Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian and Fight for the Future (the same group that supplied many sites with the fake takedown code during the SOPA blackout) have gotten together and formed the Internet Defense League. Membership in the league is voluntary and all site owners have to do is sign up with an email address that they can send warning to. In the warning email will also be links to code that can be embedded into a site to get the word out to that site’s readers. This way there can be a concerted effort whenever there is a need to counter a bill like SOPA (and believe me another one will pop up soon).

Fight for the Future was handling this all on their own at one point, but now have some very nice friends to help out. The list includes Reddit, Mozilla, Imgur, Cheezburger Network, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Public Knowledge and of course we signed up as well (we have been on Fight of the Future’s email list for a very long time).

Right now the IDL are working hard to prevent the passage of CISPA, a bill which will allow companies to completely by-pass any and all existing privacy laws. This legislation has been combined with the equally dangerous Cyber Security Act of 2012 which we have talked about before and is really little more than an open book for the large corporations to share your information with the government and other corporations (remember our earlier article about the new NDCAC).

We are waiting to see what the new code will look like for CISPA. The code for SOPA was a fake takedown notice that allowed a person to sign a petition or contact their representative depending on their location. The same was true of the ACTA code they put out. We would expect something similar for CISPA/CSA. More user awareness and action is needed to keep these laws from passing. We cannot all rely on groups like Anonymous to continue their DdoS attacks and have any impact. If anything that is helping to create an aura of fear in Congress and businesses which are pushing for these bills. Only by getting involved and contacting your representatives can you truly voice your opinion on this and remind those in office who they serve.

For those interested Reddit has a listing of all of the senators that have not opposed CISPA/CSA including their phone numbers. Give them a call and leave voice mail expressing your displeasure with their support of this bill (be polite and professional though). Really the minute or so of your time will actually go a long way to help prevent this bill from passing. Just look at what the internet community did with SOPA.

You can spread the word by using the links below or just sahre this article.

Discuss this in our Forum