Announcements

YOU DID IT! MayDay PAC Reaches Its 5 Million Dollar Goal

maydayLessig’s Mayday Hits $5M Kickstarter Goal To Fund Pro-Campaign Finance Reform Politicians

By Josh Constine for TechCrunch

Lessig told TechCrunch this week that while his group pushed for the ambitious $5 million goal in one month because “the urgency is to be able to pick the districts and begin the campaign. (Plus I am a bit of a drama queen).” There wasn’t time to waste.

He framed the campaign finance issue as a problem for the tech industry because corrupt politicians threaten innovation and a fair Internet. “We have no protection for network neutrality because of the enormous influence of cable company’s money in the political system…If NN is your issue, then this is why you should see that politic$ is your issue too” Lessig says.

If the “Super PAC to end all Super PACs” hits its next $12 million goal and succesfully gets candidates elected in its 2014 pilot campaign, it plans to raise orders of magnitude more money to elect an an more pro-campaign finance reform congress in 2016, enact reforms in 2017, and defend them in 2018.

 

Takepart.com Articles

Lessig’s MayDay PAC Fights Fire With Fire – 1 Day left!

We’re a little more than 2/3 of the there (shooting for $5 million by July 4 is the goal). But there’s still time!

DONATE NOW

If you’re just sitting down to this now – that’s great! Here’s a short article that will get you up to speed quickly:

Fighting Fire With Fire: Super PAC Raises Money to Reform Campaign Finance

By Isabel Weisz for Takepart.com

From the article:

Lessig’s Mayday PAC is crowdsourcing donations in an attempt to revamp the system and change the way campaigns and elections are funded.

Mayday is also dubbing itself the Internet’s Super PAC, ready to defend the Internet from “a steady stream of threats and challenges to a free and open Internet,” according to the site. Those threats include net neutrality, SOPA and PIPA, and other regulatory issues…

By Friday we’ll see if the MayDay PAC hits its $5 million goal and is on track to end all super PACs with this new super PAC.

Here’s the timeline. The goal is to raise $5 million by July 5. The MayDay PAC aims to get campaign finance reform–minded candidates elected in 2016 and then help them get fundamental reforms passed. If the MayDay PAC succeeds, it hopes to have big money and corporate influence out of politics by 2018—and we might need to rename that date America’s New Independence Day.

MayDay PAC: The PAC to end all SuperPACs

 

Takepart.com Articles

Op Ed By Noah Swartz: My Brother Aaron Changed the Internet Forever

My Brother Aaron Changed the Internet Forever

Noah Swartz is on the organizing team for this year’s Aaron Swartz Day and International Hackathon, which happens on November 8th, all over the world.

By Noah Swartz for Takepart.com

From the article:

So when mere months after his death Edward Snowden released his cache of internal NSA files, and we the public and the media all struggled to understand it and figure out what to do, it was hard not to miss Aaron immensely. It was a surprise of sorts seeing that I wasn’t the only one who looked to Aaron for guidance, and that I wasn’t the only one having a hard time without him. Remember when Wikipedia blacked out to protest SOPA/PIPA? A lot of people wondered why something similar didn’t happen in protest of the NSA, why something similar didn’t happen more recently in the fight for net neutrality. The answer, in large part, is because Aaron isn’t around anymore to do these things. To motivate and guide us.

In a deeply personal way Aaron lives on in me, but similarly his ideals live on in a whole crowd of organizations and people he collaborated with. Demand Progress is still running strong, with David Segal at its helm. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is still fighting for tech law reform, with Cindy Cohen as legal director and Peter Eckersley and Seth Schoen advising it on tech. The Freedom of the Press Foundation is supporting projects like SecureDrop, a tool Aaron helped develop to protect the anonymity of journalistic sources, and Fight for the Future is educating people about net neutrality.

Aaron Swartz International Hackathon website.

