I am the man!
Offline We were removed from youtube a few days ago.
Welcome to my world: http://www.youtube.com/user/RationalResponse (please subscribe to our youtube channel in support)
Welcome us back, congratulate us, comment in this thread!
Those who know me well know I am generally not cocky, but after all that I have accomplished over the last 5 days, I can state with accuracy that those who claim I am the man, are in fact accurate. I am unable to discuss the conditions in which we have been returned to youtube (for now). So don't expect an answer there.
Furthermore other huge developments are underway, behind closed doors right now. These details are also confidential. I apologize. I promise you there is even more great news too.
And for those who think the RRS is too angry or some such, here is my favorite quote of the day, quoted with permission after a phone call I hadtoday with Ellen Johnson, President of American Atheists.
"I want you to be 100 times angrier than you are now, I think the anger is great. The squeeky wheel gets the grease, and you're getting the grease" - Ellen Johnson of American Atheists on Brian Sapient
Oh and just to spite those shitheads who try to diminsh our worth by claiming we ask for money (yeah, sue me, I'm self employed, bitches) please feel free to donate to my superior manhood here. I will continue to fight with truth and reason on my side, and I will continue to remain victorious. This is an important message, atheists will not be silenced.
Our recent activity lets all theists know, that actions like these will not be tolerated and will be met with swift response. A special thanks to Hambydamnit who has agreed to pay for our armed security guard to accompany us at the upcoming convention.
"I'm a sap, I'm too nice a guy. I'm giving Bob what I consider to be some real nice access to my channels. I put him on for an hour, and what happens when you're a nice guy, you get stepped on. I'm a little too loose with people criticizing me because it's interesting." - Howard Stern
congrats sapient, this is a great achievement. I am just curious to how many more times you'll be removed from youtube in , lets say, the next year. I"m guessing 2 or 3? and you'll be put back on every single time just like you have been this time. Maybe youtube needs to change some policy so that people don't get removed willy nilly
Now you just need to send Eric Hovind a thank you note for all the publicity. After Kent got thrown in prison CSE was largely ignored but Eric managed to focus more attention upon himself and look like a dick while the folks at RRS looked like heros.
None of this would have been possible without the actions of fucktard Hovind or as he likes to be known, Dr. Fucktard. Maybe he'll just like to watch all the nifty videos again.
Congratulations guys, welcome back. Very well done.
THREE CHEERS FOR THE RATIONAL RESPONSE SQUAD!
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Awesome. A few things:
1: What exactly were you kicked for? Which video was it, and how did you (supposedly) break the terms of service? I mean, obviously you didn't break any terms of service, but what did they accuse you of?
2: RabidApe isn't back on yet, none of the videos that were taken down have been reposted, and that's really the main reason we started getting uppity. So why celebrate just yet? I mean, if these confidential measures are going to get this wrong righted and punish CSE somehow, cool, but I think we shouldn't be celebrating just yet.
Talking to Theists
CLICK HERE FOR THE TRUTH!
You're the man
Interesting... I would wager that someone inside youtube violated internal policy and procedures..... can you say FIRED? (just a guess.... only time will tell)
Ahh, Brian you ARE the man! Congratulations for fighting and WINNING the good fight! We're there for you anytime, anywhere!
"Killing for peace is like fucking for chastity"
Sorry I just can't comment yet.
What I can tell you is that youtube can ban for obscene content, however what is obscene? As Eminem says "you find me offensive, I find you offensive for finding me offensive."
Many people break the TOS on youtube everyday, and stay on.
I know relax, you think we'd give up on him? Just relax, it all takes time. Give it 10-15 days and he should be back up with ease. I promise you this effort does not end here, it started before we were banned. It will end long after.
To think that our comeback is not reason to celebrate, is silly. We'll be giving you many reasons to celebrate on this issue for a very long time, enjoy each little victory as it comes our way. I promise victory at many levels here.
"I'm a sap, I'm too nice a guy. I'm giving Bob what I consider to be some real nice access to my channels. I put him on for an hour, and what happens when you're a nice guy, you get stepped on. I'm a little too loose with people criticizing me because it's interesting." - Howard Stern
Thanks for everything you do RRS. I want to donate but have been saving up for the convention(pluss my mom will be visiting a lifelong friend she hasnt seen in a while).
But, hopefully within the next couple months I hope to donate. Your efforts ARE making a differance.
Yes YOU DA MAN!
If oil flowed like deity claims gas would cost 10 cents a gallon.
Talking to Theists
CLICK HERE FOR THE TRUTH!
