without ruffling the feathers of some very powerful people. He knew it [1], but his idealism stopped him from understanding what it meant for him, personally. I'll admit I don't know much about "how Washington really works", but I wouldn't be surprised if those with such power over senators have some sway with prosecutors, as well. 1. "You don't just introduce a

Cites jancsika · 2018-07 · 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

Cites rglover · 2023-03 · on “The TikTok ban is a betrayal of the open internet”

It's been said elsewhere in here but I'm going to parrot because this caught me by surprise and this is on the level of importance of the SOPA [1] craziness back in 2012. The TikTok ban has very little do with TikTok. It's yet another Patriot Act (now, the Restrict Act [2]) style back door to slip in some seriously heinous legislation that could find you fined to the tune of millions, or worse, thrown in jail for 20 years. > A person who willfully commits, willfully attempts to commit, or willfully conspires to commit, or aids or abets in the 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 imp

Critical rz2k · 2013-07 · 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