Call for Candidates for the 37th Term of CDS Government

 

It's election time in the Confederation of Democratic Simulators. Unlike most places in Second Life, the CDS chooses it's leadership. And twice a year, they have an election for their Representative Assembly and their Chancellor. 

The schedule for this spring's election go as follows:

April 8 - Census of citizens for eligibility to run for office

April 15 - Citizen qualification deadline for right to vote

April 18 - Call for Candidates for Chancellor and for RA

May 1 - Deadline for Declaration of Candidacy

May 4 - Dean posts list of candidates

May 7 - Campaigning starts

May 14 - Polls open

May 21 - Polls close

May 22 - 31, incoming RA take their affirmations of office and members meet to elect their officers

June 1 - The RA and Chancellor of the 37th Government of the CDS take office.

It was on April 17, a day early, that the Call for Candidates went out.

Today (April 17) is the first day to declare your candidacy for the offices of Representative Assembly (RA) and Chancellor. These are very important offices for our CDS Community. When we elect these representatives we are electing friends and neighbors to work on our behalf to set the direction of our community, enact our laws and regulations, and manage all the tasks that keep the CDS a wonderful place to live. Now is your time to participate and declare candidacy.

So far, one person, Almut Brunswick, has declared his intention to run. More will certainly follow in the next ten days. 

In contrast to many real-life elections, the CDS elections have remained largely drama-free for some years.  

Stay tuned for more information.
 

This And That: News in Brief

 There's a lot going on, and only a little time to write about it. So here's a few things that have been going on, but we haven't had the time to write about it in-depth.

With the Pandemic and US Presidential Election in the news lately, something called the CASE Act was almost unnoticed. Tacked onto the Coronovirus relief bill, the act was to "a small claims court-type system within the United States Copyright Office for copyright owners to seek damages under US$30,000 for copyright violations." It got the attention of one SL DJ whom was concerned as it sounded like streaming for public performance would become a felony under the bill.

A residential area, Baja Cove, closed down, "it was a beautiful New Jersey like beach."

Flash is no longer operating for computers, and with it, a number of browser games, and animated files are no longer playing.

We still have yet to write about the Silent Hill "Otherworld" area, an interactive horror area where monsters attack people as they explore an area. For those who can't wait for the article, you can check it out at Chief (42/87/691).

A new kind of breedable pet was recommended  to us to write about. We'll get to it soon.

Second Life's land area grew over the previous year according to Tyche Shepherd, from 24740 regions to 25555, with most of the increase being private sims.

Stay tuned for more on these, and other topics.

Rita Mariner's Account Suspended Due To Missing IRS Tax Form

On Friday night, Rita Mariner, the leader of the Sunweaver community, got an unpleasant surprise when she tried to log in. She found her account had been blocked. So she came on with an alt that night. Her name couldn't be found in the Sunweaver group, though it was still on peoples' friend lists, leading to speculation she'd been hacked. But when she called Linden Lab the next morning, it turned out they'd suspended her due to not filing a form with the IRS.

Sunnies:  Rita discovered the reason she was blocked and took care of the issue.  Seems LL sent her an IRS Tax Form W9, via e-mail, that they wanted her to fill out.  She didn't notice it in scanning her e-mails, on her cell phone, but she found in checking on her PC.  It was dated last month.  Still Rita was upset wondering WHY they wanted the form filled out and all that sensitive, personal, info, since she didn't do business on SL, wasn't here to make money. In fact SL costs her.



At the Club Cutlass event on Saturday night, she (via the alt) talked about what was going on, "LL wanted me to fill out some IRS Tax Forms, why?  I have no clue. ... If I was making money on SL and pulling it out, I could see it, but the opposite is true, I pour money into SL every month." She stated that it was a W9 form sent in her emails, "So I filled it out and then I had to verify it again it was me. It was from a Linden. It had a ticket number. And it was in my account."

