Taking a page out of the comic books, some of the same
groups that opposed the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) have formed the Internet
Defense League, describing itself as a digital version of the "bat
signal," used to alert Batman of trouble in Gotham.
In this case, the digital alert will be a code that allows websites
or individuals to broadcast an alert to their personal networks.
The group, whose members include Rep. Darrell Issa
(R-Calif.), Public Knowledge, Reddit, Mozilla and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, according to an IDL spokesperson, will launch July 19 with kick-off
parties events in four cities, the real Gotham (New York), San Francisco,
Washington and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (where one IDL member resides).
The IDL describes itself as "thousands of websites,
groups, and individuals who can immediately respond to threats to the
Internet." It also plans to be a permanent coalition with a goal of
mobilizing millions.
The IDL is a project of nonprofit Fight for the Future, which sponsored
a number of anti-SOPA campaigns.
