Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Peace Rallies Against Obama's Lybia War, April 9, 10

Kevin Zeese, of Voters for Peace, sends "an announcement of antiwar rallies in New York on April 9 and San Francisco on April 10 which Voters for Peace has endorsed."

Details of where and when to show up at: NationalPeaceConference.org.

This seems like a mostly Left coalition. It's noteworthy that the Left is opposing Obama's war. It would be nice if many antiwar libertarians and conservatives also showed up, so it becomes a more broad-based protest.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Online Agora Conference

From Carol Moore:

George Donnelly and friends have organized this fantastic free online liberty conference for the coming weekend (March 25-27th). It includes dozens of libertarian speakers on philosophy, strategy, media and entrepreneurship.

I'm speaking on Libertarian Decentralism and Secessionist Strategy on Saturday March 26th at 10 AM Est. I would love for you to join me and participate.

You'll have an opportunity during these three days to see dozens of speakers. My favorites: Patri Friedman, Angela Keaton, Corey Moore, Karen Kwiatkowski, Scott Horton, Gary Chartier, Mary Ruwart, Pete Eyre, J. Neil Schulman, Brad Spangler.

Agora I/O is easy to use. Just click here. Pick talks you want to view, watch them, participate through chat.

If you can't afford to go to all the big freedom festivals around the country and if you want to get new insights into libertarian and agorist ideas, this is your opportunity to see and communicate with great libertarians nationwide.

This will be just the first of many such online conferences to advance liberty, so participate to help make this experiment work. To help out with organizing or sponsorship, see the main page.

PS: Have you see the new book, Why Liberty? Edited by Libertarian Marc Guttman, it is a collection of 54 personal stories by many well known figures about how they became libertarians.

Friday, March 11, 2011

California Internet Sales Tax Threatens Amazon Affiliates

The California state legislature is threatening the livelihoods of over 10,000 Californians who earn money as Amazon Associates for online retailer, Amazon.com.

These Californians place links on their websites to Amazon. When someone clicks through to Amazon and makes a purchase, the Associate earns a commission.

Amazon is not required to collect sales taxes on purchases made to Californians because there is no "business nexus." But now California is considering a law to classify Amazon Associates as a "business nexus".

Other states have done likewise. In all such instances, Amazon ended its Associates program rather than be forced to collect the sales tax. Amazon has even ended its Associates program in big states such as New York and Illinois.

History shows Amazon is not bluffing. If California declares Amazon Associates a “business nexus,” Amazon will end its Associates program in the state.

This will hurt over 10,000 Californians' earnings -- and will lower California's income tax revenue.

This loss in state revenue will not be made up in sales taxes, because by ending the Associates program, Amazon will once more not be required to collect sales taxes.

"Bricks and mortar" retailers complain that Amazon has an "unfair advantage" because online buyers don't pay sales taxes. But they ignore that: 1. their buyers don't pay for shipping, and 2. this legislation will NOT compel Amazon to collect sales taxes -- it will only hurt 10,000 Californians trying to earn money and thus further hurt the state's revenue.

Californians, please contact your state senate and assembly representatives and tell them to oppose any attempt to force Amazon to collect sales taxes, or to declare Amazon's Associates a "business nexus."

Monday, March 07, 2011

Linking to YouTube Is Copyright Infringement

From DemandProgress.org:

Ever sent someone a link to a copyrighted YouTube video? Of course: Everybody has. And now the US Government seems to think that means it can put us in prison.

Bryan McCarthy ran a website that linked to various websites where you could watch online streams of TV shows and sports networks. A couple months ago, the government seized his domain name and on Friday they arrested him for criminal copyright infringement.

Tell the government that this is crazy: There's nothing wrong or illegal about sharing a link.

The government doesn't even allege that McCarthy made a copy of anything! Just that his site linked to various sites with copyrighted material. Under that sort of thinking, everyone who's sent around a link to a copyrighted YouTube video is a criminal.

This is another shocking overreach by the department of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) -- a steamship-era department that's proving once again it doesn't understand the Internet.

We need to push back -- and fast -- before they try to lock up all Americans.
Click here to tell ICE to drop its charges.

Thanks for taking a stand.

-- The Demand Progress team

P.S. We need to convince ICE to back down, and the first step is making sure they know that Americans are watching, and are disgusted by their behavior. Will you help shine light on ICE's abuses by forwarding this to your friends?

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Also read how hypocritical Big Media companies are threatening YOUR copyrights.