Others around were puzzled by the turn of events, one commenting ironically, "Because the IRS just KNOWS you are getting rich off SL." Another remarked, "Odd that I haven't heard of other large land-owners having issues." "Other than H and R Block, no business has demanded a tax form from me," spoke a third. "So maybe the IRS is gonna make you pay tax on the rents you collect?" someone jokingly asked. "If they try, then I get to deduct the losses," Rita answered, "which means I get a refund." "Or offer to pay them in Lindens (grin)."

Rita was optimistic, "I found the problem, filled out the paperwork, now just have to wait. ... Hopefully (by) Monday Rita will be back, now that LL has their desired paperwork."

Talk soon turned to other issues, such as the upcoming Relay season, hopeful the situation was on it's way to being resolved.

Bixyl Shuftan

CDS Representative Assembly Meeting

On Monday July 20, the Confederation of Democratic Simulators held a Representative Assembly meeting at 1PM. There were several issues discussed, mainly financial ones. Chancellor Han Held would appear shortly after I took this picture.

Near the end, I mentioned that the CDS website was appearing as insecure fo Firefox browsers. So until it's fixed, it was suggested that the CDS banner on the Newser's front page when clicked on will lead to the CDS forums.

CDS Representative Assembly Meeting

The CDS is a community in Second Life which unlike most has a number of rules and procedures as to how things are done. Among these is a local government which meets and discusses issues, sometimes voting on them. They recently chose a new Chancellor and  Representative Assembly, the latter sometimes called the RA for short. And Monday January 18 was first meeting of the Assembly. The meet-up took place at Colonia Nova in the Praetorium at 10 AM. Rosie Gray, whom was one of the members, stated both citizens and friends of the community are welcome and encouraged to come. And some did, including myself. Chancellor Hannah Marie Tempestwolf (Han Held) was also there.

There were a few things discussed at the meeting. Budgeting procedures were one. Another was rewording a rule about tier collection as it referred to Hippo vendors, of which the company closed earlier this year. Also brought up was the CDS website showing errors when people tried to go to the page. Hannah also mentioned the CDS exhibit at the SL15B.

Tomorrow at 1PM, there's a Government Hour, in which Hanna will be at the Chancellor's Office in Neufreistadt.

Bixyl Shuftan

Net Neutrality Scheduled to End June 11

By Bixyl Shuftan

On December 14 2017, the Federal Communications Commission voted to end it's protection of Net Neutrality. The decision came despite numerous advocacy groups, over 200 businesses and trade groups, as well as skepticism of the public at large. Among the corporations calling for it's continuation is Linden Lab, whose founder Philip Rosedale predicted "especially negative" consequences as Internet providers could easily introduce bandwith caps and by-the-megabyte billing.

The new rules did not go in effect right away  They had to be posted to the Federal register first. For some reason, this had not been done for over four months, provoking guesses as to why. But on Thursday May 10, the FCC stated in a notice that thirty days after the following day, or June 11, the new rules doing away with the Net Neutrality protections would begin. "These unnecessary and harmful internet regulations will be repealed," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stated.

So what happens next? There is a bill in Congress being pushed that if passed would require the FCC to keep the current protections. But while it needs only one more Senator to support it, it faces an uphill battle in the House. In the courts, more than twenty states have also filed suit to stop the FCC from repealing the present-day rules. Several states, including California and New York, are considering legislation enforcing Net Neutrality within their boundaries. But a spokesman for the FCC states such legislation would be illegal and would be challenged in court.

Gigi Sohn, an advisor to a former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, commented that net neutrality's future will probably "stay murky" through the rest of the year.

Because of the importance of the issue of Net Neutrality, the Second Life Newser declared FCC Chairman Ajit Pai as it's "Man of the Year" for 2017 as we felt the potential harm of the disposal of these new regulations to Second Life outweighed the accomplishments of any one group of residents or any one accomplishment of Linden Lab.

