Andrew Anglin

Daily Stormer

June 13, 2017

As the reader is aware, I am getting sued in a clearcut First Amendment case by the SPLC.

Also happening right now, the internet institution of Encyclopedia Dramatica is getting sued, also for speech. It’s a little bit less clearcut, as it involves copyright claims, but it’s the same basic concept: “you can’t say that about me on the internet!!!!!1111”

Their WeSearchr funding page reads:

Jonathan Monsarrat got arrested for hosting a party where underage teenage kids were drinking alcohol. Since then, Monsarrat has tried to shut down anyone who talks about the case. Encyclopedia Dramatica, reported on the arrest. Monsarrat then decided to get creative – he is trying to shut down Encyclopedia Dramatica by claiming that he owns the copyright to some forum posts and to a photo of him, that he didn’t take, where someone photoshopped a picture of PedoBear next to him. If Monsarrat can shut down Encyclopedia Dramatica, any rich asshole with an axe to grind can shut any one of us down for reporting the facts and mocking someone. A grown man throwing a party where underage kids are drinking? Getting a little fun poked at him is probably a fair penalty for that. Encyclopedia Dramatica is a piece of internet history, but it doesn’t run on much of a budget. If Monsarrat succeeds, Encyclopedia Dramatica will need to shut down. We have retained a First Amendment Attorney to defend us. He’s doing it at a discount, but we can’t ask him to work for free. Stop censorship. Please donate and help us keep the lulz coming. Protect the First Amendment. Why To preserve a large piece of internet history, for the many years that Encyclopedia Dramatica has been around, it is crucial that a defense with enough fortitude is brought to court. Without the resources to wage a legal battle with such a wealthy person, Encyclopedia Dramatica may be unable to continue operating.

Free Speech Relevance

Both my case and the ED case are cases of individuals angry that they are being criticized on the internet, and attempting to use the law to reduce free speech.

Of course, my case is objectively more important. I’m not trying to equate them. I’m not just saying that because it’s me, I’m saying it because of the legal details of the case.

However, it’s still very important as a free speech precedent.

ED is a not-so-well-funded site that a copyright troll is trying to make an example of, and set a precedent for being able to sue people for criticism under the guise of “copyright.” Internet copyright law, with regards to photographs, is presently not very well established. But, in point of fact, I have myself had some of my servers shut down on bogus photograph copyright claims.

So we definitely don’t want this to become a precedent.

Basically, the First Amendment is very difficult to attack directly, so what the enemies of freedom do is trying to create these loopholes around it.

Both copyright trolling and this new claim of “harassment” are part of that assault on our freedoms.

Internet Relevance

Younger people probably don’t know ED, as its glory days are passed (not to say that it might not some day be glorious again – there is that possibility).

But, for those of us trolls in our late twenties and early thirties, it was a big part of our lives for a very good part of our lives. It was basically an offshoot of /b/, and it is where so much of the type of meme humor you see all over the hateweb now was developed and cataloged.

In order for malicious internet humor to be applied to politics, Lulz had to be pioneered as a concept.

If you like the type of humor that I use on this site, then you have 4chan and ED to thank for a large part of that (though tbh, I am individually funnier than any of these people in the first place).

The internet would be a very different place if Encyclopedia Dramatica had never existed.

A Note to Oldfags

I know a lot of people in my age range who remember the glory days of ED are angry at the state it is in now.

A lot of that obviously related to weev, who used to run it, getting locked up on trumped-up charges by the Jews. Many good writers bailed during the chaos that followed.

You remember like 3 months after he was charged, the site disappeared and became “O Internet”? I don’t even remember why that happened exactly, but it was some kind of chaos, and it revolved around weev getting done-up.

Regardless of it’s current state – which I’m not even trying to say is that horrible, there is still some funny stuff there sometimes I imagine, I don’t know, I haven’t been there in a while – do you really want to let a piece of internet history die? One that, if you are like me, had a great positive effect on your life?

Remember, Oldfag, remember what it feels like to lose your iPod…

Finally

I wanted to bring this to people’s attention, both because of the free speech relevance, and the fact that I know a lot of our readers have been greatly impacted by this site, and at the very least for nostalgia’s sake, don’t want to see it go offline.

Also, it seems that mainstream media is not even covering it, at all. Which is a wee bit bizarre, given that ED has most certainly been in the media a lot in the past. So I assume a lot of the old ED people weren’t even aware that this is happening.

Their case doesn’t involve a Jewish terror group with an infinity line of credit, so they need a lot less money than I do.

They’re asking for $50,000, and they’re 10% of the way there.

So, you you have some money, and you care about free speech and/or the protection of an internet institution – which existed for the express purpose of pushing the limits of freedom of speech in order to protect it, long before the Daily Stormer existed – then consider throwing a few bucks to their fund.

As with all funding drives, a lot of people giving a little bit goes a long way.

So throw them $5 or $10 – in the name of our freedoms.

And for teh lulz.