missing-e:

~ Your Freedom To Use Your Browser Is Under Attack ~

Tumblr’s Terms of Service hasn’t changed yet. So please read and help out!

The Tumblr staff recently requested feedback on updates they will be making to their policies. They specifically mention one of their goals is to prevent the promotion of self-harm. However, their updated Terms of Service includes something a lot less laudable.

Unable to find the required avenues to stop developers from creating and distributing browser extensions that enhance the way you use Tumblr and not getting enough of a response to their scary warning campaign, they now seem to be preparing the groundwork for coming after users of these extensions.

~ Who, you? Yes, apparently. ~

Tumblr had been previously unable to prevent all development of these extensions, scripts and add-ons because they function within your web browser, allowing you to direct these extensions to use your browser to automatically perform tasks for you on Tumblr (like quickly reblogging from the dashboard, uploading images to posts, adding control buttons to your sidebar or hiding content you don’t want to see). The extensions, themselves, do not interact directly with Tumblr, only help your web browser to do it for you!

With the upcoming changes to the Terms of Service, Tumblr will soon be able to punish someone: you.

~ How is it wrong to use something to help me enjoy Tumblr more? ~

The important part of the new Terms of Service is under the section titled Limitations on Automated Use:

You may not do any of the following while accessing or using the Services: … (c) access or search or attempt to access or search the Services by any means (automated or otherwise) other than through our currently available, published interfaces that are provided by Tumblr… (d) scrape the Services, and particularly scape (sic) Content (as defined below) from the Services, without Tumblr’s express prior written consent

These limitations will make using almost any browser extension, add-on or script for Tumblr (and even some not specifically intended for Tumblr) against the rules!

Do you use Missing e, XKit, Tumblr Savior or any Greasemonkey script for Tumblr? Well, pretty soon, that will mean you will be in violation of Tumblr’s Terms of Service. That would be grounds for terminating your account!

~ What’s the Big Deal? ~

Extensions, add-ons and scripts like Missing e, XKit and Tumblr Savior help you get better use of Tumblr. They might mean that you decide against leaving Tumblr, or that you come back to it. They make it easier to spend more time on Tumblr than you might have normally and become a more involved member of this community. These are the kind of things a company like Tumblr should want, but is instead fighting against.

This most recent step effectively means that Tumblr apparently wants to reach into your web browser and tell you exactly how you are to use it to interact with their website. Their way, and NO OTHER WAY.

~ So, What Can We Do? ~

Tumblr’s new Terms of Service policy has not yet been put into effect. They are still looking for feedback. My suggestions is that we give them feedback.

Contact Tumblr (policy@tumblr.com) and let them know that this decision will alienate the userbase they work so hard to grow. Let them know that a browser extension (be it any of them) brought you back to Tumblr, or convinced you to stay, or kept you on this site longer. Tell them that your Tumblr is better off with a Savior, a Kit of the ‘X’ variety or that Missing e!

ABOVE ALL, BE POLITE. The best way to present your case is with clearheaded statements that show Tumblr that these tools make you want to use their product more!

AN ACTA PETITION AMERICANS SHOULD REALLY BE SIGNING »

ademska:

“As we noted in our post about people just discovering ACTA this week, some had put together an odd White House petition, asking the White House to “end ACTA.” The oddity was over the fact that the President just signed ACTA a few months ago. What struck us as a more interesting question was the serious constitutional questions of whether or not Obama is even allowed to sign ACTA.

In case you haven’t been following this or don’t spend your life dealing in Constitutional minutiae, the debate is over the nature of the agreement. A treaty between the US and other nations requires Senate approval. However, there’s a “simpler” form of an international agreement, known as an “executive agreement,” which allows the President to sign the agreement without getting approval. In theory, this also limits the ability of the agreement to bind Congress. In practice… however, international agreements are international agreements. Some legal scholars have suggested that the only real difference between a treaty and an executive agreement is the fact that… the president calls any treaty an “executive agreement” if he’s unsure if the Senate would approve it. Another words, the difference is basically in how the President presents it.

That said, even if Obama has declared ACTA an executive agreement (while those in Europe insist that it’s a binding treaty), there is a very real Constitutional question here: can it actually be an executive agreement? The law is clear that the only things that can be covered by executive agreements are things that involve items that are solely under the President’s mandate. That is, you can’t sign an executive agreement that impacts the things Congress has control over. But here’s the thing: intellectual property, in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, is an issue given to Congress, not the President. Thus, there’s a pretty strong argument that the president legally cannot sign any intellectual property agreements as an executive agreement and, instead, must submit them to the Senate.

It looks like folks have figured this out, and there’s now a new White House petition, demanding that ACTA be brought to the Senate before it can be ratified/signed by the US. This petition should be a lot more interesting than the other one if it gets enough signatures (so encourage people to sign, please!).”

(via techdirt.com)

Reblog this, because it’s MUCH more important and potentially effective than petitions asking President Obama to reverse his position.

Right now, Republicans are more anti-SOPA/PIPA (and by extension ACTA) than Democrats. If we question Obama’s authority to override Congress, they’re going to latch on and help us get this out of his hands, and at the very least they’ll bring it to public attention.

