The information on this page presents organizations, causes and campaigns which I support through my website as part of my advocacy efforts.
These are divided between two pages.
In alphabetical order these are:
Each organization's logo is linked to its website.
Within each page, the organizations are not actually displayed in alphabetical order.
IWA Pro-Ethics
Sponsored by the International Webmasters Association (IWA) this campaign encourages webmasters to adopt personal responsibility before legal requirements.
Look But Don't Steal
This is an effort by a freelance graphic artist named Kristin. She has created a network of sites promoting respect for artists' rights, including copyright.
Grey Day
Grey Day's purpose is to raise awareness of the need to eliminate online plagiarism, the unlicensed use of copyrighted works, and bandwidth robbery.
On Grey Day, October 1, 2000, participating individuals and companies of the Web will replace their websites' entrance page with a special grey page as a statement of global support and fellowship with the artists, writers, musicians and programmers of the World Wide Web
The first Grey Day was October 1, 1999.
Be careful . . . Grey Day (this one) and Gray Day (see below) aren't the same. Gray Day is a "spoof" of Grey Day.
NB: This site seems to be "gone". I'm checking on it.
Some people, hearing about Grey Day, will type it "wrong" and go to the "spoof" site at www.GrayDay.org.
But whereas www.GreyDay.org calls for more copyright protection, www.GrayDay.org urges visitors to keep the Internet "free from phony copyright laws." And it does it with a look and feel so close to the original that you need to be very careful which one you go to.
Gray Day was developed by a team of Silicon Valley software programmers and graphic designers who call themselves Tell-all Computer Programmers & Internet Professionals (TCP/IP), claim to represent "the millions of people who have benefited and will continue to benefit from the free exchange of ideas, the hallmark of the Internet."
Whereas Grey Day urges Internet users to imagine "what if" copyright infringement leads to a lack of creativity on the Web, the spoof site implores visitors to imagine "what if there was no WWW... no Internet." According to TCP/IP spokesperson Cecil Park, "The call for more copyright laws on the Web is especially absurd considering the Web itself was made possible by the copyright-free distribution of the first Web browser [Mosaic] and the most popular Web server software [Apache]." In fact, TCP/IP also stands for "Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol," the software at the
heart of the Internet that was given away without copyright in 1981 by programmers at the U.S. Government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Despite the "spoof" nature, the site features some great information about the needs for openness that balance copyright and other proprietary rights issues.
Be careful . . . Grey Day (see previous) and Gray Day (this one) aren't the same. Gray Day is a "spoof" of Grey Day.
Faded Tapestries is a loose confederation of websites promoting respect for artists' rights, including copyright. Faded Tapestries also mentions the problem of Bandwidth Theft.
NB: This program has "disappeared". I am keeping the info while I investigate. In the meantime, the link has been "dummied out".
ACAP: Artists' Coalition Against Piracy
ACAP (Artists' Coalition Against Piracy) is both similar to and different to some of the other organizations on this page.
Many of the other organizations addressing creator's rights are designed primarily to raise awareness within the general community. This organization is organized more as an artists community: individual artists with common concerns working with each other on these issues.
The organization is currently operating using a webring as its principal coalition technology.
Don't Steal Bandwidth Webring
This campaign, another one opposing "bandwidth theft" operates primarily as a webring. I've included a link on this page because of the "topic". But the real information about them is within the Webring section of my website.
(In case you forgot, bandwidth theft occurs when your website displays information from another site, instead of from a copy on your site.)
to go to the "home" page for this webring, click on the graphic
to see the webring controls for my participation, go to my webring welcome page for this webring.
Eleventh Commandment
This web campaign uses the term "11th commandment" to describe a set of principles including respect for copyright and opposition to bandwidth theft. It also advocates credit on the same page, a theme emphasized by another campaign: Give Credit Where Credit is Due.
Give Credit Where Credit is Due
This campaign by Cathy (no last names please) works to promote credits, not just when credit is due, but also where. The answer to "where?" is "on the same page". Credits pages are hard to find, aren't looked at and may actually be helping to convince newbies that the graphics (or sound or text) is public domain. The campaign is similar to the 11th Commandment campaign but places more emphasis on the "where".
Blue Ribbon Campaign
The Internet Blue Ribbon campaign is sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The purpose is to promote free speech and to oppose censorship on the internet.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any means regardless of frontiers."
— Universal Declarations of Human Rights,
Article 19
Cyber Crew
Cyber Crew exists to link webmaster together in an internet community to provide information, support and encouragement on technology topics (e.g., html, java, cgi, paint shop pro), to foster creativity, to promote copyright awareness and education, to publicize virus issues, and to improve the internet experience.
As part of the efforts on copyright, they operate the Cyber Crew Copyright Committee to assist members in the resolution of copyright infringements by providing resources, research and support, as well as being an objective third party witness to the proceedings. (NB: If you require legal council, you must contact an attorney with experience in copyright law. They are not a substitute.)