A STERLING ACCOLADE!! WELL DONE. I, and I'm sure all of RRS appreciates the (ugh) time and energy it took to accomplish this task!
Miracles don't exist. "Miracle" is a word given to a preposterous event that a theist considers dogmatically advantageous. Def. - Ecclesiastical sensationalism.
Yes, finally one for the home team!
Man is the only animal in all of nature that cannot accept its own mortality.
I don't see the need to be secretive about all this, unless you're simply playing it up for effect.
I also don't see any reason to be self-congratulatory over what happened here--Youtube is obliged to investigate all claims of copyright infringement, whether real or imagined; if Youtube received a flood of complaints about the RRS, then it is certainly reasonable that they would take down your site while investigating whether such claims have merit. Granted, your efforts probably expedited Youtube's inevitable reinstatement of your account, but this doesn't make you "The Man" in any sense that you got one over on Youtube.
I'd be more interested in what's happened with the claims of copyright infringement themselves. It seems to me that the fair use clause of copyright law protects you in using Hovind's material, regardless of whether it was copyrighted or not. And what of Eric Hovind's supposed false claims of copyright infringement? Are you suing, or did you somehow miraculously get the Feds to investigate and prosecute these claims? Inquiring minds want to know, Brian!
The Saint
Keep it going Brian and the rest of the RRS!
Well done, it's good to see you back up on youtube.
You must not follow politics much. "I'm not at liberty to comment" is a way of saying "there are lawyers involved", usually. If legal action is pending (and it looked like it was going in that direction) the lawyer who will handle the case probably reccomended not commenting more than strictly neccesary. It's not about effect, it's about keeping your cards out of the sight of your opponent.
I'm glad you're back but I have a question. All those videos we've all reposted on our accounts, should we take them down now?
ps: Curious thing, labelling "theist" on some commenters. Are they so troublesome that they need a warning label?
Suddenly I feel like I'm at The Best Page in the Universe.
I don't mean that in a bad way.
"When did I realize I was God? Well, one day I was praying and I realized I was talking to myself."
In order to be the man, you have to beat the man.
w00t!
Great job at organizing and motivating, Brian. You're damn good at this sort of thing.
Thanks to everyone who participated, too.
__| ]2 U ]{ /\__]\[ /\ ]\/[ | ]\[ () ]2 |__
When you say beat, what do you mean?
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” -- George Orwell
This is in response to your comment and the one you were commenting on. Your correct that generally when people can't talk about things it usually involves litigation. Also, RabidApe is not up as he was taken down for a DMCA notice. Assuming a counterclaim was filed the same day by RA (not sure if he did or not), the DMCA states that you are to quickly remove videos, but a counterclaim can be processed no less than 10 days and no more than 14. Since I don't think its been that long, or its barely coming up on that is probably why hes not back up yet (again, assuming he filed the counterclaim immediately). As far as RRS being up already, again following under those rules (and again, I am not a lawyer or an expert so I may be wrong) but I speculate that as suggested before, RRS was taken down simply for being offensive (videos were probably flagged) and YouTube probably reviewed (on their own or from the currently media pressure) and decided to reinstate.
Anyways, in response to taking the videos down, I see no reason to. More videos means more people see it. Also in responding to your theist labeling question, yes there has been several issues with people who either come here and pretend to be atheist to stir up trouble or what not. The labels make it very clear. Again, Brian probably can give you a better idea on this reasoning.
Go here if you would like to donate to help pay for server costs
Vindicated! Yes! Great job Brian and the rest of you behind the scenes. I'm so glad you guys are taking the bull by the horns and fighting back. It's a great inspiration. I have no doubt that you have proven your chops to a much larger crowd with this effort and will be much more respected in the coming months. This is what RRS was started for!
As to the comment on labels. I kind of wish there was a voluntary atheist label we could attach to ourselves (after validating with the mods that we are indeed atheists). It would be another way of saying, Yes I'm an atheist and not afraid to declare it. There are occasional times when it would also help people be 100% sure you're coming from an atheist point of view. For example, when I was talking about myth, some people assumed I was slipping into theism/religion. Apparently my username wasn't enough.
Q: "Isn't it a miracle that the universe/life/consciousness/myself exists?"
A: "No."
----
For any person P, question Q, and concept X
If the asking of Q depends on the existence of X, and P asks Q
Then X exists, and P should not be surprised of that
No comment.
That's up to you and depends on the video. I would adjust the title or maybe the description to make it more accurate. My open letter to youtube contains other accounts that need to come back up, so I would leave it. The original video saying we were banned and had my call to the feds could be pulled if you choose to.
