So, I’ve been holding off on saying anything about ACTA because there is so little known about it.

ACTA is a trade agreement, being negotiated between many countries, including the United States. It was only uncovered by Wikileaks and since then has grown in the public eye.

On the surface, ACTA, which stands for Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, seems to have a reasonable purpose in combating the sale of counterfeit goods. The reality is that it is much broader than that, and from the limited information on the net, seems to call for broad monitoring of the public’s Internet traffic in order to detect and defeat the copying of intellectual property on the web.

According to an article on CNET, Hawaii’s Legislature is slated to discuss a bill which would require ISPs  to keep track of your browsing history for 2 years. Reading the bill, the term ISP is so broad that anyone providing a wireless access point would be required to log this history. Also, there is no provision for due process, encryption or any other safeguards on this information.

The bill is so shortsighted and simplistic that it really highlights the ignorance of our politicians on matters of the Internet…let alone our Constitution.

This doesn’t just affect Hawaii, as internet companies located outside of Hawaii, but who provide services there, are impacted. I would urge everyone to take action and e-mail the the main  sponsor of the bill, John Mizuno, as well as Kym Pine, the minority leader who allegedly is the source for the idea. Respectfully ask them to withdraw such harmful litigation which would unduly burden internet companies and grossly violate our privacy.

John Mizuno’s Info:

Facebook

E-mail

Kym Pine’s Info:

Facebook

E-mail

Twitter

The LFG would like help putting together useful small applications, wordpress widgets on web and mobile phones for getting submission forms to Senators/Congressmen and perhaps even create an LFG iPhone app.

Interested parties should e-mail contact@leagueforgamers.org with a resume and link to samples.

Thank you!!!

We’ve been working with lawyers and accountants to find the ideal structure to set up before taking any further donations. One function of either this organization or one of its sister organization which we may need to create, is to fund political contributions to candidates who understand the Internet and gaming, and to oppose candidates who were in favor of SOPA/PIPA.

This will take time.

But if we do it right, we will be in a good position to do more than just petitions in the future.

We are also looking to assemble the writing group from the blog portion of this site. Thank you for submitting your resumes. We hope to get back to everyone in a week or two.

Finally, we hired a designer to help us with a design for this site and to enact forums, which everyone has been asking for.

That’s it for now. Thank you for your continued support!