Supernatural, Doctor Who, Elementary, Teen Wolf, Hannibal, and The Walking Dead. Spanning from a love of TV & film to literature, art, music, and the like.
just so you know i am RUNNING IN PLACE WITH EXCITEMENT AND NERVOUSNESS
it’s very invigorating
You’re hoping Castiel will return to you.
Infopost on CAS
I’ve seen a lot of misinformation going around about CAS, the Copyright Alert System, AKA the Six Strikes system. Hopefully this will clear things up.
What CAS isn’t:
- CAS is not a law. It is not SOPA or CISPA. It does not directly involve law enforcement agencies.
- CAS cannot see the files already on your hard drive.
- CAS cannot directly monitor your internet traffic.
- CAS does not give a flying fuck about your reaction gifs, manips, fanfiction, etc.
- Rightsholders cannot directly see your personal information such as name and address without getting a subpoena. They must go through your ISP, who already has that information connected to your IP because you pay them.
What CAS is:
- CAS is a partnership between major rightsholders such as the MPAA and RIAA, among others, with major American ISPs AT&T, Cablevision, Verizon, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable.
- The copyright holders monitor major public bittorrent trackers. They get the IPs of users downloading infringing files, and notify their ISPs.
- The ISP then steps in to give users warnings. This begins with emails and phone calls, but quickly escalates to forcing you to watch copyright propaganda, blocking your access to certain sites, and eventually capping your internet speeds or restricting your internet access entirely.
- There is an appeals process, which must be done within 14 days of the warning and costs $35 per appeal.
- For repeat infringers, the copyright holders may seek legal action. To do this they would need to subpoena your personal information from your ISP. All they have before that is your IP address.
Why this is bad:
- It violates presumption of innocence.
- It sets a precedent for corporate vigilante justice—corporations finding and punishing crime in a manner they see fit.
- It poses a serious threat to internet cafes and libraries that offer public internet access, making vital services less accessible to disadvantaged and impoverished Americans. Edit: Yes, this is true. Even though large corporations like Starbucks might still be able to provide free wifi, providing free wifi at all is against the TOS in most business internet packages. This means that most of the free internet available to people is technically not supposed to be offered, but this is not enforced. This could leave many people, especially the rural poor, without internet when they had internet before.
- It is a form of censorship.
- It violates the right to privacy.
- We are piratey pirates who like to pirate.
How to not get in trouble:
- Secure your wifi connection, and make sure all members of your household understand what CAS is and how to avoid problems with it.
- If you download copyrighted material, do not use public bittorrent trackers without a VPN. There are multiple alternatives: cyberlockers, Usenet, IRC, FTP, private bittorrent trackers, etc. Avoiding major public torrent sites like The Pirate Bay entirely is the safest way. Downloading material not protected by any of the CAS affiliates is probably relatively safe. (Anime, warez, bookz, etc.) If you must use a public tracker, use a VPN. FYI, Usenet and the good VPNs are not free. The other things mentioned here generally are.
- Google instructions for these things if you don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about.
How to fight CAS:
- There’s some White House petitions: check out this one here and this one over here. The White House has already issued this statement: “[the] agreement is a positive step and consistent with our strategy of encouraging voluntary efforts to strengthen online intellectual property enforcement and with our broader Internet policy principles, emphasizing privacy, free speech, competition and due process.” Since this is not law, government probably isn’t the most effective way to fight it, nor does the government seem likely to take a stance against this, but it can’t hurt to raise as much hell as possible anyway. Sign it, make some noise.
- Call your ISP and voice your displeasure. If at all possible, switch your ISP to one not supporting CAS, and inform both ISPs that this was why you switched. THIS IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE METHOD.
- Pirate anyway. Don’t be stupid and pirate through the channel they’re obviously watching, but don’t slack in your piracy. Show them that these measures only anger their customers and don’t actually do shit to protect copyright.
- Contact the MPAA and RIAA and so forth and tell them you won’t be buying their products until they cease this war on internet piracy. They can have customers or they can treat everyone like criminals, but they can’t have both.
Hopefully we can all stop running around like chickens without heads claiming the police are coming for our reaction gif folders? Yes? Good. Pirate safely, folks.
Edit: my claim that CAS would impact open wifi was challenged, so I added two sources for that statement as well as some further details. I wish it were not true, but it is.
