Free Dominion Internet Defense Fund Initiative

[ChangingColours]

Therefore I have a challenge to FD members:

Who can come up with the pithiest, most catchy and best comment on internet censorship in roughly 80 words or 500 characters (including spaces) to post to the fundraiser site. http://www.indiegogo.com/freedominion?c=comments&a=797875

Your silence today will be echoed tomorrow.

[WestViking]

I have used some material on this thread to pull together a piece for the fundraiser site:

This is Your Fight too:

Anyone who thinks that they do not have an interest in this effort is mistaken. If you operate a blog, chat room, forum or any site where you allow others to make comments and observations, or if you participate on such sites, some people want to limit your participation in public debate. They do not want others to hear your opinions or views. They want to control public discussion.

The internet allows millions including those at home or who may be immobile or disabled to join in a form of coffee shop chatter, conversation and debate. Restricting the internet amounts to blocking many people from participating in public dialogue. All people are important - so are their arguments and opinions.

And it goes so much further - including the censorship many don't see. The CBC never opens their comment feedback section on any news story involving Muslim based atrocities or terror related items for example. Try entering an opinion at a site you own on Omar Khadr for instance. You don't have the option. They can report later that Canadians are tolerant of Islam when a great many of us are not.

Libel chill can kill internet discussion and debate as we now know it. If site owners are forced into to taking responsibility for whatever is posted to their site and are libel for any defamatory posting, they will have no option but to screen all posts for approval. We will be back to the days when a political debate took place over days instead of hours. Worse, forced into surrogate censorship, owners will edit to avoid legal entanglements stifling our use of fair comment and fairly held opinion.

Even then, no one is safe as under current defamation law, a complainant only has to show that a phrase he considers defamatory was printed on the internet. The person charged and site owner must then prove that the words cited are not defamatory. The costs of defending a couple of alleged defamations can put a web site owner out of business even if the allegations are baseless.

As long as we can post an issue to a web site and then dozens or even hundreds of others chime in with their views, politicians and governments cannot channel or limit debate. The internet has not only opened public dialogue to millions of people in North America, the discussions forums have made media outlets and politicians at every level very, very nervous. So far, they have not been able to control internet content.

If we can strike fear into the hearts of those who seek to control us, we can get our country back from their clutches. If they can use libel chill to stifle our voices, they will control public dialogue and enslave us.

[backhoe]

I've been beating that old "if you can't speak freely, you aren't really free" horse for years:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1355731/posts?page=14#14
14 posted on Friday, March 04, 2005 4:28:47 AM by backhoe (-30-)

[Blaze Pascal]

I've been beating that old "if you can't speak freely, you aren't really free" horse for years:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1355731/posts?page=14#14
14 posted on Friday, March 04, 2005 4:28:47 AM by backhoe (-30-)

I would ask everyone to join Free Republic and the other forums listed on their home page, and over the next week or so to post the link to our Fundraiser at every one of them.

[Connie Fournier]

Things are picking up. More blogs are starting to share this. It is very encouraging!

Another way you can help, if you have some time, is to visit the blogs who are helping us and leave a thank you comment. I'm going to try to do that myself, but I'm really afraid I will miss some!

http://blog.xanthippas.com/2012/06/29/t ... undraiser/
http://propagandistmag.com/2012/06/29/p ... send-money
http://andrewmphillips.net/

[WestViking]

Therefore I have a challenge to FD members:

Who can come up with the pithiest, most catchy and best comment on internet censorship in roughly 80 words or 500 characters (including spaces) to post to the fundraiser site. http://www.indiegogo.com/freedominion?c=comments&a=797875

Your silence today will be echoed tomorrow.

That is a contender. Please addthe comment to the fundraiser site - or ask me to put it up for you if you wish.

[Connie Fournier]

Therefore I have a challenge to FD members:

Who can come up with the pithiest, most catchy and best comment on internet censorship in roughly 80 words or 500 characters (including spaces) to post to the fundraiser site. http://www.indiegogo.com/freedominion?c=comments&a=797875

Your silence today will be echoed tomorrow.

That is a contender. Please addthe comment to the fundraiser site - or ask me to put it up for you if you wish.

Yes, more comments move us closer to page one (we are now at page 4). And, I think that unique commenters count, so if you don't mind putting it up yourself, CC, it will probably help even more than if WV does it.

[WestViking]

Therefore I have a challenge to FD members:

Who can come up with the pithiest, most catchy and best comment on internet censorship in roughly 80 words or 500 characters (including spaces) to post to the fundraiser site. http://www.indiegogo.com/freedominion?c=comments&a=797875

Your silence today will be echoed tomorrow.

That is a contender. Please addthe comment to the fundraiser site - or ask me to put it up for you if you wish.

Yes, more comments move us closer to page one (we are now at page 4). And, I think that unique commenters count, so if you don't mind putting it up yourself, CC, it will probably help even more than if WV does it.

No one can predict what comment or phrase will resonate with readers and cause them to participate or donate. Attribution is important on the internet. The originator should be properly identifed with his or her work. Who knows - the phrase may become an often quoted legend.

[Blaze Pascal]

Connie, the first three links on the Gallery tab are not working properly. They take you to some sort of directory.

http://www.indiegogo.com/freedominion?c ... y&a=796647

[Connie Fournier]

Connie, the first three links on the Gallery tab are not working properly. They take you to some sort of directory.

http://www.indiegogo.com/freedominion?c ... y&a=796647

I can't duplicate your error. When I click on the top three links, they download docx documents that WestViking uploaded. Maybe you can't open Word docs on your computer?

By the way, I'm working on that other task.

[styky]

Things are picking up. More blogs are starting to share this. It is very encouraging!

Another way you can help, if you have some time, is to visit the blogs who are helping us and leave a thank you comment. I'm going to try to do that myself, but I'm really afraid I will miss some!

http://blog.xanthippas.com/2012/06/29/t ... undraiser/
http://propagandistmag.com/2012/06/29/p ... send-money
http://andrewmphillips.net/

The link for http://propagandistmag.com/2012/06/29/p ... send-money shows up in google news

[Connie Fournier]

That's great, styky! We've raised $967 over there, and it is now on page 3 of the Technology section. If FDers continue to go over there and comment or tweet or share the page we can get onto page one before the end of the weekend, I'll bet!

[fourhorses]

[fourhorses]

Not a lot considering the target number, but hope it helps get you there

$ 250.oo





Connie - pls post a mail to address here
where those preferring the archaic mail system can contribute

[styky]

The balance now stands at $1,217