Celebrate ‘Internet Freedom Day’ on the anniversary of SOPA’s defeat

Today marks a calendar year since passionate Internet activist and major tech companies helped defeat bad tech legislation SOPA and its Senate cousin PIPA. It’s also the day set aside by activists as national Internet Freedom Day.

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Now, this isn’t a celebration of some global declaration that the Internet shall remain free (because that’s hardly the case), but rather a day where activists are asking people to raise awareness about all the issues that are still threatening the net’s freedom.

And there are plenty of issues that demand attention heading into 2013. For instance, the recent suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz has caused many people to call for a reform of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Also, Congress plans to vote on a new cybersecurity law requiring authorities to get a warrant before obtaining your email messages — something the President’s cybersecurity executive order doesn’t require.

But you should probably be more concerned with the bills and policy that aren’t on the public radar yet, especially since SOPA-author Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) is head of the House’s science and technology committee.

The official Internet Freedom Day website has a list of tech policy issues as well as a list of events discussing Internet Freedom today. It’s worth checking out if you plan on fighting the good fight.