Category Archives: Censorship

V for “Visits Washington”: rally alert November 14th!

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V at the DoJRush right out to your local Tesco, Superstore, or WalMart (okay, maybe not WalMart. Target) and stock up on V masks, wigs, and devilishly sexy cloaks in time for the big V rally in Washington this Tuesday, November 14th. Hat optional.

quarsan dropped this in a comment on Guido‘s site;  it seems that V has visited the White House. Not only the White House, in fact, but several other important sites including the Department of Justice, and brought along a cameraman to document the whole, lamentably fireworks-free yet historic event.

V draws a small, and small-arms armed, crowdAnd what did the masked man encounter? A round dozen security personnel everywhere he went, virtually all of whom were supportive and polite. Whodathunkit? Then again, it’s a New Day in America, Rumsfeld is on pogey, Britney is getting divorced, and the Democrats have arisen after spending their last several Midterms in darkness.

Anything could happen. This is what did:

“V” Meets The Secret Service
 
Accepted As The Vox Populi

On Monday, November 6, 2006, “V” visited security check points at the White House, the main Treasury, IRS and Justice Department Buildings and the Capitol. “V’s” purpose was to deliver the People’s Petitions for Redress of Grievances relating to the Government’s violations of the war powers, tax, privacy and money clauses of the Constitution, and to inform key Government officials that at least 100 more “Vs” would be at their doorstep on November 14th expecting a response to the Petitions. 

At the White House about a dozen Secret Service agents appeared on foot, bicycles and car to meet “V.” While virtuously assuring the security of the state, they were curious about the image of “V” and asked many questions. Most, when asked if they had seen the movie “V for Vendetta”, smiled their approval.

V chez WWhen an agent asked if “V” would remove his mask for identification purposes, “V” explained that would defeat the very purpose of the mask, which was to give expression to the fact that the nation was becoming a police state, that too many people were becoming afraid to be identified as dissenters or protestors, and that this was not in the long term interest of a free people.  The agents accepted the veracity of “V’s” message and refrained from veering “V” from his vanguard visit as the vox populi.

Bestill my foolish heart! I’m a sucker for a politically active anarchist who’s a whiz with alliteration.

Operation Global Media Domination: raincoaster the drama queen

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total information awareness

Ladies and gentlemen, I have joined a rare sorority indeed. Up in the Cloud-Cuckoo Land inhabited by the likes of Xeni, Atrios, Matt and Robert, one is issued with one’s very own Stanford-grad intern and Technorati fluffers upon entry.

I, my friends, have ascended.

I have my own tag.

Now, the eagle-eyed among you will have already noticed that if you check Technorati for blog entries associated with the tag “Operation Global Media Domination” that I have pretty much a complete hegemony on all OGMD-related posts. This is no accident; indeed, I put the fix in early and often for that one, and to, obviously, great effect.

But as every self-aggrandizer knows, the true laurels are those which come to you when you least expect them, from strangers.

An unknown (and possibly unknowable) WordPress member has bestowed upon me my very own tag.

“raincoaster the drama queen“

*wipes away a tear* 

Alas, Dr Mike has proactively deleted it; now not only do I look histrionic, I look like I’m hallucinating as well! A screencap, a screencap, my Slithering Reptile TLB Ranking for a screencap!

a message from webcameron

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to raincoaster. Well, a message from YouTube to raincoaster, but conveying a very clear message from webcameron. Why don’t I just paste what I put on the Boris Johnson blog:

Well it looks like some of them aren’t quite as “sharing and caring” as they claim. Look what my YouTube posting of the webcameron video got me:

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by The Conservative Party claiming that this material is infringing:

Cameron and Johnson on Webcameron: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKSfQ6wGAsM

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube’s copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, to be effective it must be a written communication provided to our designated agent that includes substantially the following (please consult your legal counsel or see 17 U.S.C. Section 512(g)(3) to confirm these requirements):

(A) A physical or electronic signature of the subscriber.

(B) Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.

(C) A statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.

(D) The subscriber’s name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriberis address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.

Such written notice should be sent to our designated agent as follows:

DMCA Complaints
YouTube, Inc.
1000 Cherry Ave.
Second Floor
San Bruno, CA 94066
Email: copyright@youtube.com

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.

