Under the Giant’s Foot

“Well, we don’t have an open internet. We haven’t had an open internet for a long time. So, we can’t really talk about the open internet because it does not exist anymore. The problem is, nobody stops anything. We are losing privileges and rights all of the time. We are not gaining anything anywhere. The trend is just going in one direction: a more closed and more controlled internet. That has a big impact on our society. Because they are the same thing today. If you have a more oppressed internet, you have a more oppressed society. So that’s something we should focus on.” –Peter Sunde, co-founder of “The Pirates Bay” 

For those of you not in the know, “Net Neutrality” is a safeguard forcing Internet Service Providers to treat all internet communications equally and not discriminate or charge differently based on the website you visit, or your means of accessing the web. Basically, it keeps your ISP from putting Netflix behind a premium purchase package.

If you’re an American, you may remember just a little while ago when we lost the fight for “Net Neutrality.” You may also remember this condescending video by Ajit Pai, FCC chairman and the corporate sock puppet responsible for rolling back Net Neutrality laws.

And what has changed? Really, it doesn’t feel like much. None of the horror stories we were told have come true (yet). It’s all background stuff. It’s the extreme centralization of internet resources through companies like Google and Facebook, which in turn make it harder to avoid Big Brother looking over your shoulder or companies selling your personal information. Have you ever bought a bed for your dog on Amazon, and then been bombarded on every single site about deluxe dog beds and other pet products? Isn’t that kind of scary? But we kind of just brush it off.

Peter Sunde is one of three founders of The Pirates Bay, the largest torrenting site to ever exist. Torrenting is a means of sharing data and files through the internet, and is frequently used by people (and hated by companies) for illegally downloading copyrighted material. Peter Sunde, himself, is essentially a real-life pirate king and fugitive, as he’s chased across countries by corporations that oppose a free and open internet.

Recently, though, he’s taken a more somber tone. In an interview with Motherboard, Peter says that he’s simply “given up.”

“No, I think we are at that point. I think it’s really important people understand this. We lost this fight. Just admit defeat and make sure next time you understand why you lost this fight and make sure it doesn’t happen again when we try and win the war.”

As a small goblin living on the big toe of a giant, it’s hard to perceive the titanic machinations of our corporate overlords. A giant moves it’s foot and crushes a small town and us goblins notice there’s a nice breeze out today. A corporation makes a deal in a board room that alters the very fabric of society and we notice the newest season of The Magicians just released. It’s hard to even imagine something at the scale of what Peter describes. It’s even harder to care about it.

You gotta, though. Even if it means getting crushed.

-M.C.

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkjpbd/pirate-bay-founder-peter-sunde-i-have-given-up

Free Kai Li

I first met Harrison Li in the seventh grade. We were on the cross country team together. I found it strange that he could wear collared shirts and still be comfortable running two miles. For the entirety of my junior high and high school experience Harrison was the smartest person I knew. He graduated as the valedictorian of our class and gave a speech that gist of which prominently featured watermelon seeds and good luck. But for as long as I knew Harrison, though we were never the closest of friends or even acquaintances, he was also one of the kindest people I came into semi-regular contact with. Always smiling or telling jokes that I didn’t understand, working hard through lunch breaks to get school work finished. The image of Harrison Li that I hold in my mind is of him sitting at a cafeteria table, books open in front of him, working hard.

I hadn’t thought of Harrison much in the last few years. It’s a foregone conclusion of high school that you can’t give equal attention to the memories of all the people you encountered after you graduate. But just a few days ago I got a notification on Facebook from him asking me to like a page called “Free Kai Li“. A page which, as it turns out, is dedicated to freeing Harrison’s father from prison in China.

In 2016 Harrison’s father went to China to visit the grave of his mother. After getting off the plane he was detained by Chinese government authorities on accusations of espionage, for which he was wrongly tried and convicted to ten years in prison. For the last two years Harrison has been working quietly at attempting to free his father. He has been in contact with both the FBI and Chinese government officials, neither of which have offered any substantial help or resources in his attempts. Since then Harrison has gone public with his father’s story. The New York Times wrote an article highlighting the events with an interview with Harrison, and a petition has been created in an attempt to gain public attention and traction behind his cause. If you have the time please read through the article and sign the petition. There is a lot at stake here, more than I or most people could ever hope to imagine. But by getting behind this together we might be able to bring enough attention to it to help.

-Tim Caston

The Fall of the Pied Piper of R&B 

 

I remember seeing this episode of The Boondocks when I was in the fifth grade. Yes, I know I was far too young to be watching this show at that tender age however, I was hooked. It was a guilty pleasure as I waited until my parents went to sleep in order to watch this raunchy comedy.

This news brief is not about The Boondocks, but the content it dropped in this particular episode. It is almost as if history is repeating itself as once again, Robert Kelly known as R Kelly or The Pied Piper of R&B, etc., is facing felony sex abuse charges. The reviews of this news on social media reflects two sides: those who feel the same as Huey Freeman and believe Kelly needs to face his consequences and those who just love his music and make excuses. Ever since the documentary series Surviving R Kelly appeared on Lifetime, there has been an increase in effort to apprehend the disgraced singer.

Attorney Michael Avenatti has been the one spearheading Kelly’s conviction as he claims to have a heap of evidence of more underaged girls that Kelly had sex with on tape.

For decades, Kelly has been outed as a person who was having sex with underaged women. He even married the late Aaliyah back when she was fifteen; one of his partners forged a marriage certificate for this to happen.  Kelly also has a history of sex abuse with teenaged girls and was even linked to sex dungeons.

What concerns me about all of this is that, everyone in the industry knew about Kelly’s sexual habits and are now coming out of the wood work to NOW condemn him. Nonetheless, Avenatti is confident that he will be able to convict Kelly on multiple indictments. Let’s see what happens.

– W.I.B.