Unfortunatly the anonymity of the internet allows for some very dishonest behavior. Over the years theists have come and wasted users times by misrepresenting themselves as something they are not. This is a measure designed to make everyones experience here more honest, so you no longer contend with the guy pretending to be an atheist in his posts. We would have labeled the atheists, with an automated test that they took and once complete would get the atheist label, but the programming was too tough. Since we have much less people here who are theist, the mod team applies theist tags as they spot them one by one. It would be worlds harder to apply an atheist badge, which is exactly what we would have wanted.
Ben, seriously calm down. I promise you I have the back of everyone wanting to speak out, and our account being reinstated will only make us stronger throughout this process, not more relegated to giving up. My account wasn't the issue, I was concerned with standing up for others, which is what I was doing before I was banned, and what I will continue to do now that I'm back. My personal efforts which much more heavily weighted on getting everyone else back up, then my own. It just worked out that way that I got my acct back first. And when I say calm down, I mean for at least 10 days.
Some extra little doohickey things I found...
If you have an attorney who is worth his salt, then he probably will tell you what you can and can’t do regarding attorney/client privilege. The attorney/client privilege is sacred, and can never be broken, unless the client waives that right, either knowingly or unknowingly. There are certain circumstances in which the attorney/client privilege no longer applies, and clients should be careful about what they say or do.
The best thing that you can do when it comes to the attorney/client privilege is to do your best to keep all conversations as private as possible. Don’t have them in public, don’t discuss them with friends, don’t bring in anyone else and don’t use monitored prison phones. Your attorney should do his best to make sure that the privilege is maintained, but he or she cannot control what you do outside of the office or prison.
With all that said... a special thanks goes to everyone who stood behind this. We will never know to what extent the letters being posted on youtube have made an impact in restoring our account, and we hope the letter alone will help get back some other accounts soon. But if the letter doesn't, there are other things that can be done. Counter-notification notices must be sent by everyone who had a video pulled by CSEM.
"I'm a sap, I'm too nice a guy. I'm giving Bob what I consider to be some real nice access to my channels. I put him on for an hour, and what happens when you're a nice guy, you get stepped on. I'm a little too loose with people criticizing me because it's interesting." - Howard Stern
Sapient is bringin the hurt and the anger. Noone ever truely makes a difference in the world by being polite. If something's wrong with the way stuff is going down, no one will pay attention if you're "...not wanting to sound rude, but...".
Who's da master!
The Regular Expressions of Humanistic Jones: Where one software Engineer will show the world that God is nothing more than an undefined pointer.
Defeat.
I wasn't pulled for copyright infringement. I was pulled for "terms of service violation." Can you name a single other person ever who was pulled for that and then returned? I can't. I'm the man, and anyone else who managed to pull that stunt off gets my credit for being the man too. (or the WOman as the case may be)
Furthermore my superior manhood is confirmed with multiple other actions that I don't feel like talking about. My account being reinstated is only about 20% of my celebration.
I don't feel I got one "over on youtube" or anyone else for that matter. I feel only that a small piece of justice has been served... this time.
For a little perspective. Uri Geller sent a DMCA take down notice for my account back in April I believe. We have not been in a court room on this issue yet, and it is still pending. I hope everyone has the patience to understand that those with copyright claims may be waiting a very long time to have answers to everything they want answers to.
Could you translate that in to English, so that I can comment?
"I'm a sap, I'm too nice a guy. I'm giving Bob what I consider to be some real nice access to my channels. I put him on for an hour, and what happens when you're a nice guy, you get stepped on. I'm a little too loose with people criticizing me because it's interesting." - Howard Stern
I've got a feeling that much of what Gizmo said here is accurate. Not sure if I can confirm or deny though.
Anyone ever see someone give you three fingers and tell you to read between the lines? If you got it, then you're probably following along with this stuff.
"I'm a sap, I'm too nice a guy. I'm giving Bob what I consider to be some real nice access to my channels. I put him on for an hour, and what happens when you're a nice guy, you get stepped on. I'm a little too loose with people criticizing me because it's interesting." - Howard Stern
I agree but considering we have about 6,000 members and about 5,500 are atheist, the 20 second process to apply the badge by hand is much faster if we apply to the 500. We do want an automated process one day, we'd prefer atheists wear atheist labels proudly than the current system.
"I'm a sap, I'm too nice a guy. I'm giving Bob what I consider to be some real nice access to my channels. I put him on for an hour, and what happens when you're a nice guy, you get stepped on. I'm a little too loose with people criticizing me because it's interesting." - Howard Stern