….or at least soonish…. Today in one and a half hours I will be walking into a bank and asking for $15,000 in loans to give the startup funding to my organization Patriots of the Digital Revolution. We will then use that money to invest in and acquire more torrent websites and cyberlockers from people who feel that they can no longer fight, and want out of the scene, but don’t want to abandon their website.
Patriots of the Digital Revolution (Digital Patriots) has been successful so far by saving two websites: TUEBL (The Ultimate Ebook Library) and TorMovies.org (a movie torrent aggregator site). We currently have done a really good job of breaking even each month, but that does not help us to get the exposure that we would like to get and it also doesn’t give us the funds to expand our network, and to save more websites.
What makes Patriots of the Digital Revolution different than the people who run the torrent sites now? We have a progressive array of servers in multiple countries we own multiple domains through multiple registrars for each of our websites, and automated and manual systems that allow any piece of the chain to be disrupted and our websites will still operate. We also keep digitalpatriots.org and mahsql.info available so people can always see the status of our websites and what the current proper domain is to use. We also have a line of succession so that if anything ever happens to me or I am arrested, a new person (who is private for obvious reasons) will take over the network.
I don’t want to go to jail, the idea of going to jail scares me. Especially if I am extradited to the country that I had left due to their abusive practices, the United States of America. However, I am ready to fight out my case in a court of law and hope that I can convince a jury of my peers that filesharing isn’t dangerous, that filesharing is not a harm to society… it IS society and it IS culture. The people who use my websites don’t traffic children, they don’t use it to make money for terrorism… they use it to download backup copies of media they already own. They use it to find new music they like, and then buy merchandise and concert tickets for those bands. People discover new authors without having to pay $15 for the book and then another $10 for the ebook just to find they don’t like it.
My goal is to put myself into the public eye as much as possible too, that way the MAFFIAA can’t paint me as some thug to the media and to their followers. People comment on how they rarely see me without a smile, and how I am always so cheery. At work when I am talking to customers I always ask in the beginning of the call how I can make them smile. It’s not something that I am told to say, it’s something I say myself because I believe in making people happy. If you are going to come at me, then I want everyone to see the person who you are calling a detriment to society.
I am doing this for my little brother, my future children, and for the Internet. It is the right thing to do, and I will use every last breath that I have to let people know that we are here to stay, and that shutting us down is not an option. Once it is known that filesharing is not going to end, then we can start moving forward as a society to find new and better ways to support our artists.
How You Can Help
Obviously funding is nice, you can flattr me https://flattr.com/profile/teamcoltra or give bitcoins here 1N4nQdD86mmHMWbRu9KZNz2TJsJu6viWJp
We also would love to get in contact with torrent sites and cyberlockers (or any other website) who feels legal pressure to shutdown but doesn’t want to. Our agreement with sites is fairly straight forward: transfer domain ownership and the servers to Patriots of the Digital Revolution, we will make a post announcing our acquisition of your website and then you have the choice to stay working on the site or if you can leave it in our hands and we will run the site.. either way we will try not to do things that would reflect poorly against the way you operated the website. If your site is currently your main income, that is not a problem either just talk to us and we will work something out.
And wish me luck… hopefully things are smooth sailing from here.
//UPDATE:
So the bank says that because I recently got a PROMOTION at work my pay history isn't predictable enough and that I need 3 months in the same position to qualify for a loan. Seems silly to me too, but there it is. So I am going to start getting funds through other sources and start hitting up my friends and putting notices on my websites asking for donations and loans. This is too important to me to let slip by... I will achieve my goal.
[…] via The Revolution Starts Now – Falkvinge on Infopolicy. […]
we need an Information Nation Declaration of Independence.
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace
https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html
This is phenomenal!
Sent a bitcoin your way. Use it well
Travis has been phenomenal. I am the founder of TUEBL. I gave TUEBL to Travis because I couldn’t take the legal risk anymore. I still help with it from time to time. I would like to say if your in my boat and you want to get out of those websites, but not let them go under this is an excellent way to do it. I think most of the TUEBL community would agree as well.
@matuck, Wow. Nice to see the original face behind TUEBL. I love TUEBL! As a reader and aspiring writer I think it’s one of the best tools for the literary world online.
@Travis, Being out in the open is probably the best weapon against the determined demonization of people that run these sorts of sites. There seems to be a lot of effort (I gather from non-pirate articles on raids, investigations) to associate a lot of “scary,” law-breaking activity in people’s minds, like…….. Pirate media + Drugs + $$laundering + Illegal guns + Shadowy gangs = this is who your site admins are! ……….the more we can show people that this isn’t the case, the better, but it is hard to do that when everyone is in hiding.
&That thing about the loan is bizarre. Still, hoping it all works out in the long run, though! (just going to hop on over to Flattr….)
I wish you luck!
@Travis Seriously? Because you earn more money now than you did 3 months ago, they can’t loan you money? No wonder the banks need so many taxpayer handouts to stay in business.
@Aelius Law enforcement and the media go to great lengths to associate something as innocent as file sharing with things like money laundering, drug trafficking, gang activity and terrorism because most people (rightfully so) don’t see sharing as a bad thing. We’re taught from a young age that sharing is the right thing to do, so it’s only by trying to associate it with these “evil” things that they can try to convince you that it’s wrong.