Supernatural Fan-Mix No. 4: Songs From The Land Down Under (Listen) (ZIP Download)
- No Easy Way (Out) by Digital Daggers
- Breath of Life by Florence + The Machine
- Closing In by Imogen Heap
- Leave Out All the Rest by Linkin Park
- Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat Remix) by Nina Simone
- Set Me Free by Yanni
- Lisztomania by Phoenix
- Time is Running Out by Muse
- Shake it Out by Florence + The Machine
- Parachute by Ingrid Michaelson
- Dull Life by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- There’s Only One Way Out by Pollyn
Here’s what I must say about Supernatural.
I notice a lot of people are upset at the writers for tonight’s episode, and believe me, I understand. But take a breath for a moment, step outside the emotional trauma (after some good screaming, of course) and let’s try to think.
I will be the first to admit that my twitter was filled with text-versions of my screams and pleas of agony. But, I absolutely adored this episode and that Castiel’s return was written brilliantly. The tension and the anxiety that paralleled between both Dean and Sam’s situations were fantastically kept throughout the episode until the climax, and the twist at the end was great, in my opinion. I cannot stop praising the writers for giving us a display of all the pain and regret that Castiel felt not only for hurting his brothers or being the cause of so much death, but for betraying his best friend. His immediate desire to die after knowing that he had so completely destroyed the Winchesters was something that had my heart wrenching and jumping for joy because it was exactly that sort of pain and realization that I knew Cas had to feel. And that’s simply amazing- because the confession, the desire to run, that need to die, meant so much. This is an angel. He could have, like so many others, brushed it off and dismissed the pains of humanity. He could have done his own thing, focus on his own issues, be more concerned about what benefits him in a spiritual war, his life at stake, instead of react with such extreme distress- there were no tears, there was no sobbing. But for Castiel, what he did and felt and said meant so much more.
Now, I’m extremely upset that Castiel is in the situation he’s in and Dean’s blatant disregard for him made me want to reach into the scream and smack him myself. I understand Castiel messed up, and Dean himself mentions that, despite himself, Cas’ betrayal caused a pain in him he simply could not shake off. The fact that his descent to wickedness is something that Dean, untouchable, unbreakable Dean, could not shake off speaks insane volumes. It means that there was something they shared that was so important, so precious, so sacred and so very much needed that Dean still cannot bear to know that he lost it. But now we see that, even after what Cas has done, Dean is still bitter and that is mind blowing. I am inwardly begging that the writers do this right, that Dean is smacked in the face with his own cruelty and selfishness at this point. When the episode ended, I was amazed that Sam didn’t give him the earful he needed- but I am praying that the writers see that there is some much-needed chastising to come for Dean.
Yes, Castiel failed him. Yes, he lied. Yes, he abused their trust. But now he’s in the worst situation he can manage as a practically fallen angel. Here is a being who loved and depended on God, now face to face with the worst being in possible existence knocking around in his head. This friendship has cost him his life, his hope, his faith, his ignorance and now the price has gotten heavier. Now, the terror and pain that Sam was dying from is on his shoulders- I understand they can’t carry a schizo, terrified Cas in the trunk of the Impala and fight their way through Leviathans simulaneously. We can’t be unrealistic. But, you can’t convince me leaving him there was the right thing to do. You can’t tell me Castiel doesn’t deserve endless gratitude because of his compassion, his sympathy, his humanity. You can’t tell me that saying he had no friends and that any that he did have were dead was not a douche-bag move on Dean’s part. If Dean thinks he can just shrug Castiel off and have the right to deny that he has shown time and time again that he is a true friend, I am going to have to wring some necks.
But that’s good writing, guys. That this is supposed to hurt us, I think, if the writers are as clever as I believe them to be. We’re supposed to feel angered and burdened by Dean’s resentment. The funny thing is, that if we’re upset about the resentment that Dean feels, then we only have a fraction of how angered he, himself, feels over his behavior. If it pisses us off, imagine him. So let it bother you, let is piss you off. Let is drive you off the deep end- because if you feel tempted to hate him for it, then imagine how he must hate himself.
‘Emanuel’ asked Dean if he was the one that killed Cas, and we see his eyes shift. We see Dean can’t answer. We know that he can lie about a lot of things, but something about that question he cannot bear to lie about. He does not answer. He does not know. He can’t say no, he can’t bear to say yes. There are more changes to come for Castiel, and development to fill endless novels (and fanfiction pages) for Dean. Sam knows what he went through- if there’s one thing I want to see, it’s the baby brother teaching the elder how to man up.
THEY LEFT HIM BEHIND.
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE DEAD, DEAN? THE BEST FRIEND YOU COULD EVER FREAKIN’ HAVE IS ALIVE AND INSANE AT AN ASYLUM.