In addition to accepting me as a member, they were kind enough to link to my Search Engine Disputes page on their (members only) Copyright Information page.
Fonts Anon~
Fonts Anon~ exists (1) to provide shelter for the font afflicted and a home for the font oppressed, (2) to provide a varied and creative place for fontaholics to search for and find typefaces, and (3) to provide a community for the exploration of fonts and typography.
Libera Manifesto
In early 2002, while researching other stuff, I encountered a link graphic with the words "Libera Manifesto". (It was the link graphic above.) But unlike the one above, it didn't have a link, so I began to research it. I found links to a page at Lockergnome that had the Libera Manifesto. It was written by Chris Pirillo. It takes it name from the Latin word "libera" meaning "free, independent, unrestricted".
Any Browser Campaign
"Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network."
— Tim Berners-Lee in Technology Review, July 1996
The goal of this campaign is to promote web sites that, even though they may be best viewed with one specific browser, can be viewed with any browser.
Burn All GIFs
A project of the League for Programming Freedom, Burn All GIFs seeks to protest the Unisys patent on the LZW compression algorithm used in GIF technology. It also protests the U. S. system that permits patents on computational techniques and patterns of communication.
At this time, this site still uses GIFs. It will begin to use the alternate PNG technology as browsers emerge to support this new standard. While this site has not yet "burned" its GIFs, it does support this concept in principle.
The ACLU has launched the Defend Your Data campaign to call attention to the current lack of protections for personal data privacy and their campaign to increase the critical area of law. As with any campaign like this, I have my nits and tiny disagreements. But, overall, this one gets my major, strong support.
Are You Polite?
This campaign by the Swedish firms of Bejewelled and Gilbertson's Web-Design seeks to increase the civility and cordiality of the bazillions of emails that bombard site owners like me. As they note, many of the emails I receive ask for assistance. And, I'm glad to respond and try to offer it. But sometimes I wonder about the sender. No howdy. No how are you. No pleasantries at all.
Their request (and mine): contact us with the same courtesy with which you would like to be contacted.
Just Say No to Unauthorized Digital Collections
This site and its awareness program seek to educate the web public to the copyright violations caused when people vacuum graphics off the web creating unauthorized digital collections.
Keeping the Homefires Burning
Candles Across America Campaign for US Soldiers
Sponsored by SOS, this campaign was begun using real candles in homes and virtual candles on websites to remember our U. S. Soldiers and the other NATO soldiers in the NATO/Yugoslavia military conflict. It continues to remember all NATO soldiers deployed on such actions.
This is particularly important to me: I had a brother who was a U-2 pilot in the NATO/Yugoslavia conflict.
When you go to their site, look for the Candles Across America Campaign.
Independents Day
Independents Day is a worldwide project celebrating independent content and design on the web. It's supported by an informal network of designers, artists, writers, editors, developers, and producers who create content and design to enrich the web. If you create your own site and want to participate, you can join them by adding your email address to the front page signup form on their site.
Their website discusses how this PSN might become "the Social Security Number" of the internet world, permitting tracing of your activities, facilitating invasion of privacy and even restricting transfer of your software from one machine to another.
CAUCE: Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email
An all volunteer netizen organization, CAUCE works to fight spam and to lobby for anti-spam legislation similar to the law outlawing junk-faxes.
The Forum for Responsible and Ethical E-mail (FREE) seeks to stop the practice of sending unsolicited boilerplate broadcast messages through email. FREE believes that because of the cost-shifting aspects of unsolicited broadcast email, the recipients and the providers who unwittingly assist in the delivery of such messages bear the majority of the cost. FREE believes that such practice is unethical and must be replaced by a system that requires recipients to agree beforehand to receive such messages.
In order to accomplish this mission, FREE has three primary focuses:
Assisting Internet Service Providers;
Educating end users and organization of grassroots political efforts; and
One of the ACLU's highest priority issues this year is the fight against the outrageous practice of racial profiling. The recently released report Driving While Black: Racial Profiling On Our Nation's Highways, documents this practice of substituting skin color for evidence as a grounds for suspicion by law enforcement officials. Ten of thousands of innocent motorists on highways across the country are victims of racial profiling. And these discriminatory police stops have reached epidemic proportions in recent years – fueled by the "War on Drugs" that has given police a pretext to
target people who they think fit a "drug courier" or "gang member" profile. That is why the ACLU has undertaken a major initiative to put an end to discriminatory police stops, including the launch of our "Arrest the Racism" campaign. This special web-based campaign is designed to educate the public and enlist citizens in the fight to end racial profiling in America.
ASAP:
A Stand Against Pop-under advertising
Joe Jennett, creator of Coolstop.com, has launched this initiative to take a stand against this new form of web annoyance. I'm supporting that initiative with this small link. In addition, this article mentions the ASAP campaign. And, finally, if you want to stop pop-unders (and pop-ups) tools like AdSubtract Pro provide some protection.
