On Wednesday, the "official" Anonymous twitter feed linked to the group's list of demands. The document is titled, "Bright, and Clear: The Future of Free Speech." In it, the group details their list of demands for the future of the Internet that they believe SOPA and PIPA want to dismantle.
As we watch the web go dark today in protest against the SOPA/PIPA censorship bills, let's take a moment and reflect on why this fight is so important. We may have learned that free speech is what makes America great, or instinctively resist attempts at silencing our voices. But these are abstract principles, divorced from the real world and our daily lives.
We believe a healthy society doesn't allow its artists, musicians and other creators to starve. The copyright industry has been justly criticized for abusing the political process in a desperate attempt to maintain its role as a cultural gatekeeper, a business model made obsolete by a digital age of free copies. But the RIAA, MPAA & IFPI deserve our opprobrium for making enormous profits while often leaving the very artists it claims to represent *poorer* than they would be as independents. While the public may have greater access to the few artists deemed sufficiently marketable to gain mass media promotion, fewer and fewer of us are making art and music in our own lives.
Anonymous lists their demands starting with the call for the WIPO to be disbanded. They also demand the elimination of the DMCA's registration requirement for qualification under the "safe harbor" provision.