Sources: CNN, Motherboard

Image Credit: Lanai Jarrico

Bixyl Shuftan

The CDS Election Process, Part One

In recent years, elections in the United States have become increasingly unpopular, partisans of both major parties painting the opposition as the most despicable villains, and moderates increasingly turned off by both the drama and what many see as a process that brings to power people not particularly interested in their well-being. With this in mind, it may come as a surprise to some that a place in Second Life has made politics work. The Confederation of Democratic Simulators is unique from other communities in that it has a functioning government with representatives and a Chancellor, as well as elections to determine who stays and who gets to step in. I had a few words with one of the people there, Hannah Marie Bloodtempestwolf (Han Held), about how the elections are done in this first of two articles about them.

Read the story in People.

News and Commentary: Net Neutrality at Risk

The issue of "Net Neutrality," the idea that Internet Service Providers treat all data the same and not intentionally restrict it for the purpose of making money, came into the news recently when Chairman Ajit Pai of the Federal Communications Commission released a plan that calls for the dismantling of laws protecting it. Pai called current laws "heavy-handed Internet regulations." But the response has been a number of protests from ordinary Americans to columnists and more. Among them is Mark Fischback, better known as "Markiplier." Usually, he does gaming review videos. But he did one asking people to move to protect Net Neutrality.



It's difficult to see how the end of Net Neutrality would help anyone but the big telecom industries, who would then be able to choke people's Internet access in order to make more money to themselves. They could deliberately slow access to all but designated "fast lanes" that they would charge more for. They could deny access to certain platforms, such as Skype and Discord, in order to steer people to using their own. They could slow down, or even deny access to certain games and websites.

Looking back, there is evidence they would do just that. In 2011, MetroPCS moved to charge different rates for Internet access. In 2012, AT&T moved to block Apple's application Facetime from it's users who didn't pay for an expensive plan. In 2013, Verizon went to court to repeal Net Neutrality regulations at the time, saying they had the right to treat traffic unevenly.

This is more than just slowing down movie and video downloads and making some online first person shooters unplayable to certain users. The free flow of data that Internet Neutrality provides allows for small online businesses and entrepreneurs to start up easier while a "throttled" Internet could choke off these new companies before they start.

What to do? One can write their Congressman and/or Senator. There are also petitions one can sign, sign as the one at petitions.whitehouse.gov/, and change.org.

Hopefully, the proposed dismantling will itself be dismantled.

Sources: Popular Mechanics, Wikipedia, New York Times, The Verge, Gigaom, 9to5Mac, change.org, whitehouse.gov

Bixyl Shuftan  

NOAA Island Is Gone

With Hurricane Mathew in the news, I thought about a sim that was aimed at teaching residents about the weather: NOAA Island, sometimes called Weather Island, at the Meteora sim. But taking a look, I found that the location was not on the map. A search revealed it wasn't just located, but nowhere on the map. Nor was it on the Destinations Guide.

NOAA Island has apparently vanished, probably some time ago. Checking the Youtube about it, the place was still around three years ago at least, though some exhibits were no longer working, possibly due to Linden Lab software updates.

NOAA Island had been set up by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration US government agency in 2007 during the heyday of Second Life as a way to help educate people about the weather. The place was part of the collection of sims known as the "Sci-Lands." Second Life Newspaper, and then Second Life Newser reported about the place in March 2008 and August 2011. At the later date, the sim had some neighbors such as NOAA Island 2 and Second Earth, a gigantic interactive globe. There was much to see in the sim, such as a tidal wave simulation, which had been the target of humor at least once, an interactive weather map, and a hurricane hunter airplane ride.

The sim was the scene of some activity in April 2012 in which people from the US Government were likely involved, along with the Raytheon corporation, with some project, but there is no information about any involvement since.

Most of us would agree the US Government would have better use for it's money than a sim (though could probably recall it being used for things much less useful), but it's still sad to see the place go.

Bixyl Shuftan.



(click here if the video fails to play)

Cartoon of the Day

Picture taken at Roma. A Roman Emperor once appointed a horse in his government. It's debated whether this was done for mockery or a sign of insanity, though some might argue he had the wrong critter in mind for the job.