Believe it or not, Republicans are our biggest ally in the internet war right now, and this is the kind of politics fight they love most.

apriki:

I think it’s amazing, tbqh. I think that Anonymous embodies everything the power of the internet can be and turns it into a weapon for defending free speech, which is, at the end of the day, censorship of anything on the web is aiming to destroy.

Consider this: we are the first generation to truly have been raised in a digital world. For most of us, there is nothing scary or confusing or uncomfortable about sitting down in front of a computer and googling something or just making our way around the internet. Our view and our impact aren’t limited to our local community or area - thanks to the internet, our social circles and our perspective is worldwide. Have you ever spoken to someone you’ve never met, who lives half a world away? That’s the power of the internet: a global communication system that lets you connect instantly to people whose experiences and lives are drastically different to yours.

In the 1450’s, the Gutenberg press was created, and it changed the world because for the first time ever, widespread populations were learning to read and to understand, and began interpreting the Bible for themselves instead of listening to the church. This lead to schisms in Christianity that are still fought over today - all because the masses, for the first time, had the change to become informed for themselves. Do you know what the Internet gives us? It gives us knowledge, and that will get you further than anything else in the world. God, how could you not want to know? How could you not want to be on the web everyday, learning and understanding? Everything is accesible to you at the click of a button, and that’s not only revolutionary, it’s neccessary. 

People should not be censored by their governments. They should be given the choice and the opportunity to educate themselves, and the internet gives them that chance. People should be able to choose what media they’re going to consume, and when, and how; and not feel ostracised because of their geographic location, because the internet eliminates that factor. Internet users know this. File sharing sites know this. For some reason, governments and corporate businesses seem to have missed the message.

The fact remains that the entertainment industry is centered on the United States, and the rest of the world is secondary to that. In most countries there is no Netflix or direct streaming of television shows (and where they are present the shows usually have a delay by one or two seasons from when they air in America), and the shows that air are a limited and controlled sampling of the full scope. There is no fast, cheap and reliable way to download or stream these shows from websites or programs (attempting to stream from sites like ABC or Hulu outside of the US ends with a “this video is not available in your country” notice) - if you are not in the US, there is basically nothing for you. Unless, of course, you torrent or download - the companies who own television shows don’t think they’re going to make a profit in your country, so you’d probably never get to see them otherwise.

Basically, the entertainment industry is constantly and repeatedly telling me that my worth as a consumer is less than an American because I am not as geographically desirable. Even on the internet - which transcends national boundaries - I am not allowed to view things because I am not an American. Do you know what I think about that? I think it’s bullshit. 

I think that everyone, everywhere is an equal consumer. I think that we should all be given the choice to engage with media, to educate ourselves, to learn and experience what the world has to offer us. I think that the government won’t let me do that, and corporate industry doesn’t want me to do that, and that the internet is quite possibly one of the only places in the world where free speech is given free reign, and that’s beautiful.

We don’t vote in entertainment companies or business CEO’s, and yet they decide what we hear, what we see, what’s good for us and what isn’t. We don’t decide what ads we see or how people are represented in them; we aren’t given a say in the fact that the make up industries of the world make a profit out of attempting to keep women in a state of shame over their own bodies, or that people of color and non-heterosexuals and those who do not adhere to the gender binary are barely represented at all in any media. I think that all these groups - that all groups, everywhere - have an opportunity to gather and connect and learn on the internet. And I think the fact that governments and industries want to stamp that out so they can keep the public in a state of ignorance and isolation is despicable.

Anonymous stands for people who have gotten used to free speech, and who don’t want to give it up. And when you think about it, it is all of us - do you know anyone who is a member on an online forum? Who uses wikipedia, who reads news sites or who googles words when they don’t know how to spell them properly? It’s the entire world - the whole goddamn world! - right at your fingertips, and the scariest thing about that is that our generation is going to be the first generation of informed, mobilised global citizens, who know that we are powerful, and that we’re not alone. That is what Anonymous is. The hackers and activists who take down sites and protest are people who have grown up on the internet, too, and most likely learned their skills through it: they are weapons of free speech. Now there’s something to think on.

I’ll sum this up real simple: the internet is our Library of Alexandria. And if there was some way, any way, that I could help stop the Romans from burning that fucker down? Well then you’d better throw a Guy Fawkes mask over this way and call me anonymous too.

End ACTA and Protect our right to privacy on the Internet »

kosmonaunt:

Americans, this is a link to the White House petition to End ACTA and get the Obama Administration to withdraw its support! This petition needs 23,106 signatures by February 20, 2012! Please, Please take a minute to sign this petition!! So far it only has 1,904 signatures. :C

Please pass this along!!

TAKE MY HAND: Ways to tackle ACTA »

chocotaur:

I’ve read a lot of people who are ‘tired’ after the fight with SOPA, but remember: the fight for civil liberties NEVER really ends. It’s tireless, and yes, it might seem unfair, but at least we live in a time when you can wage battle with a keyboard and not with a musket.

LET’S…

PROOF THAT A HEART EXISTS: I know that everyone wants to be witty and make an impact when they post about SOPA/PIPA/ACTA, »

internet-justice:

and they mostly talk about the things they won’t be able to watch or listen to, but it’s much more serious than that.

• You will be punished for any copyrighted you share, even if it’s accidental (That means that all of those recording artist that got started by singing…