Found this on Slashdot, thought some of you may be interested:


Internet Defense League: A Bat Signal For the Internet

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday May 27, @12:02PM
from the immediate-blackout dept.

mikejuk writes "Following the successful defense of the Internet against SOPA, website owners are being invited to sign up to a project that will enable them to participate in future protest campaign, the Internet Defense League. The banner logo for the 'bat-signal' site is a cat, a reference to Ethan Zuckerman's cute cat theory of digital activism. The idea is that sites would respond to the call to "defend the Internet" by joining a group blackout or getting users to sign petitions. From the article: 'Website owners can sign up on the IDL website to add a bit of code to their sites (or receive code by email at the time of a campaign) that can be triggered in the case of a crisis like SOPA. This would add an "activist call-to-action" to all participating sites - such as a banner asking users to sign petitions, or in extreme cases blackout the site, as proved effective in the SOPA/PIPA protest of January 2012.'"

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■ Synchronet ■ Southeast Texas Chat

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Dreamer to All on Sun May 27 2012 12:12 pm

mikejuk writes "Following the successful defense of the Internet against SOPA, website owners are being invited to sign up to a project that will enable them to participate in future protest campaign, the Internet Defense League. The banner logo for the 'bat-signal' site is a cat, a reference to Ethan Zuckerman's cute cat theory of digital activism. The idea is that

that's okay but i think if people protest all the time it will lose its effectiveness; not to mention companies will just find ways to sneak it in anyways.

i'm a big fan of eff and i donate to them every year when i get my tax returns. i think the eff has the best shot out of everyone when it comes to combatting internet injustices.

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Mro to Dreamer on Sun May 27 2012 03:19 pm

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Dreamer to All on Sun May 27 2012 12:12 pm

mikejuk writes "Following the successful defense of the Internet against SOPA, website owners are being invited to sign up to a project that will enable them to participate in future protest campaign, the Internet Defense League. The banner logo for the 'bat-signal' site is a cat, a reference to Ethan Zuckerman's cute cat theory of digital activism. The idea is that

that's okay but i think if people protest all the time it will lose its effectiveness; not to mention companies will just find ways to sneak it in anyways.

i'm a big fan of eff and i donate to them every year when i get my tax returns. i think the eff has the best shot out of everyone when it comes to combatting internet injustices.

And the EFF BBS used to run Synchronet. :-)

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #25:
The Synchronet Web Server was written predominantly by Stephen Hurd (Deuce). Norco, CA WX: 58.2°F, 71.0% humidity, 1 mph WNW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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■ Synchronet ■ Vertrauen ■ Home of Synchronet ■ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Digital Man to Mro on Mon May 28 2012 04:13 am

i'm a big fan of eff and i donate to them every year when i get my tax returns. i think the eff has the best shot out of everyone when it comes to combatting internet injustices.

And the EFF BBS used to run Synchronet. :-)

do you now of anywhere online where they talked about this? i'd like to see some screenshots of what their bbs looked like back then.

google came up empty

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Digital Man to Mro on Mon May 28 2012 04:13 am

And the EFF BBS used to run Synchronet. :-)

LOL, sweet. :) Wonder if we could bug someone over there to put it up again...hehe.

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■ Synchronet ■ Southeast Texas Chat

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Mro to Digital Man on Mon May 28 2012 09:44 am

And the EFF BBS used to run Synchronet. :-)

do you now of anywhere online where they talked about this? i'd like to
see some screenshots of what their bbs looked like back then.

google came up empty

I think their BBS was only up a few years, and no one thought to screen capture anything... but I did find mention of Rob donating his software in a message Stanton McCandlish put out in late '93 (when the EFF was still fairly new, if I'm not mistaken) calling for donations of cash and equipment:

"We need donations of funds and equipment. We already have BBS software (Digital Dynamics has donated their Synchronet BBS package), but still need
a platform to run it on, including basic PC system, modems, tape backup, monitor, hard drive, etc."

Amazing how far they have come. Rob, I hope they've publicly recognized your contribution with an award. I also hope you realize how much of an impact you've had on society, however indirectly, over the years. Your name just keeps coming up! :)

http://goo.gl/LBLnn

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■ Synchronet ■ Southeast Texas Chat

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Dreamer to Digital Man on Mon May 28 2012 09:23 am

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Digital Man to Mro on Mon May 28 2012 04:13 am

And the EFF BBS used to run Synchronet. :-)

LOL, sweet. :) Wonder if we could bug someone over there to put it up again...hehe.

i'm sure some jerk would ddos it ;[

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Dreamer to Mro on Mon May 28 2012 02:49 pm

I think their BBS was only up a few years, and no one thought to screen capture anything... but I did find mention of Rob donating his software in
a message Stanton McCandlish put out in late '93 (when the EFF was still impact you've had on society, however indirectly, over the years. Your
name just keeps coming up! :)

http://goo.gl/LBLnn

agh! totally slipped my mind to check usenet.

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■ Synchronet ■ ::: BBSES.info - free BBS services :::

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Mro to Digital Man on Mon May 28 2012 09:44 am

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Digital Man to Mro on Mon May 28 2012 04:13 am

i'm a big fan of eff and i donate to them every year when i get my

tax

returns. i think the eff has the best shot out of everyone when it comes to combatting internet injustices.

And the EFF BBS used to run Synchronet. :-)

do you now of anywhere online where they talked about this?

This was around 1992-93. Sort of "pre-web", so online meant "BBSes" (or AOL or Compuserv) pretty much.

i'd like to see
some screenshots of what their bbs looked like back then.

iirc, it wasn't very impressive. But they did have a lot of your case files and
other useful information online for download.

google came up empty

I would expect so. You may be able to find it listed in an old BBS list or nodelist somewhere.

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #2:
Synchronet version 2 was written in C and 8086 assembly programming languages. Norco, CA WX: 61.6°F, 73.0% humidity, 1 mph NW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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■ Synchronet ■ Vertrauen ■ Home of Synchronet ■ telnet://vert.synchro.net

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Dreamer to Mro on Mon May 28 2012 02:49 pm

Re: Internet Defense League
By: Mro to Digital Man on Mon May 28 2012 09:44 am

And the EFF BBS used to run Synchronet. :-)

do you now of anywhere online where they talked about this? i'd like to see some screenshots of what their bbs looked like back then.

google came up empty

I think their BBS was only up a few years, and no one thought to screen capture anything... but I did find mention of Rob donating his software in
a message Stanton McCandlish put out in late '93 (when the EFF was still fairly new, if I'm not mistaken) calling for donations of cash and equipment:

"We need donations of funds and equipment. We already have BBS software (Digital Dynamics has donated their Synchronet BBS package), but still need a platform to run it on, including basic PC system, modems, tape backup, monitor, hard drive, etc."

Cool quote, thanks! No, no award. :-)

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #54:
Synchronet Terminal Server introduced RLogin support w/v3.00c (2000).
Norco, CA WX: 61.6°F, 73.0% humidity, 1 mph NW wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs

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■ Synchronet ■ Vertrauen ■ Home of Synchronet ■ telnet://vert.synchro.net