Best Of StumbleUpon

“That disruption isn’t good or bad, Gaiman said, “it just is. It’s a fact of life now.” And while legislators will no doubt continue to push forward with laws like SOPA and PIPA, he said, they won’t be able to turn back the clock to a time before the Internet was invented. In a video interview he recorded last year for the Open Rights Group, which is embedded below, Gaiman talked about how he was initially incensed about people pirating his work, but eventually came to the realization that they were actually promoting his work, and he was selling more in countries where his books were pirated.”

“I think people in Hollywood are convinced that people would suddenly start buying DVDs again if only they could stop all this peer-to-peer file sharing and so on. They just are fundamentally missing the point… genies don’t go back in bottles once they’re out.”
Gaiman: SOPA and PIPA are on the Wrong Side of History

In the spirit of promoting Neil Gaiman (who I absolutely adore and idolize), did you know he has a tumblr blog? Yup, neil-gaiman.tumblr.com. One truly fantastic thing about Gaiman’s tumblr blog is that he uses it to respond to fan questions, OFTEN. His tumblr blog is perhaps one of the most direct ways a fan can reach him. I enjoy reading his responses tremendously and highly recommend you follow him.

You may have never heard of ACTA before, I know I haven’t. ACTA stands for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and due to the recent events and publicity of SOPA and PIPA, attention has been drawn to ACTA, which after reading about it appears to be just as bad if not worse than SOPA.

ACTA is an International agreement among volunteering nations to put new controls into place for copyright infringement on the Internet; however it’s being veiled as a way to stop counterfeit goods and generic medicines. Additionally, it’s how these new controls are imposed which creates problems including how the agreement has been negotiated which has raised a lot of concerns.

I think everyone in the world agrees that counterfeit goods, counterfeit medicines and copyright infringement is a problem, but as we just learned with SOPA and PIPA, going about fixing the problems the wrong way will get you nowhere and only creates more issues, including nationwide protests and ‘blackouts’.

Here are some of the concerns with ACTA that you should be aware of:

• Drafting and talks of ACTA has been shrouded in secrecy. Talks began back 2006 with official negotiations starting in 2008 and no public drafts have been made available until April 2011; those that were able to see copies prior to 2011 were bound by non-disclosure agreements.
• Once made public, the agreement says that it will remove legal safeguards that protect Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from liability for the actions of their users, in effect giving ISPs no option but to comply with privacy invasions and collection of data in order to police their users and conduct filtering of content.
• Also just like with SOPA, sites that host or link to infringing content would be held liable. ACTA would also facilitate privacy violations by trademark and copyright holders (MPAA, RIAA) against private citizens suspected of infringement activities without any sort of legal due process which will result in blocking of access to the Internet, fines and jail time.
• ACTA would require that existing ISPs no longer host free software that can access copyrighted media, and DRM protected media would not be legally playable with free or open source software, which would stop the ability to distribute free software via peer-to-peer networks.
• ACTA has been lobbied heavily by the Entertainment industry (MPAA, RIAA) which through experience we know that they have their own interests in mind, and not the peoples.

For an even better explanation, in video form, watch below and see just how evil ACTA really is. [via]

Nobody likes it, it’s always broken, users are leaving in unprecedented droves and the community of SU is so used to being screwed over that, at this point, they don’t even kick up a fuss about it, they just leave.

The new interface is impossible to use, even for users with IT backgrounds, no I am not exaggerating. It is also super frustrating because it’s anti-social and most of the provided functionality doesn’t actually function.

The once thriving community of StumbleUpon has clung to each other as they spread across the web and can be found, still playing in the pool together, in several fun places. The best two options are:

• Categorian (best option for people who liked the way of blogging SU once provided)
• Tumblr (best option for people who like instant gratification on their shared posts)

You can find everyone else and all their other blogs at the new forum SUCats, where everyone is hanging out these days.

Effective black out was effective. Newbs have all been alerted.

The “Hacktivists” known as Anonymous have waged an all out attack on several key govenerment websites including Whitehouse.gov, the Department of Justice site and other “key players”  such as Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America.

Today, they’re giving every deviantART member an all-access Premium Membership pass!

Also, check out Deviantart on tumblr, which I only just discovered.

TheFrogman is a popular blogger on tumblr, he makes funny gif’s & Memes and is well known as “the guy that wears the bear hat”. I ♥ his blog, lots.

He just got a new puppy! There is a LIVE PUPPY CAM, if you are interested and cute puppy pictures, enjoy!

lovetonikki:

i think i want to throwup now…

Okay well at first I felt really awful for her….

… O.O

i was NOT expecting that ending bit.

.

what the actual fuck..i meanthe end is just..omg wut the actual fuck 0_____________________0

OH SHIT THAT´S AN UNEXPECTED END

^^^ Literally making the exact same face as Neffy right now.

*insert picture of extreme awe beyond capability*

yea i totally saw that coming.

Wait… What.. But.. I..

rebloggin for the video but esp the ACCURATE reactions O_O

[Reblog from tumblr]