By Bixyl Shuftan

SOPA Proposal to Declare Unauthorized Streaming a Felony is Back

Some bad news for Second Life radio. About two years since originally being shot down with SOPA, a proposal to make a felony the streaming of copyrighted works without the expressed permission of those holding the copyright is back. According to the Huffington Post, last week the Department of Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force revived the proposal (pdf link). "Such a provision" the Post stated, "if interpreted broadly could apply to people who upload covers of themselves performing songs to YouTube without permission."

The proposal was originally part of the proposed SOPA legislation two years ago, but the bill was soon shelved after much public protest.

Source: Huffington Post

Virtual Cash Makes Real-Life News with Bitcoin Crash

By Bixyl Shuftan


Last month, the US Department of the Treasury issued "guidelines" aimed at virtual currencies. While the Linden dollar will be affected by the Government's interest, another virtual currency with a larger distribution and volume was also targeted: the bitcoin.

Wikipedia defines the Bitcoin, abbreviated to BTC sometimes, as "an online commodity that is based on an open-source, peer-to-peer encryption protocol … creation and transfer is accomplished on an Internet-based network and is not managed by any central authority." Bitcoins are created through "miners" that automatically add new amounts by "adding codes to a decentralized log, which is updated and archived periodically." They're transferred electronically, either via computer, or through handheld devices like smartphones.

Computer geeks are sometimes drawn to it due to it's online nature. But as banks are not necessary in the exchange, and it is not created by governments, some people are attracted to it due to the lack of involvement by larger institutions. It's also gotten some skeptics because of the lack of involvement by larger institutions, and concerns that drug traffickers and other criminals use it as an easy way to sell illegal goods.

Bitcoin went through what some are calling a "bubble" recently when it's value jumped from about $90 in late March to a high of $260 on the morning of Wednesday April 10th. Then the value crashed, plummeting to around $130 in six hours. It regained some of it's lost value the following day, rising to $160. As of the writing of this article, bitcoincharts.com listed the value as $99.00.


The crash was linked to an unknown bitcoin owner who up and gave away $13,000 in bitcoins via the Reddit social website. But there have been other problems. There have been attempts by hackers to break into computers and make it mine bitcoins for the hijacker. News of this did cause a drop in the value of Bitcoins on April 4, but the price surge continued again. There was also an account hacking in which $12,800 worth of Bitcoin was stolen.


The crash has caused some to feel Bitcoins, or any other unregulated currency, is just too risky. But others are still trading them. Even as all this was going on, people in the US Treasury Department had already taken notice. In March, the Department of Treasury's FinCEN issued it's guidelines, defining Bitcoin as a "de-centralized virtual currency" with "no central repository and no single administrator, and … persons may obtain by their own computing or manufacturing effort." Like Linden Labs, Bitcoin miners in the United States will have to file anti-money laundering reports with the Treasury Department, in addition to registering with them. There is a "blurred definition" however between users of Bitcoin and "administrators." Could a miner be considered just a user as long as the Bitcoins created weren't traded for US dollars or other real-life money?

Already having caught the interest of the US Government, with the news of hacking attacks and the market volatility, bitcoin is highly likely to face additional scrutiny from both American and European authorities. It's laissez-faire days of being free from big business and government may soon be coming to a close.

For information on what a bitcion cost, check this April 14th article at techcrunch.com.

Second image from salon.com

Sources: Wikipeda, BBC News, CNN, verge.com, Modern Payment Systems

Bixyl Shuftan

Jacek Shuftan of Podex on the US Treasury's New Guidelines for Virtual Currency

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Friday April 5th, Second Life Newser wrote about the US Department of the Treasury's new guidelines on virtual currency. This move has consequences for Linden Lab as they'll have to spend time, and probably money on extra lawyers, on required paperwork for them. And it's likely this is just the beginning.

Over the weekend, I met up with Jacek Shuftan, the head of the Podex Exchange. He had spoken briefly about the matter at the time the article then was being written, "every coin has two sides, if (Linden dollars) were virtual currency, it would be more trustworthy, and (Second Life) will have more investors." I felt as a Linden reseller, he would have more to say on the matter.

I asked him, "Was there anything else you wanted to say about the US Treasury and Linden Lab?"

