Writer Against Censorship: Activist Kicks Off Campaign to Stop Arbitrary IP Bans

Film Buff has worked at IMC fundraisers and contributed money, time, and articles. Buff has attended IMC meetings and participated in the process of process and infrastructure development. Film Buff's politics include a healthy dose of Palestine Solidarity, including promoting films such as 'Until When...' (The film by Dahna Abourahme which paints an intimate in-depth portrait of Palestinian lives today.)

Yet,Film Buff was blocked from posting at PDX through a technical procedure known as IP-Banning, which prevents him from posting anything to PDX.

The Resolution on IP Blocking "Film Buff" contends that he was blocked from posting at PDX through a technical procedure known as IP-Banning, which prevents him from posting anything to PDX.

"At first I thought it was a mistake" he said, "but they ignored my requests for so long I started to realize it must be deliberate."

Not content to see what he regards as "destruction of all we have built through creeping censorship, one IMC at a time", he has, via email, proposed a resolution to the IMC-PDX meeting on April 9.


Although Film Buff is not in Portland at the moment, he contends that he has a long history of "healthy contributions to the Portland activist community" including Sisters of the Road Cafe, demonstrating in the streets with Portland Peaceful Response Coalition and others, Gay/Lesbian solidarity and Anti-Violence Against Women, Critical Mass cycling and other stuff too detailed to list in full.


"What particularly irks me is that I received one and only one reply from the powers that be on IMC-PDX . They basically just shined me on. Funny thing is that the email came from a San Diego server. What gives Sand Diego the right to silence a member of the Portland radical community?"

FilmBuff may be reached at filmbuffNOSPAM [at] fastermail.com
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Below is FILMBUFF's Resolution.
Submit via email
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WHEREAS INM-PDX strives to create an open publishing forum for the
left community and

WHEREAS server software may allow "IP-Banning" and

WHEREAS banning individuals from posting to Indymedia may be
accomplished by one administrator, without the knowledge of other indymedia volunteers,and

WHEREAS one user has presented facts
suggesting that he or she had been blocked from publishing through
the technical procedure of ip blocking,

and

WHEREAS lack of accountability for ip blocking and failure to
notify users threatens the mission of Indymedia and free speech generally,

NOW THEREFORE,

We of IMC-PDX resolve:


THAT IP Blocking is an extreme measure and should be
used sparingly and temporarily and always subject to review, and

We resolve that PDX-IMC shall post to the main website the policy
pertaining to IP Blocking, even if it is that PDX-IMC does not ip block and

We resolve that if PDX-IMC sustains the use of ip blocking as a
means to censor posts, that will be indicated on the website AND

We resolve that there will be a standard policy for review of the banning of any individual or ip from posting, which shall also be stated on the website.

We resolve that this policy shall be a modification of the existing text at
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/static/edpolicy.shtml


End Resolution