Internet Defense League looks to guard against bad laws

19.07.2012
A group of activists have banded together to protect the Internet from what they see as bad legislation, with a focus initially on copyright enforcement proposals.

Members of the new Internet Defense League hope they can harness the online activism against controversial copyright bills the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), when tens of millions of Internet users and thousands of website publishers protested the two bills earlier this year.

The new group, with a broad range of supporters including Reddit, Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Tea Party Patriots, plans to issue alerts to websites when members spot government actions that may be detrimental to the Internet. The group will send out alert codes, called "cat signals" after the cute Internet cat memes, to websites and users.

The group will announce its arrival with cat-themed spotlights in the sky Thursday evening in New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco.

Members of the league want to turn recent Internet activism in opposition to SOPA, PIPA and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) into a "permanent force," said Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of digital rights group Fight for the Future and an organizer of the Internet Defense League.

Members of the league won't be able to outspend big companies on lobbying, but will be able to make their voices heard through grassroots activism, she said.