"I am still thinking how close it is, and if it (will) happen," Jacek answered, "For now, it is not an obligatory law. For now, it's guidelines. But it does appear there will soon be some regulations. I think that bitcoin is the main point of this, and Lindens is only side effect. But anyway, it can be a pain for us all."

"Anyway, it's too late to stop (the) economical revolution started with virtual currencies. If they ban LS, people will sell objects in SL for, bitcoins, Avination CS, or whatever else. It's only a few lines of coding. Even the real world is full of such 'currencies.' If you go to car wash and get a special metal coin to put into machine, what is it if not currency? You can sell it to other car drivers, exchange it for a glass of beer, or keep it and sell for a higher price when the price of a car wash will go up. Or you can just return it to car wash owner and get cash back. Isn't it currency like Lindens, guaranteed by the car wash owner."

"But nobody cares. and governments look at virtual coins because they are new, and the turnover is higher than a car wash (grin).

I asked, "So even if the Lab calls it's Linden dollars a 'transferable license' and not virtural currency?"

"Its not important what name Linden dollars are called," Jacek answered, "if real-life authorities say it's currency."

"I am afraid it's inevitable, governments can not let citizens have something independent of them."

"So you think it's more about control," I asked, "and not so much a desire for another source to tax?"

"Both," he answered, "It's not a secret that lots of bitcoins are used for illegal operations, and governments want to control it. But taxation is also something tempting for governments. If we go this way, ie if we tax Lindens, what about (virtual) land? It's also a possession. Should we write in a yearly tax statement - 512 sqm parcel by the sea? Ferrari car, 123 prims, bought on Marketplace?"

"I can bet any money that officials do not know what to do with it. So they are just testing now."

I asked, "So they're just seeing what they can do before people complain?"

"I think (to them), it looks like a pimple." Jacek answered, "New activity, like virtual economy, appears. Nobody cares at first, but its growing and growing. You try to ignore it as long as you can, because nobody likes having a pimple at the end of the nose. But finally, it's so big and painful that you must accept it, and we are close to this moment."

I asked, "So that's how you think government sees it, in your opinion?"

"Yes," Jacek answered, "They tried to ignore it as long as they could. And now, its high time to do something. But nobody knows what. So they gave us this paper … And they can always say it's only guidelines if something goes wrong. We observe the same tendency in Europe, and in the USA. So it's a worldwide problem, I think."

" 'There is no such wickedness, or cruelty, which otherwise would not have committed a mild and liberal government, when it runs out of money.' Alexis de Tocqueville, at least through Google translator."

"We will see what the future brings. But people adapt fast. We are very flexible in Second Life."

The interview then ended, and Jacek went about his way.

Jacek Shuftan’s Podex Exchange, sometimes called the Podex bank, exchanges Lindens for several world currencies. Recently they moved to the Coda sim at (45, 218, 61).

Bixyl Shuftan

CISPA Internet Bill Passed in US House

According to Forbes.com, the CISPA Internet bill, which sparked privacy worries among numerous Internet freedom advocates, was passed in Washington. "In an earlier-than-expected vote Thursday evening, the House of Representatives voted 248 to 168 in favor of the bill."

According to writer Andy Greenman, Trevor Timm, a lawyer and activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, felt, "the House’s early vote on CISPA as an attempt by its author, representative Mike Rogers, to squeeze the bill through before its opposition grew any stronger." The bill was also amended before passage, "the House voted to amend the bill to actually allow even more types of private sector information to be shared with government agencies, not merely in matters of cybersecurity or national security, but in the investigation of vaguely defined cybersecurity 'crimes,' 'protection of individuals from the danger of death or serious bodily harm,' and cases that involve the protection of minors from exploitation." It was a move that raised further concerns from opponents. Techdirt.com's Leigh Beadon called it "an absolutely terrible change."

