Thread by @textfiles

OK, so. Nobody, almost nobody, has time for the wonky tracking of all the laws that screw with their lives and keeping tracks of the up and downs of things like copyright maximalist bombage and the day to day energy of that. So, I'm giving you a very quick "What can I do" list.

So, first, really, sign up for, donate, and become a member of the EFF, Electronic Freedom Foundation. They've been around a long time and they're all up in everything. You'll be hard pressed to find someone who does the high-profile internet bazoola who HASN'T worked with them.

And yes, that includes me, a half dozen times since 2000. 20 years of me working with these folks on stuff you didn't have to hear about because they helped me or organizations I was working with first. They're at EFF.ORG and the year-end challenge is afoot.

Next, get TECHDIRT into your newsfeed, RSS reader, or just follow @techdirt on twitter. Masnick is an Internet Saint and puts into blisteringly red-hot language and white-diamond clarity what's going on, giving focus and meaning to your understandable concerns on What's Going On.

Just a day after the CASE act gets passed, Mike's already blasting out the information, links and references an informed public should have:

techdirt.com/articles/20201…

A group that gets less attention than EFF is EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, who are more focused on tech's insertion into every last bit of our lives, the use of tech to remove liberties, and more. DEFINITELY worth a follow/donation:

epic.org

Good people to follow for more contemporaneous and informal but informed insight into issues of the moment include @doctorow @openculture @infodocket and I'm sure more. (If people want to suggest more, go ahead - this hellsite has to be good for something, maybe.)

And I'm going to bookend this by saying what I indicated at the top - you can be quite forgiven if you're not able to keep up with every single moment, warning, issue, and concern in the world of copyright and online freedoms - this has been a ridiculous year.

The laws we're discussing were shoved in sideways in a thousands-of-pages-bill that was attached to must-pass COVID relief and the whole thing was during a 48 hour temporary reprieve in a government shutdown needing the bill.

I.e. Everything was passed with a gun to the head.

And the people who benefit directly from the more lame-ass legislation that got in will tell you it's totally normal that their smells-to-high-heaven bills were ethically sourced and mountain-grown organic, and that they got passed with ZERO DISCUSSION was TOTALLY normal.

Luckily, if you pass a law, you can pass another law. See you in 2021.

And welcome to everyone who signed up for the organizations and individuals I mentioned. You're in for a treat.