We need an Internet First Amendment Legal Defense Group

[Stephanie]

We need an organization and attorneys to volunteer to defend freedom of speech on the internet. We need to form the ACLU of the internet. Our activists are speaking out and we need to be ready to defend them from attack.

*edit, changed the title

[madrchsod]

1. we need to join up

with the people who are fighting the file sharing battle. if you`re interested in this check out the filesharing websites,zeropaid and others. also google "accops" this is really a bad deal for everyone on the net,very ,very bad.

[Stephanie]

2. I think this group should be independent

There are some shared issues that could coincide, but internet journalism and activism need to be supported independently, IMO.

[hang a left]

3. I was thinking about this today when

I was running around doing errands. What happens if these freaks take away our internet? I can't remember, but I was reading an article not long ago respecting the state of our media. The author makes the statement that right now we can get our information and true news on the internet, until they have to go "underground" What an awful thought.

[Stephanie]

4. Do you know which organizations

defend journalists on First Amendment grounds? It should be modeled after that, but separate.

[grasswire]

9. those....

....who are doing investigative writing for established web sites could join IRE, which provides group support and professional status. http://www.ire.org.

Also people might think about joining the National Writers Union. Its vice president Dan Moldea is very much in tune with the need to protect writers. http://www.nwu.org

[Stephanie]

11. Do they defend individual cases?

If a site gets hit with a SLAAP suit, or something similar, would they locate an attorney and provide funds?

[althecat]

5. hear hear....... count me in as a supporter....

There are already numerous victims of Ashcroft's jackboots.

Raisethefist http://www.raisethefist.com
&
Voxfux http://www.voxfux.com/

are but two of the better known ones. The tactic has been textbook. Pick off those on the fringe first. But there are a lot of normal people out there in the Internet publishing biz who are wondering when the Nazis will start to widen their net.

Several sober middle aged US patriots (not BBVers in case that springs to Fredda's mind) who regularly exercise their rights to free speech have recently asked me about emigration to NZ...

There is most definitely a need for what you are suggesting Stephanie.

[hang a left]

8. Just a note respecting Fredda

I don't know if it is the same Fredda Weinberg, but Greg Pallast in his book The Best Democracy that Money Can Buy, which I am reading now recognizes this woman. On page 13 Greg states "Cyber-wizard Fredda Weinberg of Delray Beach, Florida, deserves special praise for cracking the disks and for indefatigable fact-mining;

[Stephanie]

12. That was then, this is now

.

[althecat]

6. Several of the Indymedia collectives have legal representation...

The place to organise something like this may well start there...

[G_j]

7. you might find this of interest

EFF Blue Ribbon Campaign For Free Speech Online
http://www.eff.org/br/

[Stephanie]

10. Mmmhmmm, that's good. Seems oriented to technology

and copyright.

Today's Issues

While early threats to our right to communicate came from the government, current threats come also from industry, as it seeks to control and expand current revenue sources at the expense of traditional fair use. The trend has been for industry to use a combination of law and technology to suppress the rights of people using technology. Nowhere is this more evident than in the world of copyright law, where the movie and recording studios are trying to dumb down technology to serve their "bottom lines" and manipulate copyright laws to tip the delicate balance toward intellectual property ownership and away from the right to think and speak freely.

We would have to narrow the focus to political speech, I think.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

13. There are already a few

here's one:
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=11507

and there are many lawyers across the nation that have made SLAPP suits their mission. The strategy is to defend against them and counterfile for malicious prosecution.

Some of the tobacco suit lawyers have now taken up the cause and the field is expanding.