"Somehow, incredibly, this was described as limiting CISPA, but it accomplishes the exact opposite," Beadon wrote, "CISPA is now a completely unsupportable bill that rewrites (and effectively eliminates) all privacy laws for any situation that involves a computer. Far from the defense against malevolent foreign entities that the bill was described as by its authors, it is now an explicit attack on the freedoms of every American."

The bill still has to be passed in the Senate before heading to the White House, which has come out against it recently. Timm saw hope it would be beaten, "We’ve seen an explosion of a variety of groups and congressmen coming out against the bill,” he says. “As the Senate debates this, it’s good that privacy and civil liberties will be front and center.”

Sources: Forbes.com, Techdirt.com

Bixyl Shuftan

SOPA Act Two? CISPA to be Decided in US House as Soon as Today

Remember the mess over SOPA in December and January? This proposed law had the potential for becoming "The Great Firewall of America," possibly meaning the end of favorite places online such as Youtube, Facebook, and Second Life. Despite a Congress seemingly poised to approve it, opposition to it and it's sister bill PIPA grew in numbers. The backers of SOPA eventually shelved it from a vote, and the opponents had seemingly won.

However, a new bill, H.R. 3523,  has made it through committee: the "Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act," or CISPA. Intended to "allow the voluntary sharing of attack and threat information between the U.S. government and security cleared technology and manufacturing companies to ensure the security of networks against patterns of attack," the bill "has been criticized by advocates of Internet privacy and neutrality, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation … because they feel it contains too few limits on how and when the government may monitor private information when it might become collaterally entangled in the process of passing threat information, and too few safeguards with respect to how the data may be used; they fear that such new powers may be used to find and punish file sharers and copyright infringers rather than the stated foreign spies or hackers."

An article in Forbes.com describes opposition to the bill as mounting, "On Monday, a group of more than fifty professors, entrepreneurs and information security professionals published an open letter to Congress calling on lawmakers to oppose CISPA and other overbroad cybersecurity bills like the SECURE IT Act … CISPA has a very different focus from SOPA and PIPA, the much-loathed antipiracy bills killed by a similar groundswell of Internet anger in February. Whereas SOPA and PIPA raised fears of censorship, CISPA’s vague data-sharing statutes are largely seen as a threat to privacy, although some are also interpreting the bill as allowing site blocking. And whereas SOPA pitted Silicon Valley against Hollywood, CISPA seems to have the support of many technology and Web-based companies, including Facebook, Microsoft, Symantec, and IBM."

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, spoke last week the bill "is threatening the rights of people in America, and effectively rights everywhere." Senator Ron Paul spoke out against the bill, saying it would make "government spies of Facebook and Google." Eighteen House Representatives signed a letter opposing the bill, at least in its current form. The White House has also come out against CISPA. Avaaz.org has a petition against the bill with three-quarters of a million signatures, with the goal of making it a million. Reddit has a number of "anti-CISPA discussions."

CISPA is expected to be voted on in the House of Represenatives today.


Sources: Wikipedia, Forbes.com, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Avaaz.org, Reddit,

Bixyl Shuftan

Opinion: Will SOPA Wash Away the Internet (and Second Life)?

A youtube of a chubby bearded character has been going around a number of friends of mine. Despite his similar looks to left of center figure Michael Moore, this man’s cause is more Libertarian: the SOPA Bill in Congress.

The SOPA Bill in Congress, he charges, threatens to shut down the Internet as well know it by making people liable to a multimillion dollar lawsuit just for *linking* to a song or other material. Ironically enough, some of the top SOPA supporters he charges were distributors of some of the software tools used by downloaders, CBS/VIACOM, ABC/Disney, Microsoft, and others. The purpose: entrapment. He charges the distributors of conspiring to put a chokehold on the Internet in order to control entertainment markets by “taking down Youtube, Twitter, and all other websites and networks you use.”

He certainly sounds over the top and easy to dismiss. That he was previously noted only for his “Epic Fail Toys Funny Videos” doesn’t exactly help his cause. But the more I looked into SOPA, the less I liked.

