For a long time, Democracy Now had allowed users to view an Ogg
version of their shows but the option was embedded deep inside the
site and out of view. Then they allowed it under a less-buried page
and now it's on the main download page. Why? Because you asked for it.
We have been asking them to support open formats and now they have
fully supported Ogg and it's time to say thank you. Please contact
them and thank them for supporting free formats

mail@democracynow.org

Go the extra mile and place a phone call to show your appreciation
(212) 431-9090

Thanks for all you do.

We've still got a long way to go before the privacy-
invasive REAL ID Act is off the books, but Thursday's vote
in the Senate may one day be seen as a critical moment on
the road to victory.

A provision smuggled into the major immigration reform bill
would have effectively forced every American to present a
standardized national ID in order to get a job as part of a
mandatory employment verification system. But by a vote of
52-45, the Senate refused to end debate on an amendment
that would have ripped the REAL ID provisions out of the

We have another victory to add to our list. Congress has issued subpoenas to find out more information about the NSA surveillance program. This is a direct effect of the letters and phone calls that members of Binary Freedom and other organizations were asked to make. Thanks for your hard work, it does the job!

From EFF:

After voting to authorize subpoenas for information on the
NSA spying program last week, the Senate Judiciary
Committee has now officially issued them.

"Chairman Leahy issued subpoenas to the Department of

FSF releases the GNU General Public License, version 3 - [FSF.US]

This month we successfully killed the REAL ID and National ID provisions in the immigration bills, but we shouldn't stop now. We saw the power we have as people who oppose REAL ID and we saw we certainly aren't alone. In fact, the ACLU said the immigration bill probably failed because of the REAL ID provisions. So let's take this opportunity, while we're on top, to deal one final blow to this defective legislation. Please take the time to call your representatives and tell them to repeal REAL ID. Be firm, remind them they are working for us.

Once again, Congress is trying to over-regulate the telecom industry with their recent bills to ban caller ID spoofing. There are lots of reasons why this is a bad idea, but I'll put the most important two here:

I have more good news for you today (this has been a fantastic week so far). Earlier I had asked you to email and call your senators to oppose the new immigration bill's REAL ID and National ID provisions, and your calls worked. The bill died a brutal death in the halls of congress and Fox News reported that the congressional phone system crashed from all the calls that were coming in (I can confirm that Senator Salazar's message box was so full that it wouldn't let me leave a message). Once again, the actions you took DID make a difference. Keep fighting the good fight.

Thanks to the emails and phone calls we asked you to make, Congress is
taking action against the NSA spying program. Thanks for all you do.

From EFF:

Vote to Authorize Subpoenas Sets Stage for Showdown Over
Illegal Surveillance

San Francisco - The Senate Judiciary Committee voted
Thursday to authorize subpoenas related to the National
Security Agency (NSA)'s domestic spying program, setting
the stage for a Congressional showdown over the
surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans. The
subpoenas demand certain legal documents that the

[[From EFF]]

If you have an account on the ubuntu forums, please get active in this
thread regarding the BBC:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=483288
In Solidarity,
Comrade Ringo Kamens

From forum post. "The US copyright royalty board decided that online radio must pay *per song* *per person*, not per broadcast as it was previously done. Now only license holders or really rich people will be able to have online radio stations, and it's going to kill internet radio in the US as we know it. What's even scarier is that if the station doesn't know where to pay royalties to, they must pay soundexchange. They're an organization financed by the RIAA which is an organization that many (including myself) think is killing the music industry.

"Thousands of U.S. webcasters plan to turn off the music and go silent this Tuesday, June 26th, to draw attention to an impending royalty rate increase that, if implemented, would lead to the virtual shutdown of this country's Internet radio industry. In March, the Copyright Royalty Board announced that it would raise royalties for Internet broadcasters, moving them from a per-song rate to a per-listener rate. The increase would be made retroactive to the beginning of 2006 and would double over the next five years. Internet radio sites would be charged per performance of a song.

In just 7 days, the final draft of the GPLv3 will be set in stone. This is a last minute effort to alert the Free Software Community that there is *serious* concern over one very particular and questionable clause that's raised a big giant red flag. How did this make it into the final draft? How does Novell get off the hook so easily?

From EFF:
After years of painstaking lobbying, email and phone
campaigns, congressional hearings, and committee markups
and amendments, Rep. Rush Holt's Voter Confidence and
Increased Accessibility Act finally appears poised for a
floor vote in the House of Representatives. With an
impressive 216 bipartisan co-sponsors, the bill has a real
chance of passing. If signed into law, HR 811 would
dramatically improve the electoral process in both the
short and long term. While it would not solve the immense
shortcomings in the current system, HR 811 would take a

Note: Even if you don't agree with the points below, we should oppose
this bill because it will probably be implemented using proprietary
technologies and biometrics can be cracked.
Link: http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=30
From DownsizeDC

Quote of the Day:

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate,
tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." -- Sam
Adams

Subject: Biometric Social Security cards

Senator Chuck Schumer wants to amend the immigration bill to require

Court Protects Email from Secret Government Searches - Landmark Ruling Gives Email Same Constitutional Protections as Phone Calls