Copyright © 2006 YouTube, Inc.

Wibbler, watch your back. It appears they’re not as interested in spreading their message as they are in retaining control over it. I guess they DO want to limit the audience to people who can afford iPods.

I thought of sending the info to these guys, but they haven’t updated in four years (can’t be for lack of demand). As I said on my blog, it seems bizarre that they would distribute this only through means that cannot be shared, but must be viewed on an individual basis. Allowing a YouTube or other embedded player to be distributed in blogs would spread the message widely, in truly democratic fashion. I guess that’s not what this is about. Ah well, I shoulda known. They’re Tories.

Britney Spears(?) sex tape trailer

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hey y'all! I'm not trashy!

UPDATE: golly, this sure seems to be a popular post. Wonder if anyone will read the rest of our posts about Britney and this notorious video.

Yup, yesterday she lost her claim that the very rumour of the tape’s existence is defamatory (judge’s reasoning: come on people, she’s Britney Spears! Like she wouldn’t bang the hell out of her husband on tape while he watched the playoffs or something. Puh-leeze!) and today, the first full day of her official long march to divorce, nineteen seconds of that rumoured to be alleged Britney Spears reported “sex tape” has been posted to PornoTube, and is up on Fleshbot.

Verdict: sure looks like her, in her black-haired phase. This was, therefore, and completely hypothetically, post-impregnation, somewhere around the time of the Harper’s Bazaar cover shot, meaning Britney, if it was Britney, would have been six or more months along. UPDATE: Titania on Gawker notes that her hair was dyed dark for her wedding as well, so this could be from the honeymoon. You can’t tell from this part; you don’t get to see the woman’s body. And you can’t see the guy’s face at all…that’s not where the camera and the woman are focused, if you get my meaning, nudge nudge.

Come one, come all. Or rather, “y’all.”

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imprisoned video blogger accepts award

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He's watching...Do you know the tale of Josh Wolf? He’s a video blogger who filmed people taking part in a protest and who was then ordered to turn over his footage to a Grand Jury investigating the protest. He refused, citing journalistic privilege, and promptly found out the government doesn’t consider videocasters to be journalists, at least not when it doesn’t want to. He’s currently serving his indefinite sentence in Dublin, California; he’s been told he’ll be released when the Grand Jury ends, which is projected for July of next year.

At the recent Vloggie Awards, Josh won the People’s Choice Award for Best Male Vlogger (they split these things up by gender? You’ve got to be kidding me!) and his video, All Empires Must Fall, won the Judge’s Choice Award for Most Controversal Video, which it undoubtably was. The goverment declined to let Josh out to pick up his award, figuring no doubt that someone there would surely throw a blanket over him and smuggle him offshore to some copyright-free banana republic, from whence he would fire YouTubes of such intensity that they would shake the very foundation of the nation.

Or maybe they just thought nah, fuck ‘im!

In any case, Josh‘s big day came and went with no Josh, but with a letter written from prison and read out on the podium, and here it is, although Robert Scoble had it first.

It seems like mere moments ago that I was here in this venue for blogger con. I remember telling my story about how the federal government was trying to send me to prison for refusing to turn over my unpublished material and testify in front of a grand jury for asserting that I am a journalist, and for refusing to be an agent for the government by providing intelligence to aid in an anarchist witch hunt. Some were shocked by my story, others were not surprised that the government would go to such lengths, and still others maintained disbelief, preferring to think of me as the boy who cried wolf, rather than opening themselves up to the idea that their government would do such a thing.

That weekend at vlogger con was one of the best in my life. It was euphoric getting to hang out and party with so many stellar individuals, and I am disheartened that I can only join you in sprit to tonight. I’ve always heard that the best par t of award shows are the after parties and I’m sure that it will be a rocking good time. I’ll be there for the next one.

Thanks for the awards guys. It feels good to know that I’ve been able to stir up a bit of controversy in the blogosphere and I’m touched by being awarded best male blogger.

I’d like to thank everyone who has blogged or vlogged about my situation, whether you are in agreement with what I’m doing or not, and I’d also like to thank everyone who has supported me throughout this endeavor, whether its through sending me books or letters, donating money to my legal fund or helping out with my blog, wiki or the various projects I’ve been involved with.

Thank you all and have fun tonight I’ll be out soon enough.