Rebel Zero » Urgent News

Ashamed to be a US citizen

Adam Stovicek — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:15:51 +0000

It shames me as citizen of the United States Of America to be represented by an elected government of the people who are promoting legislation that would potentially censor free speech on the Internet, which by birthright as an American innovation, should enjoy the same freedoms that every American citizen is granted through the Bill Of Rights. America has stood as a shining example to the entire world that nothing is impossible when the rights of the people are protected. Time and time again, America has helped advance the human race through medicine, technology, free press and free ideas for nearly 236 years.

However, within the same country that promotes freedom, the same country that condemns oppression, a great evil poisons it. There are large corporations who profit from the control of intellectual property from news media to music, motion pictures and television. These industries have been able to convince our elected officials that they are losing money, threatening layoffs and closures because of it, and have asked through lobbyists to be granted the power to control the Internet in ways that we, as a country, continually condemn in foreign lands such as China, North Korea, and Iran.

Two bills being deliberated in Congress essentially gives corporations the ability to censor the Internet as they see fit, all in the name of policing piracy and copyright infringement. While the cause is a noble one, the fact remains that corporations have never been trustworthy with peoples rights. The news media has been known to hack cellphones. The recording industry has been known to drag innocent people through expensive trials for piracy, even implicating dead grandmothers, and to assert rights over copyrighted or copyleft material in which it has no right to do so. And the list goes on. Remember when the banking industry needed to be bailed out? How many people had their homes foreclosed while executives were getting big dollar bonuses? The last thing we need is to give corporations the right to make anything disappear from the Internet in which they may or not agree with.

Every elected member of the US Congress recites the following oath:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

So I put it to task every member of Congress, including my own representatives, Rep. Marcia Fudge [D-OH11] in the House, and Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-OH] and Sen. Robert Portman [R-OH] in the Senate . Do your job and kill the proposals of SOPA and PIPA as well as any future proposals that would do the same. The rights of the people are to be protected by those we as a people elect to defend them.

RebelZero censored for 24 hours (aftermath)

Adam Stovicek — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:59:44 +0000

On Wednesday, January 18, this website joined with many others across the Internet by being blacked out in protest of SOPA and PIPA, two bills being deliberated in the US Congress, which if signed into law would provide a means for copyright owners to censor the Internet.

While we feel that copyright owners have a right to combat the online piracy of their intellectual property, the provisions outlined in these two bills would do more harm to the Internet by violating the US First Amendment and free speech, preventing whistle-blowing actions against corruption, and bring about an unprecedented crippling of the Internet.

Please take a moment to visit Fight For The Future for more information and to help speak out against these dangerous propositions.

New Zealand Internet Blackout

Adam Stovicek — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 03:15:17 +0000

In support of our New Zealand citizens, and ultimately all of us, we at RebelZero.com took part in the Internet Blackout this Monday, February 23rd. The site was still some what usable but very friggin’ dark making it difficult to use.

Below is a graphic that many bloggers were given to use for the day. Clicking on it will take you to Creative Freedom’s website for greater detail about the event and the highly controversial law behind the protest.

ALERT – Intrepid Ibex – Potential Hardware Damage From e1000e Driver

Adam Stovicek — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:56:41 +0000

Just got an email from the Ubuntu Developers mailing list from Steve Langasek warning of potential damage when using the e1000e driver for Intel GigE ethernet. Users whose machines have an Intel GigE ethernet are being urged NOT to use any of the Intrepid Alphas.

Here’s the complete message:

Reports have been coming in that the e1000e ethernet driver for Intel GigE
chipsets, as included upstream in Linux 2.6.27, may under certain conditions
irreparably damage your ethernet hardware by corrupting the on-board
firmware.

While we expect alphas to include a fair number of bugs, and rely on your
continued support and testing to help resolve these bugs for Ubuntu
releases, bugs that damage hardware are quite another matter. As a result
of this bug we must recommend that users do *not* use Intrepid alphas,
including the LiveCDs, on machines with Intel GigE ethernet.

Efforts to safeguard the hardware of affected users are ongoing, though
initially this will consist of a workaround in the form of disabling the
e1000e driver. Alpha 6 CD images will not be re-issued for this fix, so
affected users are advised to either use daily CD images once a resolution
is in place, or to wait for the release of the 8.10 beta, due to be released
on October 2.

Further discussion of this issue can be found on the ubuntu-devel mailing
list at
,
and progress on resolving this issue can be tracked at
.