The Internet's Own Boy - Screenings

See “The Internet’s Own Boy” In Theaters and Online on June 27th

See “The Internet’s Own Boy” Website for online details.

June 26 – Los Gatos Theater

June 27 Theater Dates:

Los Angeles – Sundance Cinemas

New York – IFC Center

Toronto – Bloor Hot Docs

Chicago – Gene Siskel Film Center

Denver – SIE FilmCenter

Washington D.C. – West End Cinema

Miami – O Cinema

Cleveland – Cedar Lee Theater

Atlanta – Plaza Atlanta Theater

Pasadena – Laemmie’s Playhouse 7

Columbus, OH – Gateway Film Center

JUNE 30

VANCOUVER (Vancity Theater)

ALBANY, NY (Spectrum 8 Theaters)

The Internet's Own Boy - Press

“The Internet’s Own Boy” is a New York Times Critics’ Pick!

A Prodigious Beginning, Then an Early Ending                                               By Jeannette Catsoulis for the New York Times                                      June 26, 2014

Moving and maddening in almost equal measure, Brian Knappenberger’s “The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz” is a devastating meditation on what can happen when a prescient thinker challenges corporate interests and the power of the state.

The Internet's Own Boy - Press

Variety on “The Internet’s Own Boy” June 27 Release

Aaron Swartz Documentary ‘Internet’s Own Boy’ Set for June 27 Release

“We wanted to bring Aaron’s story to as many people as possible, so the day ‘The Internet’s Own Boy’ debuts in theaters, we are also offering the film across a variety of digital services and platforms in a model fitting with what Aaron architected and stood for” said Knappenberger…

The film explores the arrest, the prosecution’s tactics in bringing the case to trial through the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the possible future of information access on the Internet.

Geoff Berkshire gave the film a strong review for Variety, calling it “spellbinding.”

Reform the CFAA, Takepart.com Articles

References for Takepart.com Article About CFAA Reform

Reference Links for TakePart.com Article on the CFAA:
  “7 Things You Might Be Doing Online That Could Get You Arrested”:

1. The EFF’s Computer Fraud And Abuse Act Reform https://www.eff.org/issues/cfaa

2. Farewell to Aaron Swartz, an Extraordinary Hacker and Activist
By Peter Eckersley
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/farewell-aaron-swartz

3. Rebooting Computer Crime Law Part 1: No Prison Time For Violating Terms of Service
By Marcia Hoffman and Rainey Reitman
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/01/rebooting-computer-crime-law-part-1-no-prison-time-for-violating-terms-of-service

4. Aaron Swartz’s Father: My Son Was ‘Killed by the Government’
By Matthew Fleischer for TakePart.com
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/01/16/aaron-swartzs-father-government-killed-my-son

5. The Truth about Aaron Swartz’s “Crime” By Alex Stamos
http://unhandled.com/2013/01/12/the-truth-about-aaron-swartzs-crime/

6. This Is the MIT Surveillance Video That Undid Aaron Swartz
By Kevin Poulsen for Wired
http://www.wired.com/2013/12/swartz-video/

7. Booking Video: Aaron Swartz Jokes, Jousts With Cops After MIT Bust
By Kevin Poulsen for Wired
http://www.wired.com/2014/04/aaron-swartz-booking-video/

8. Until Today, If You Were 17, It Could Have Been Illegal To Read Seventeen.com Under the CFAA
By Dave Maass and Kurt Opsahl and Trevor Timm
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/until-today-if-you-were-17-it-could-have-been-illegal-read-seventeencom-under-cfaa

9. Today, we save the Internet (again): fix the CFAA!
by Cory Doctorow for BoingBoing
http://boingboing.net/2013/04/08/today-we-save-the-internet-a.html

10. Swartz didn’t face prison until feds took over case, report says
By Declan McCullagh for CNET
http://www.cnet.com/news/swartz-didnt-face-prison-until-feds-took-over-case-report-says/

November 11 2023 – 11 am -6:30 pm PST