SOPA is short for “Stop Online Piracy Act.” Checking Wikipedia, the bill would allow copyright holders to sue websites they accuse of “enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.” Actions they could take include Payment sites like Paypal from doing business with targeted websites, baring search engines from linking to them, and requiring Internet Service Providers to take them down. It also would make “unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime” punishable by five years in prison. Debate in the House will continue when Congress returns from winter recess.

Fortunately the “Epic Fail Toys” man isn’t the only one talking about SOPA. There was another video sent to me, made by “The Cynical Brit.” There was also an article on the Forbes website, “How SOPA Could Ruin My Life” by Paul Tassi, a writer, and a small business owner operating from his website, “a movie/tv/video game site that I started with a partner about three years ago.” SOPA, he feels, will cause him and others to close down. The bill, he fears, “reeks of Chinese and Iranian Internet policies that allow the government to simply censor the Internet the way they see fit ... their definition of what piracy is ends up including most of the Internet, including my own site, and the punishments for even minor infringements could be catastrophic and run me out of business completely.”

Also opposing it is David Ulevitvh, the head of the Internet business Open DNS. "The legislation has the potential to create the great firewall of America," he told a CNET reporter. The bill “is written so broadly that it will invite abuses,” and would be bad for businesses like his, which would have to reincorporate as offshore companies.

So why is this bill making any headway in Congress at all? Tassi claimed many of the Representatives who went over it in committee “admitted to not knowing how to use the internet. The consensus among them was merely ‘ piracy sounds bad, therefore we should pass this anti-piracy bill ‘ without any further investigation into its deeper implications. Implications that would in effect, destroy the entire idea behind the Internet.”

Ulevith himself went to Washington to talk with Congressmen. What he saw was not good news, "Everything they were hearing from people who came to their door every day is fervent support (for SOPA) ... There was nobody sitting on the other side of the table opposing it ...The amount of perspective and influence we have in DC is essentially non-existent. it's not serving us well anymore."

Amendments to the bill have been rejected, and Congress is set to debate it sometime “early next year.” How it will affect Second Life is unclear, though as the Grid has been targeted before for copyright infringement, some are predicting a chilling effect as radio streams and roleplay regions shut down out of fear of lawsuits. Among those expressing worry, Nydia Tungsten, whom worried she would have to give a certain announcement:

Because the US goverment has been bought by the recording industry, KVXN will be off the air until further notice. I am sorry to have to do this, but I don't want solders kicking in my doors because i am playing music for others to hear, so until we know how and where this is going....this is KVXN Signing off.....

“KVXN Shutting down forever is a REAL possibility, we need to let those fools in Washington know that WE know this is them lining their pockets again.”

Big Business can be beaten. This week, less than a day after Verizon Wireless announced a fee for paying their bills, a public outcry brought it down. Will this also be the case for SOPA, or will the United States join China in censoring the Internet? Tassi went on to write about a "VETO SOPA" Petition that got over 26,000 signatures in two days (as of when this article was written, it's over 44,000). He wasn't sure what the White House would say, but, "Until then, keep signing. It can’t hurt."

I can’t tell others what to do, but I have sent emails to my Congressman and Senators asking them to oppose this dirty SOPA.

Sources: Youtube, Wikipedia, Forbes, CNET

Bixyl Shuftan

CDS Inagural Ball

On Saturday December 10th at 11AM, the CDS had their Inaugural Ball to celebrate their new representative leaders. Last month, there was an attempt by their old Assembly to delay elections due to technical glitches, but the residents responded with a protest. Their leaders relented, and after elections were held their 16th Assembly was elected along with Chancellor Trebor Warcliffe.

The Ball was held at the Schloss Balcony in the Neufreistadt sim. The location was high over the land at a height one would expect of a floating platform. It was just at cloud level, making for some whispy visual images when looked at certain distances. Callipygian Christensen provided the music, which included classical and formal tunes.

NOAA Island - Virtual Weather

With Hurricane Irene in the news recently, I decided to take another look at a place I first reported on a few years ago, NOAA island. Set up in the Meteora sim, the sim is set up to educate residents about weather and ocean science, in ways that are often entertaining.


Read more in Places.