The "bat signal" for the Internet | Hacker News Reader

The "bat signal" for the Internet

internetdefenseleague.org

143 pointsmayop10021 comments

I wish it stated whether it's a US-centric initiative or not. And, if it's not, I wish it registered the country of the subscriber.

They state that there will be "code that activates automatically according to criteria you specify (e.g. SOPA returns)". I'd hope that includes the ability to activate only depending on the country of origin as well.

Sadly for me, American law has a large impact in Australia even though we're half a world away. The Australian government tend to justify a number of stupid laws and decisions with "but America's doing it and we're their friends". As such I'd personally elect to still trigger on American issues as they're still felt (although delayed) in Australia.

Terrible choice of domain name. Defence league is generally used by right wing extremist organisations.

Thread from an article on this initiative: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4024144

This really is an awful domain name that could seriously damage the cause. It evokes the likes of EDL, JDL, and VCDL. Try searching for defense league.

Is there an example somewhere of how the signal would appear on a participating website?

linked from github page https://github.com/fightforthefuture/internet_defense_league

I wonder how much it will take until these blackouts become an everyday thing.

Shouldn't we the people be actively pressing for legislation against these kinds of bills instead of simply making an outcry when they get proposed?

There's the Open Internet Act from some Redditors: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nei0Q_-th2J0fkqZU0hyBrSK...

Generally, yes, but the cultural disconnect between DC and the tech community means that we just don't have the infrastructure in place to do more than sporadic defense, not consistent, active defense, let alone legislative offense.

(1) This kind of "bat signal" is how a small group of dedicated people organize a large group of less dedicated people to press for or against legislation. It's a clever way to create a cheap, effective organization to do what you're proposing. It's not an either/or, it's step one.

(2) Cheap doesn't mean free, which is why we're in a pretty reactive mode. Check out this chart of lobbying money spent by the entertainment industry vs. the tech industry:*

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68448_Page4.html

Getting a bill passed on the national level means having someone with access to 500-odd legislators meet and explain it to them, plus explaining convincingly why it won't seriously hurt them in the next election, which in turn means having a convincing case on the campaign contributions vs. public support equation. All of that translates to money (although the larger and more sophisticated your organization, the less money you need. See step one.)

* Of course "entertainment industry" vs. "tech industry" is a little weird, since tech is a tool often used for transmitting entertainment. Sony or Apple or Amazon probably pick one side of the line or the other as much as a matter of temperament as a matter of business.

I expected a bit more than just the Stop Censorship Cloudflare Application...

s/bat/cat ;)

Seems like a solid way to activate the online community in a more regular, flat fashion. If it plugs into the rest of Fight For The Future's Network, I can easily see a dynamic network formed, connecting online activists and their social graphs to the phone networks of DC or other such politically efficacious actions.

Really cool idea. It would be nice if you could see who has signed up so far.

How can they not accept bitcoin donations?

Because bitcoins are almost worthless since they are hard to convert into anything useful like web hosting or USD to pay lobbiests and other such folk?

Bitcoin is easy to convert to cash! I don't think anyone will actually donate bitcoin though.

Bad reputation, I suspect. "This organization was funded by black-market currency."

Gosh the website is sexy

And yet they forgot to add a favicon :)

I fail to understand why registration is required. The action (putting script in website code) is to be done by users.

My impression from the page is that they send you a code specific to a threat (or whatever they end up calling them) when it happens, then you make a decision to add it to your site or not. Rather than dropping in a code and letting them add banners and blackouts whenever they please.

Not on a mobile it's not.

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