Diva vs Goliath
a. k. a.
Microsoft Tries to Stomp On the Digital Divas
NB: The relevant links now appear "gone". I'm checking on it. The DigitalDivas.com site is still there.
Update: After several months of negotiations between the attorneys at Moses & Singer and Microsoft's attorneys, the parties reached a voluntary settlement of this dispute without the need to resort to the courts. In the simplest terms, Microsoft's Stacy Elliot will no longer be known as the "Digital Diva" and Microsoft will no longer use digitaldiva.com in connection with content like that formerly available at that site. Also, in accordance with the settlement agreement, Microsoft posted a notice at
digitaldiva.com. (It is gone now.) This resolution was made possible, in no small part, because of the support of the entire internet community. Read the official press release for more information.
The Digital Divas were founded in 1997. Through use and publication of that name, the group acquired trademark rights in the name, including the domain name digitaldivas.com where their website has been located since June 1998. The Digital Divas web site features a D'Zine where members offer articles, tutorials and advice about computer and Internet use and applications.
In April 2000, Microsoft launched a website located at digitaldiva.com, promoting their own "Digital Diva" as their ambassador to the public. Ostensibly, this was to promote a kinder, gentler Microsoft in the face of their antitrust problems. Their website offers articles, "how to" tips, and advice on computer and Internet use and applications. The Digital Divas had no idea this site was being launched, or that Microsoft had appropriated their trademark rights.
On 25.Apr.2000, the Digital Divas, represented by Moses & Singer on a pro bono basis, sent a cease and desist letter to Microsoft, demanding that they cease infringing on their trademark.
A massive internet campaign was created to build support.
It worked. Microsoft settled.
Crayon-Box.net
The site's owner, like the other webmaster supporters, want to show their opposition to bigotry and prejudice. They want the world to know that they can see beyond the color of someone's skin and to the person within. They wish to be with those of us who aren't afraid to stand up for what we believe in, those of us who accept everyone for who they are, not what color they are. Crayon-Box isn't meant to bash those who aren't of like mind, who can't break the stereotypes that exist today against different colors and nationalities. The main purpose of crayon-box is to inform the world that
there are indeed many people out there, who believe that everyone is created equal.
AORTAL — The Anti-portal
This site notes that it is becoming exceedingly difficult for independent web sites to receive any notoriety, or for the average surfer to even know they exist. The site supports the independent website, encouraging everyone to link to and promote independent websites.
DHMO.org
Dihydrogen Monoxide
Research Division
This organization is dedicated to researching this pervasive killer. The banner below pretty much says it all. It kills thousands each year. Inhaling it can kill you. It improves athletic performance. Found in every lake, river and ocean. It's a major part of acid rain. It corrodes metal. You owe it to yourself to find out more.
Buy Nothing Day
Once, we shopped to buy what we needed, period. Now that we don't need much, we shop for other reasons: to impress each other, to fill a void, to kill time. A mere 20% of the earth's population uses 80% of its natural resources. Our overconsumption is killing the planet. Buy Nothing Day is a simple idea with deep implications. It forces us to think about the "shop-till-you-drop" imperative and its effects on the rest of the world. On Buy Nothing Day, enjoy a break from the shopping frenzy. Relish your power as a consumer to change the economic environment.
Internet Free Zone
Over the past few years the number of sites that provide free content has decreased, and the quality of the Internet's content has declined.
The Internet Free Zone is dedicated to the Internet of old – before the new carpetbaggers arrived. The original Internet does not have to die – it just has to share space with the cyber-carnival.
f your site is dedicated to the free exchange of information, programs and content, if your site does not sell anything, you are part of the Internet Free Zone . If you do not sell anything on your site and you do not engage in spamming 1 , you qualify for the Internet Free Zone Level 2 category. If you also do not have any commercial advertising on your site, you qualify for the Internet Free Zone Level 1 category.
This site, James S. Huggins' Refrigerator Door, is a level 1 member of Internet Free Zone.
Free State Project
The Free State Project is attempting to have 20,000 people move to New
Hampshire and, once there, "exert the fullest practical effort toward the
creation of a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the
protection of life, liberty, and property."
FSP members believe the maximum
role of civil government is the protection of citizens' rights to life, liberty,
and property. This would reduce the size of most government by about two-thirds
or more. Put in a positive way, most FSP members support policies such as
abolition of all income taxes, elimination of regulatory bureaucracies, repeal
of most gun control laws, repeal of most drug prohibition laws, complete free
trade, decentralization of government, and widescale privatization. People of
this disposition may go by many names: "classical liberals" (not the same as
modern liberals at all, but followers of Thomas Jefferson and similar thinkers),
libertarians, paleoconservatives, constitutionalists, voluntarists, etc., etc..
Note: I have not signed the intent to move. However, I publicize this project
because I believe in many of its principles.
